“Humanitarian facilities in Rafah are being forced to close one after another…The flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, already insufficient to meet rising needs, has fallen by 67 percent since May 7,” the UN Aid Coordination Office reported, OCHAamid reports of kitchens, clinics and hospitals closing.
Until Israeli forces seized and closed the Rafah crossing in the far south of the Strip, it was the main gateway for food, water, fuel and medicine into Gaza, as well as the route for sick and injured people to leave for treatment.
Powerless to help against the threat of famine
Echoing these concerns, the UN World Food Program (WFP) warned that the agency “can currently do little in Rafah as supplies are very low and mobility is severely limited.”
According to the WFP, the West Erez border crossing in northern Gaza is “functional, but not reliable”. Gate 96 further south and the Erez crossing are also “inaccessible” and access to the southern parts of Gaza is so “restricted” that it There is a risk that this country will produce the same catastrophic levels of hunger as the north.
Tactical gain
The development comes as the Israeli military said it had gained “tactical control” of a narrow 13-kilometer stretch of land between Gaza and Egypt.
In a statement on Wednesday, an Israeli army spokesperson claimed that rocket launchers had been used to attack Israel from the Philadelphi Corridor.
A senior Israeli official also reportedly told national radio on Wednesday that the fighting in Gaza is expected to last at least until the end of the year.
Dire humanitarian situation
After almost eight months of war, the entire population of Gaza, consisting of 2.2 million people, is almost exclusively dependent on humanitarian aid, including food.
Although much-needed supplies have been delivered to the Palestinian side of the Kerem Abu Salem, or Kerem Shalom, near Rafah, UN humanitarian workers have repeatedly stressed that it is not safe to collect them amid ongoing hostilities, impassable roads, unexploded weapons, fuel shortages and checkpoint delays.
“Adults and children are beyond exhausted by constant displacement, hunger and fear”, WFP said in the latest situation update. “They desperately want the war to end, as do humanitarian workers on the ground, who are largely displaced and dispersed, along with the people they are meant to serve.”
Aid officials have repeatedly reiterated Israel’s responsibility as the occupying power to ensure that aid reaches those who need it, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
The UN food agency, meanwhile, confirmed that life-saving aid and fuel from Egypt had entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
“This is an important step, but we need sustainable access. We need all border crossings and border crossings in Gaza to be open,” the report said, adding that while some commercial goods had reached the enclave, “people cannot afford the high prices.”
“We need more help to enter through the south because people need diversity in diet, access to health care and water.”
This is what the UN Food Agency says in its latest update in the northAid teams distribute food parcels, wheat flour, hot meals and support bakeries.
In central areasWFP prioritizes hot meals to reach more people with fewer resources. It was noted that faster assistance is now possible thanks to a recently introduced self-registration tool that allows people to update their location.
There are now only four bakeries operating in Gaza City, with one recently opened in Jabalia, supplying bread in the north. Of the 17 bakeries that WFP operates in Gaza, only 11 are functioning due to a lack of fuel and other essentials.
In Rafah, the health care situation remains dangerous, with only one hospital still functioning, the World Health Organization said, referring to the Al Emirati Maternity Hospital. This compares to three partially functional hospitals earlier this month. “A Najjar hospital was evacuated on May 7 and Al Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah ceased operations on May 27,” WHO said, following reports quoting the hospital’s director, that this happened after two medical staff were killed when the hospital’s gate was hit.
Other relief operations closed in Rafah this week reportedly include a field hospital and kitchen run by UN partners the Palestinian Red Crescent and World Central Kitchen.
Al Mawasi strike
To date, at least 36,171 Palestinians have been killed and 81,420 injured in Gaza, OCHA said, citing Gaza health authorities, as Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on October 7 prompted intense Israeli bombardment across the enclave.
“Mass casualties” were also reported on Tuesday after an unconfirmed airstrike on a site for forcibly displaced persons in the Al Mawasi coastal area, southwest of Rafah. The UN aid agency cited the Gaza Health Ministry, which reported 21 deaths and 21 injuries.
