Jasser, a 7 year old child from Gaza, looks out of one of the broken walls of a tent in a displacement shelter. Credit: UNICEF/Eyad El Baba
By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 21 2024 (IPS)
On October 15, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the beginning of the second round of Gaza’s polio vaccination campaign. Over the last week, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in partnership with WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), has managed to vaccinate over 181,000 children under the age of ten in Gaza.
Although humanitarian organizations deemed initial vaccination efforts to be a relative success, the past month has seen a considerable uptick in hostilities as well as a tightening of restrictions. Constant bombardments, evacuation orders, and disruptions of humanitarian aid ensure that conditions all over Gaza remain dire.
Civilians in northern Gaza have been subjected to blockages of essential supplies, causing widespread starvation and dehydration. According to Joyce Msuya, the UN’s Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Israeli authorities had blocked all food deliveries from entering northern Gaza from October 2-15. The lack of fuel deliveries has only exacerbated the escalating hunger crisis.
Northern Gaza has also witnessed a significant decline in deliveries of drinking water. Repeated bombardments have destroyed Gaza’s water sanitation systems, rendering the majority of Gaza’s drinking water unsafe for human consumption. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), municipal wells in Jabalia and Beit Lahya yield no water whatsoever.
Therefore, thousands of Palestinians have been forced to rely on daily water shipments. Prior to October 2023, 380,000 cubic meters was distributed throughout Gaza. Today, it is reported that only 638 cubic meters are being distributed to the North Gaza governorate.
In the wake of the Israeli air strike into Beit Lahiya on October 20, which destroyed multiple residential buildings and trapped at least 87 people under the rubble according to the Ministry of Health, rescue operations have also been hindered due to the blockades that have thus far prevented essential aid into northern Gaza.
Humanitarian organizations fear that repeated blockages of essential supplies will aggravate nationwide health concerns ahead of the winter months. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reports that approximately 86 percent of all Gazans are facing emergency levels of hunger, with roughly 6 percent facing “catastrophic” levels of hunger. They warn that catastrophic hunger is projected to double in the winter, with conditions in tent camps to grow more harsh due to colder temperatures and decreased hygiene.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), stated that continued bombardments have led to the displacement of almost the entire population of Gaza. “Many vulnerable groups are unable to relocate or find safe shelter. The majority are living in temporary makeshift camps with an alarming density of almost 40,000 people per square kilometer,” said Haq.
Displacement shelters in Gaza have become extremely crowded since the wake of the war, exacerbating unsafe living conditions and the spread of infectious diseases.
Overcrowding has led to aid personnel becoming overwhelmed. The IPC report states that continued airstrikes and evacuation orders from the IDF “have significantly disrupted humanitarian operations, and repeated displacements have steadily worn down people’s ability to cope and access food, water and medicine, deepening the vulnerability of entire communities”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied allegations of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) blocking off aid and essential supplies. He continued to state that he is facilitating the delivery of more than 3,000 daily calories for each Gazan.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a statement to Israeli authorities, insisting that if Israel did not increase the deliveries of humanitarian aid in Gaza in the next 30 days, there could be a cessation of U.S. munitions being delivered to Israel for its conflicts with both Gaza and Lebanon.
With the second round of polio vaccinations starting in southern Lebanon on October 18th, the UN has stressed the importance of a humanitarian pause. They are currently on the frontlines of affected areas, rehabilitating Gaza’s water sanitation systems and distributing essential supplies wherever they can, in an attempt to prepare Gaza for the harsh conditions that are expected in the winter months.
IPS UN Bureau Report
