U.N. humanitarians say 90 percent of Gaza’s people have been displaced, some multiple times, as more evacuations are ordered and poor or no security hampers the delivery of aid and fuel.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday that the Israeli military had ordered the immediate evacuation of thousands of people living in 19 apartments in Gaza City on Sunday and Monday.
On Sunday, some residents were ordered to move to western Gaza City, while Monday’s order also included areas where people had fled a day earlier and were directed to move to shelters in Deir al-Balah, according to news agency Xinhua.
“Both directly affected areas include 13 health facilities that were recently functional, including two hospitals, two primary health centres and nine medical centres,” OCHA said, adding that 13 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are only partially functional.
Nine out of every 10 people in Gaza are estimated to be displaced, the office said, with new waves of displacement mainly affecting people who have been displaced several times before but were forced to flee again due to shelling. They are repeatedly forced to restart their lives without any prospect of regaining their belongings or safety or reliable access to essential services.
“People, especially children, queue for hours every day to collect water,” OCHA said.
“Access to emergency healthcare is also a challenge, especially given the limited communication coverage to contact emergency services, high transportation costs to reach hospitals ($26 round trip cost) and a long walk of at least 3 km to reach the nearest medical centre.”
In northern Gaza, aid partners particularly highlighted the lack of safe shelters for the 80,000 IDPs (internally displaced persons) who were forced to hastily flee Shujaiyeh and other parts of eastern Gaza City following evacuation orders in late June. Many were found sleeping amid solid waste and rubble, without mattresses or adequate clothing, and some had taken shelter in partially destroyed UN facilities and residential buildings.
The office said the Israeli military has declared these areas as evacuation zones, causing many families, including young children and the elderly, to undergo successive waves of displacement over the past two weeks.
OCHA said insecurity, damaged roads, a breakdown of law and order, and access limitations continue to hamper movement at the Kerem Shalom crossing and the main humanitarian cargo route between Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah.
“This has resulted in severe shortages of fuel and aid supplies necessary to continue humanitarian operations, while extremely high temperatures also pose an increased risk of spoilage and contamination of stranded goods (particularly food),” the office said.
Humanitarians said that according to reports from the Food Security Sector (FSS), shortages forced partners to provide fewer food rations in central and southern Gaza in June, and affected their ability to keep bakeries and community kitchens running.
According to OCHA, only seven of the 18 bakeries supported by humanitarian partners remain operational in Gaza, all in Deir al-Balah, and six bakeries already operating at partial capacity have now been forced to cease operations completely due to fuel shortages.
Without a steady flow of cooking gas and food supplies, community kitchens are also having difficulty functioning, resulting in a reduction in the number of cooked meals across Gaza, the office said.
By the end of June, nearly 600,000 cooked meals prepared in 190 kitchens were distributed daily to families across the region, up from more than 700,000 in the first half of June.
This means that displaced families rely on burning wood and plastic from furniture and waste for cooking, increasing health risks and environmental hazards, OCHA said.
In terms of cooking, humanitarian partners said they continue to distribute wheat flour and canned food that enters northern Gaza via the Erez West crossing. No commercial trucks have been entering the area for months.
A joint assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Satellite Centre estimated that approximately 57 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land and one-third of greenhouses were damaged.
The FSS reported that there was an almost complete shortage of protein sources such as meat and poultry in the local market, and only a few types of locally produced vegetables were available at unattainable prices.
Sector reported that ongoing military operations in Rafah and recent displacement from eastern Khan Younis, where significant agricultural production was concentrated before the war, have resulted in additional damage to greenhouses. This has forced more people to leave their farms unattended, further destabilizing food systems.
OCHA said that on Friday, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) reported that its teams at the Nasser Medical Complex were “working on emergency medical stocks” and that all departments were overwhelmed with patients, far exceeding available bed capacity.
MSF said the Nasser Medical Complex is the main site that regional hospitals rely on to disinfect their equipment, and if the facility was left without power, many regional hospitals would stop functioning as well.
It said the hospital has been unable to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since late April, including most recently on Wednesday, when Israeli authorities refused to allow trucks carrying MSF medical aid to enter the Gaza Strip due to ongoing hostilities.
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