All You Need To Know About The Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza

The Gaza Strip is suffering an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe nearly seven months since Israel launched a devastating offensive in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel.

More than 34,600 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive which has laid to waste much of the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with thousands more dead feared lost under the rubble.

Here are some details of the humanitarian situation:

DISPLACEMENT, SHELTER

An estimated 1.7 million people, more than 75% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced, many of them forced to move repeatedly, according to the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA).

Many have sought shelter in Rafah at the Egyptian border where the threat of an Israeli assault has loomed large for months, stoking concerns of an even bigger humanitarian crisis.

The displaced have crammed into overcrowded shelters in or near UNRWA facilities such as schools, makeshift tents, and homes that have not been flattened.

The conflict has damaged or destroyed roughly 62% of all homes in Gaza, or 290,820 housing units, according to a World Bank interim damage assessment published in March.

It could take some 14 years to remove the vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance, according to a senior officer at the U.N. Mine Action Service.

LOOMING FAMINE

The World Food Programme (WFP) says that 1.1 million people in Gaza are suffering catastrophic levels of hunger. The situation is particularly dire in the north.

There has not been a formal declaration of famine in Gaza by U.N. agencies: such a declaration hinges on a set of criteria measuring the extent of hunger suffered by a population and is assessed by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an initiative of more than a dozen U.N. agencies, regional bodies and aid groups.

However, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain told NBC News there was now “full-blown famine” in northern Gaza.

In excerpts of an interview to be aired on May 5 on “Meet the Press”, McCain told NBC that she hoped for a ceasefire accord so that more aid could be delivered faster.

“There is famine – full-blown famine – in the north, and it’s moving its way south. And so what we’re asking for and what we’ve continually asked for is a ceasefire and the ability to have unfettered access,” said McCain.

Her remarks followed comments by deputy WFP head Carl Skau on April 25 that more aid must be delivered to avert famine in northern Gaza, despite what he described as an uptick in deliveries and some progress in accessing that part of Gaza.

The Gaza health ministry reported on April 25 that at least 28 children, most of them no older than 12 months, had died as a result of malnutrition and dehydration since February.

The World Health Organization (WHO), in a report covering the period up to April 20, said 16-25% of children aged from 6-59 months have acute malnutrition in northern Gaza, while 2-4% of them had severe acute malnutrition. In southern Gaza, 3-7% of children have acute malnutrition, it said.

Towards the end of April, four bakeries had reopened in northern Gaza with WFP support. UNRWA has called it a drop in the ocean.

The senior U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag said on April 24 the scarcity of food and other essential goods had led to a breakdown in civil order, and there was no effective law enforcement.

PRESSURE ON ISRAEL FOR MORE AID

Israel, which imposed a complete siege on Gaza in the early days of the war, has faced growing international pressure including from its ally the United States to let in more aid. U.S. pressure on Israel mounted further after an Israeli attack killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on April 1.

Israel checks all aid shipments before they enter Gaza.

In early April, Israel pledged to improve aid access, particularly to northern Gaza, including reopening the Erez crossing and allowing the use of Ashdod port. The Israeli army said on April 28 the amount of aid going into Gaza would be ramped up in the coming days.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on April 29 there had been “measurable progress” in the humanitarian situation. But he said it still wasn’t sufficient and said he would press Israeli officials to do more.

In March, the EU foreign policy chief said Israel was provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war. Israel’s foreign minister rejected the accusation, saying it had let in “extensive humanitarian aid”. Israel has also accused Hamas of stealing aid – which Hamas strongly denies – and placed blame on U.N. agencies, calling them inefficient.

The United States is building a pier off Gaza to deliver aid, though U.N. officials have said this is no substitute for land routes from Israel into Gaza. The United States and some of its allies have also air-dropped aid to Gaza. A number of Palestinians have drowned or been killed by air-dropped aid.

DISEASE SPREADS AMID DECIMATED HEALTH SYSTEM

Health infrastructure in Gaza has been decimated, U.N. humanitarian official Kaag said on April 24. The few hospitals still standing struggle to operate due to severe shortages of supplies and frequent power outages. “As summer draws near and temperatures rise, communicable diseases threaten to sweep through Gaza,” she said.

The WHO says only 11 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functioning – five in the north and six in the south. Donors have set up six field hospitals in southern Gaza.

UNRWA says that as of April 18, eight of the 24 health centres it operates in the Gaza Strip were operational.

In a snapshot of the dire situation, the WHO reported that two medical points near the largest site for displaced people in east Khan Younis were inundated with daily cases of hepatitis, skin diseases, and diarrhoea, and critically low on medical supplies when U.N. officials visited on April 9.

The WHO said an estimated 9,000 critical patients need to be evacuated from Gaza.

WATER, SANITATION

Gaza had suffered a water crisis for years before the latest conflict. It has worsened markedly since the war began.

Aid agencies warned in February that the majority of people had no access to clean drinking water and that sanitation services were wholly ineffective, with none of Gaza’s wastewater treatment systems working.

Outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases and hepatitis A were among the indicators of dire water supplies and sanitation. They urged sufficient fuel for the operation of critical water and sanitation plants.