Attachments
Highlights
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The nutrition situation in the Gaza Strip continues to further deteriorate. Tragic and preventable child deaths are unfolding with a number of reports of children who died of malnutrition at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip and fear that many more might follow.
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Hospitals continue with severe disruptions in providing health care in the Gaza Strip. As of 4 March, 155 health facilities have been damaged, and 32 hospitals and 53 health centres have been rendered non-functional, due to hostilities or shortages of essentials. Also, 126 ambulances had been damaged and rendered unusable, as reported by the Ministry of Health.
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Through the PSEA network hotline, there have been at least 1,060 mentions of either poor access to food or starvation since 7 October 2023. Most calls are about the lack of food and water in the Gaza Strip, mainly from the north of the Gaza Strip, in which is stated that people are dying of starvation, and that children are crying from hunger.
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UNICEF delivered vaccines for 6,000 children during inter-agency hospital visits for a duration of two months, and nutrition supplies for 300 children for one month.
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UNICEF has moved 25 truck loads into the Gaza Strip in the past week including hygiene kits and sanitary pads for 15,000 people, blankets for 2,000 people, nutrition supplements for 2,000 babies, neonatal incubators, 100 tents.
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In the West Bank, UNICEF continued to provide essential child protection preventative and response services to 1,183 people including 868 children and 315 caregivers who are directly or indirectly impacted by the violence.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
UNICEF conducted field missions to Al-Shifa, Al-Awda, and Kamal Adwan hospitals in the Gaza Strip through an Inter-Agency mission to assess and monitor the situation of children and to deliver life-saving vaccination and nutrition supplies. Findings revealed distressing critical shortages in fuel, food, and medical resources, accompanied by damaged hospital infrastructure. Distressing levels of malnutrition and child fatalities from starvation were reported. The medical teams on the ground prioritized immediate needs such as fuel, medicines, food, and safety. As part of these visits to the hospitals, UNICEF delivered vaccines for 6,000 children for a duration of two months, and nutrition supplies for 300 children for one month.
A recent assessment1 of the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) conditions at 41 locations in the Gaza Strip, where internally displaced persons (IDPs) reside, found that people had access to only two litres of water per person daily as a median across all sites for drinking, cooking, washing and other domestic needs. Most of these locations rely mainly on water trucking to access water, while makeshift sites had a higher reliance on water trucking and piped water, compared to collective centers where a higher availability of water from wells was found. The number of individuals who have to share sanitation facilities, is 341 persons per toilet as the median across all assessed sites. Only 24 per cent of assessed sites had latrines that offered safe and private access, and only 20 per cent of these sites had latrines accessible for persons with physical disabilities. No showers were available at all in 61 per cent of the assessed sites.
Across all sites, on average 1,292 persons share one shower. Only 24 per cent of sites had separate showers for men and women, and only 12 per cent of sites had showers accessible for pregnant women, elderly and persons with physical disabilities. The majority of assessed sites did not have an availability of soap, cleaning supplies, and menstrual hygiene materials. A lack of access to these items was found at makeshift sites when compared to collective centers.
As of 5 March, at least 30,717 Palestinians were reported killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of hostilities (up to 70 per cent are reported to be women and children). More than 72,156 Palestinians were reported injured, including at least 11,785 children (partially disaggregated data as of 3 March 2024). Medical professionals and the UN staff have reported that more than a thousand children have had one or more of their limbs amputated, and thousands have acquired disabilities due to injuries and trauma, including loss of hearing and speech impairment. Thousands of children continue to be reported missing and are likely to be injured or killed under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Rescue efforts are hampered by ongoing airstrikes, scarcity of fuel for vehicles and equipment, and limited communication capabilities.
UNRWA reports that, as of 24 February, 158 UNRWA staff had been killed, while WHO, UNDP and UNOPS report each one staff member killed respectively. This amounts to 24 per cent of UN aid workers killed globally since 1997, and by far the most in this short a time period. As of 4 March, there have been 337 incidents impacting 155 UNRWA installations, some of which have sustained direct hits. UNRWA reports as of 4 March, that at least 404 IDPs have been killed in their facilities, with at least a further 1,385 injured due to the hostilities since 7 October. Close to 1.7 million internally displaced people (IDPs) are sheltering at emergency shelters, which are UNRWA shelters or public shelters, at informal sites, or in the vicinity of UNRWA shelters and distribution sites and within host communities.
In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, OCHA reports that since 7 October, at least 415 Palestinians have been killed.2 At least 112 Palestinian children and one Israeli child were reported killed in conflict-related violence in the same time period, with more than half of incidents in the Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarem governorates of the northern West Bank, and more than one quarter of incidents in the Ramallah and Jerusalem governorates. Militarized law enforcement operations inside Palestinian communities and refugee camps involving high use of live ammunition, explosive weapons, and aerial strikes, as well as settler violence and movement restrictions, continue to put Palestinian children at higher risk of violence, grave violations, and displacement, and impact their access to services. According to OCHA, since 7 October, at least 2,829 Palestinians including 1,296 children have been displaced, mainly in Area C and East Jerusalem, due to settler violence and access restrictions, home demolitions, and destruction of residences during military law enforcement operations.
Israeli sources report that approximately 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed, mostly in the attacks of 7 October, and more than 7,500 people are reported injured. More than 35 children have been reported killed. Around 250 people, including at least 36 children were abducted from Israel into the Gaza Strip, of whom 34 have been released, with very limited information available on the children remaining in captivity.