Humanitarian Situation Update #200 | Gaza Strip

The Humanitarian Situation Update is issued by OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory three times per week. The Gaza Strip is covered on Mondays and Fridays, and the West Bank is covered on Wednesdays. The next update will be issued on 7 August.

Key Highlights

• Three schools sheltering displaced people were reportedly hit in 48 hours, resulting in mass casualties, according to Palestinian Civil Defense. 
• Sixty-three per cent of structures in Gaza have been damaged as of 6 July, including 10,100 structures newly assessed as damaged in Rafah city, UNOSAT reports.
• Detected malnutrition cases among children in northern Gaza increase by more than 300 per cent in July compared with May, the Nutrition Cluster highlights. 
• UNRWA launches a new learning programme, as Education Cluster partners continue to face constraints in supporting children’s psychosocial and cognitive wellbeing.

Humanitarian Developments

• Israeli bombardment from the air, land, and sea continues to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of houses and other civilian infrastructure. Ground incursions and heavy fighting also continue to be reported. Rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups toward Israel was also reported. 
• In his last briefing to the press, OCHA Head of Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Andrea de Domenico, emphasized the need to scale up humanitarian operations. He said he has witnessed over the past 300 days “the absolute physical and psychological exhaustion of an entire population” and that the people in Gaza “have been deprived of the mere thinking of what tomorrow could bring for them,” warning that we cannot allow ourselves to become “immune to horror.” He further noted that, due to heavy access impediments and widespread security risks, ongoing aid efforts continue to fall short of the enormous needs in Gaza, which has become a graveyard for children as UN Secretary-General had warned. Nonetheless, De Domenico highlighted that humanitarian partners are carrying out many critical life-saving activities, ranging from providing people with water, food, tents, clothing, hygiene items, nutritional supplements and cash, screening children for malnutrition, equipping hospitals with bed stretchers and medicines, supporting medical evacuations, providing fuel to bakeries, water and sanitation facilities and telecommunication providers, and monitoring displacement trends, damages, family separation and detentions, among others.
• Between the afternoons of 1 and 5 August, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 143 Palestinians were killed and 341 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 5 August 2024, at least 39,623 Palestinians were killed and 91,469 were injured, according to MoH in Gaza. Moreover, according to the Gaza Government Media Office (GMO) and Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD), there are some 10,000 people reportedly missing or under rubble in Gaza. The MoH documents the full identification details of casualties and has recently published the breakdown of 28,185 out of 37,900 fatalities as of 30 June for whom full details have been documented by MoH (also available on the Health Cluster’s Unified Dashboard here); according to MoH, these reportedly include 9,351 children, 5,320 women, 2,414 elderly, and 11,100 men. The documentation process is ongoing by the MoH. Fatalities include 885 health workers, MoH further reported.
• On 3 and 4 August, three schools hosting thousands of IDPs were reportedly hit in Gaza city, causing multiple fatalities and damage. On 3 August, 17 Palestinians, including children and women, were reportedly killed and tens of others injured when Hamama public school was hit in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza city, according to PCD. Furthermore, on 4 August, at least 30 Palestinians were reportedly killed when two other schools, An Nasser and Hasan Salama, were hit in Nasser neighbourhood, reported PCD, which also stated that 16 people were missing under the rubble of Nasser school as of 19:00 based on families’ testimonies. Following these events, the GMO reported that Israeli forces have so far targeted 172 shelters hosting tens of thousands of IDPs, including 152 public and UNRWA schools where more than 1,040 people were killed. 
• The following are among other deadly incidents reported between 2 and 4 August: 
  • On 2 August, at about 15:00, six Palestinians were reportedly killed when a group of people was hit in Tal El Hawa, south of Gaza city. 
  • On 2 August, at about 20:30, five Palestinians, including three children, a woman and an older man, were reportedly killed and four others injured when a residential building was hit in As Sabra area, in Gaza city. 
  • On 3 August, at about 3:00, eight Palestinians, including an unidentified number of women and children, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Al Fakhura area in Jabalya Refugee Camp, in North Gaza. 
  • On 4 August, at about 2:10, five Palestinians were reportedly killed and 15 others injured when two tents were hit in Al Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al Balah. 
• Between the afternoons of 2 and 5 August, no Israeli soldiers were reported killed in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. Between 7 October 2023 and 5 August 2024, according to the Israeli military and official Israeli sources cited in the media, over 1,529 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, the majority on 7 October and its immediate aftermath and including 329 soldiers killed in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation. In addition, 2,176 soldiers were reported injured since the beginning of the ground operation. As of 5 August, it is estimated that 115 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including hostages who have been declared dead. 
• On 4 August, the Israeli military issued a new evacuation order warning people living in areas in southern Khan Younis and northern Rafah to immediately move westwards to Al Mawasi. This area was unilaterally declared by Israeli forces as a “safe zone” and has changed in size over the course of hostilities and now spans about 47 square kilometres, or some 13 per cent of the Gaza Strip. The recent order affected 24 blocs covering 18 square kilometres, with an estimated population of more than 11,000 compared with about 48,000 people prior to October 2023, according to the Site Management Working Group (SMWG). Furthermore, according to initial mapping, the area affected by the recent order includes 41 displacement sites, 19 water and sanitation facilities, 12 schools and two functional medical points. In general, observations by aid partners tracking population movements indicate that, despite recurrent evacuation orders, many families continue to stay in areas placed under evacuation due to high levels of insecurity and lack of safety across Gaza, harsh living conditions in displacement sites, displacement fatigue, and limited access to aid and basic services in general. Highlighting the dire conditions facing people across Gaza who are enduring multiple rounds of displacement, UNRWA said on 3 August: “People in Gaza are constantly displaced, living in tents under the scorching summer sun with minimal access to drinking water.”
• A surge in malnutrition levels among children in northern Gaza has been observed in July, the Nutrition Cluster reports, and only two out of five children received nutrition supplements over the past three months. In North Gaza and Gaza governorates, and while screening levels were relatively low due to access constraints and insecurity, over 650 children were diagnosed with acute malnutrition, a 47-per-cent increase compared with June when 443 cases were detected, and more than a three-fold increase compared with May when 145 cases were detected. Moreover, a record 25 cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) with medical complications were admitted to the stabilization centre at Kamal Adwan Hospital in July, compared with 27 SAM cases in May and June combined. There were, however, no malnutrition-related deaths reported in July among the children cared for by humanitarian partners and health actors. The July increase in detected cases follows modest improvements in April and early May, during which UNICEF’s post-distribution assessments showed that improved humanitarian access contributed to improvements in the diets of children between six and 23 months of age. The Nutrition Cluster attributes worsening nutrition conditions to access constraints, shortages of essential nutrition supplies, limited availability of fresh vegetables, fruits and meat, poor water and sanitation services, the related spread of disease outbreaks, and poor infant feeding practices. In northern Gaza, acute supply shortages have meant that only eight per cent of nearly 50,000 children the Cluster aims to provide with nutrition supplements received these supplies in July, down from 18 per cent in June and 13 per cent in May. Since malnutrition in Gaza is driven by poor diets, inadequate access to basic services, and deficient caring practices, the Cluster reiterates its urgent call for enhanced access to ensure that children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers in particular receive the aid they need. 
• Children in Gaza have not been able to exercise their right to learn and have been continually traumatized while humanitarian partners continue to face a range of constraints in implementing Education in Emergencies (EiE) programming and supporting the psychosocial and cognitive wellbeing of children, teachers and caregivers, a new report by the Education Cluster highlights. All 625,000 school children in Gaza have lost a full scholastic year, and as of 30 July, 9,211 school children and 397 teachers have been killed and more than 14,200 students and 2,200 teachers have been injured, according to the Ministry of Education. The Education Cluster further notes that educational facilities have been systematically damaged and destroyed and used for military purposes, with nearly 93 per cent of school buildings assessed as directly hit, damaged or likely damaged. Many schools had to be used as shelters for displaced families seeking safety, but overcrowded conditions and limited WASH facilities have contributed to unhygienic conditions, the spread of disease, lack of privacy, and heightened protection risks. Meanwhile, the ability of Education Cluster partners to implement planned activities has been continually undermined by: insecurity; impediments to humanitarian access; lack of approval of fuel requests for any Education partner; restrictions on the entry of educational supplies that are also unavailable on the local market such as recreational and psychosocial support kits; and significant lack of funding whereby only 35 per cent of the required funds for the Education response have been received as of 1 August. As a result, only 365,000 children, or about 54.7 per cent of the Cluster target in the Flash Appeal, have been reached with EiE services, which initially focused on recreational activities, assistive devices for children with disability, and psycho-social support and have in recent months focused on continuity of learning in non-formal settings through the establishment of Temporary Learning Spaces. However, the current number of children reached with EiE services may be lower as the 365,000 figure includes over 101,000 children who were in Rafah and lost access to EiE services due to the military operation that began in early May and the resultant displacement and suspension of education and other services.
• On 1 August, UNRWA, the largest provider of EiE across Gaza, launched a “Back to Learning” programme that seeks to provide safe spaces for children to play, learn and cope with trauma. The first phase of the programme is focused on expanding psychosocial support activities across 45 UNRWA schools/shelters, including arts, music, drama, games and sports, creating spaces for children to reunite with old friends and make new ones, and raising awareness on the risks of explosive ordnance, with plans to gradually expand to cover 94 schools. The second phase will concentrate on reading, writing and math lessons, among other informal learning activities, until conditions allow for the resumption of formal education. For this to happen “Gaza urgently needs an immediate, durable ceasefire,” stated Scott Anderson, UNRWA Director in Gaza. Since October 2023, more than 500 UNRWA counsellors have reached about 700,000 internally displaced people (IDPs), including 500,000 children, with psychosocial support services, including “psychosocial first aid, individual and group counselling, fatigue management sessions, recreational activities, Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) and protection cash assistance.” 
• A recent UNOSAT preliminary analysis, based on satellite imagery collected in July 2024, shows that 65 per cent of permanent crop fields in the Gaza Strip (97.6 out of 150.5 square kilometres) exhibited a significant decline in health and density, up from 63 per cent (94.2 square kilometres) in June 2024. At the governorate level, compared with June, the percentage of damaged cropland increased from 75 to 76 per cent in North Gaza, from 69 to 73 per cent in Gaza, from 56 to 59 per cent in Deir al Balah, from 58 to 59 per cent in Khan Younis, and from 52 to 55 per cent in Rafah. The increase is attributed to razing, heavy vehicle activity, bombing, shelling, and other conflict-related dynamics that resulted in damage to orchards and other trees, field crops and vegetables. Also based on satellite imagery collected in early July, UNOSAT published the findings of its eighth comprehensive assessment that showed a further increase in damage and destruction of structures across Gaza compared with the 3 May analysis, the majority in North Gaza (2,300 structures) and Rafah (15,030 structures) governorates. In Rafah city, the total number of structures assessed as damaged now stands at 13,237 structures, 76 per cent of which (10,100) have been newly assessed as damaged. Overall, as of 6 July, UNOSAT estimates that 63 per cent of structures in the Gaza Strip are assessed as destroyed or damaged (severely, moderately or possibly); these include 156,409 structures and encompass 215,137 housing units.

Funding 

• As of 5 August, Member States have disbursed about US$1.6 billion out of $3.42 billion (47 per cent) requested to meet the most critical needs of 2.3 million* people in Gaza and 800,000 people in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between January and December 2024. On 10 July, DSC/RC/HC Mohannad Hadi stated that, “more funding is urgently needed – as is a safe, enabling environment inside Gaza. Increased funding now will enable the humanitarian community to scale up operations as soon as conditions permit. For funding analysis, please see the Flash Appeal Financial Tracking dashboard. (*2.3 million reflects the projected population of the Gaza Strip upon issuance of the Flash Appeal in April 2024. As of July 2024, the UN estimates that about 2.1 million people remain in the Gaza Strip, and this updated number is now used for programmatic purposes.) 
• During July 2024, the occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund (OPT HF) managed a total of 98 ongoing projects, totalling $81.4 million. These projects aimed to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (89 per cent) and the West Bank (11 per cent). The projects were strategically focused on Education, Food Security, Health, Protection, Emergency Shelter & Non-Food Items (NFI), Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Coordination and Support Services, Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance and Nutrition. Of these projects, 55 projects are being implemented by international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), 31 by national NGOs and 12 by UN agencies. Notably, 32 out of the 67 projects implemented by INGOs or the UN are being implemented in collaboration with national NGOs. Since 7 October, the OPT HF has mobilized over $112 million from Member States and private donors to support urgent humanitarian and life-saving programmes across the OPT. Of total funding, 89 per cent has been allocated to projects in Gaza. A summary of the OPT HF activities and challenges in July 2024 is available through this link and the 2023 Annual Report of the OPT HF can be accessed here. Private donations are collected directly through the OPT HF.