Gaza Faces ‘Dire’ Humanitarian Crisis With Food, Water in Limited Supply, UN Agency Warns
Over 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave, the United Nations says
By Mohammad Al-Kassim/The Media Line
“Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Thursday. Officials have also reported that more than 1,000 people in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s continuous air and artillery strikes.
OCHA said nearly 338,934 people, or two-thirds of the displaced people, have sought shelter in schools run by UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees.Another nearly 15,000 people have fled to schools run by the Palestinian Authority while more than 100,000 were being sheltered by relatives, neighbors, a church, and other facilities in Gaza City.
The Gaza Strip is a densely populated strip of 2.3 million people.
The sustained Israeli bombardment has destroyed at least 2,540 housing units in Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Public Works and Housing. Another 22,850 housing units sustained moderate to minor damage, it said.
In response, OCHA has raised concerns about the substantial destruction of civilian infrastructure damaged in the bombardment.
Gaza’s sewage system, which is already in bad shape, has been hit by air strikes, leaving solid waste accumulating in the streets and posing a health hazard. The sewage facilitiesin the impoverished coastal enclave serve more than a million people.
The deputy head of emergencies of the UN World Food Program (WFP), Brian Lander,said on Thursday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “dire,” with food and water in limited supply and “quickly running out.”
The UN agency is on the ground and is “responding, providing food to thousands of people that have sought shelter in schools and elsewhere across the territory. But we’re going to run out very soon,” Lander warned.
“We don’t have access to the Gaza Strip, which has been closed down. We’re looking to ensure that we can have means to deliver to these people as the crisis evolves,” Lander said, adding that the WFP is “very worried” about how the situation will develop.
“The people that are seeking shelter and striving to survive in this environment are only going to face worsening situations as time goes on. I think our concern is that unless we’re able to access those communities, the people that are in need, the civilian population, there’s going to be an extreme situation for them, both in terms of having food and water to survive and other services, even shelter, over their heads,” he added.
Officials in Gaza put the number of those killed as a result of the Israeli military operation at more than 1,200.
US President Joe Biden, who reaffirmed America’s unconditional support for Israel, has cautioned that Israel must, despite “all the anger and frustration … operate by the rules of war.”
The Israeli military said in a statement on Thursday that it had bombarded the Gaza Strip with “approximately 6,000 bombs” containing explosives with “a total weight of 4,000 tons” since Saturday when it began striking Hamas targets.
Also on Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for “an immediate end to the comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people,” according to his office,following a meeting in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
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