Humanitarian Conditions in Gaza Dire Ahead of Ramadan

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million people and caused a grave humanitarian crisis including acute shortages of food, water, and medicine.

Here are some key facts about the current conditions in the Palestinian territory as Ramadan nears:

DISPLACEMENT

An estimated 1.7 million people, more than 75% of Gaza's population, have been displaced, many of them forced to move repeatedly across the enclave, according to the UNRWA, the UN refugee agency in Palestine.

Israel last month intensified its bombardment of Rafah, a town in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt, where about 1.5 million people are estimated to be crammed.

Most people there have fled their homes further north to escape Israel's military assault, which escalated after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

HUMANITARIAN AID, HUNGER

Israel stopped all imports of food, medicine, power, and fuel into Gaza at the start of the hostilities. Although it later let in aid deliveries, aid organizations say security checks and the difficulty of moving through a war zone have greatly hindered their operations.

United Nations organizations have said that child malnutrition levels in northern Gaza were "particularly extreme" and about three times higher than in the south of the Palestinian enclave where more aid has been available.

"When children are starting to die from starvation, that should be a warning like no other," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office. "If not now, when is the time to pull the stops, break the glass, and flood Gaza with the aid that it needs?"

Dr. Richard Peeperkorn of the WHO said that one in six children under two years of age were acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.

Calls for Israel to do more to address the humanitarian crisis have grown louder since the deaths of Palestinians lining up for aid in Gaza last month.

Gaza health authorities said 118 people were killed, attributing the deaths to Israeli fire and calling it a massacre. The U.S. military carried out its first airdrop of food to Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday and plans more.

HEALTH AND HOSPITALS

WHO says most of the enclave's 36 hospitals have stopped working. Only 12 are partially functioning - six in the north and six in the south - and one, the Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, is considered to be minimally functional.

Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank, said on Tuesday that more than 8,000 people needed to be referred outside Gaza for medical treatment.

On March 3, WHO and its partners visited the Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals in northern Gaza to deliver supplies for the first time since the start of hostilities. Peeperkorn described the situation at Al-Awda Hospital as "particularly appalling" because one of the buildings had been 

"Both hospitals we visited represent the overall health system in Gaza - struggling to survive with small doses of aid keeping them barely functional enough to serve those most in need," said Dr Ahmed Dahir, head of the WHO Gaza sub-office.

HOSTAGE SITUATION

At least 134 hostages out of 253 are reportedly still held hostage in Gaza without access to communication and to the Red Cross. Hamas fire brigade said on March 1 that Israeli attacks had killed at least 70 hostages since the start of the escalation of hostilities. Israeli officials refuse to respond to Hamas’ public message, chalking it as a psychological war.

REUTERS

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