Retaliatory attacks by Israeli security forces have killed more than 25,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip, including about 70 percent women and children, and injured more than 62,000 others. The carnage follows a large-scale attack on Israelis and foreign nationals by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 last year. Meanwhile, heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea continue across much of Gaza, causing more and more civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction.
Palestinians trapped in the small territory are in a state of desperation after more than three months of being militarily battered and left without sufficient supplies of food, water and medicine. The war in Gaza has affected more than 2 million people - the entire population - and has resulted in the largest displacement of the Palestinian people since 1948.
Over the past 15 weeks, Israel has waged a massive and destructive military response. Following heavy bombardments by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) the situation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip deteriorated drastically within days. The indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks by the IDF and the blockade imposed on Gaza by the Israeli government has led to a humanitarian catastrophe for the people of the tiny enclave.
“People are dying not only from bombs and bullets, but from lack of food and clean water, hospitals without power and medicine, and grueling journeys to ever-smaller slivers of land to escape the fighting,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Saturday, addressing the Non-Aligned Movement.
“This must stop. I will not relent in my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
Militant groups attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, and abducting 250 people as hostages. Some 136 Israelis and foreigners are reported to remain in captivity in Gaza.
The brutal assault prompted a merciless response by Israeli forces during a period of more than three months, killing at least 25,295 people and injuring at least another 62,681. Gaza officials do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their reporting.
The actual death toll is expected to be much higher, as thousands of people - including thousands of children - have been reported missing and may be still trapped dead or alive under the rubble. Among those killed are at least 153 UN staff, 337 health workers and 117 journalists.
Over 60 percent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip, a densely populated area, have been either destroyed or damaged since the start of the hostilities. This includes more than 65,000 housing units destroyed and more than 290,000 damaged. Entire residential neighborhoods have been razed to the ground.
The United Nations, humanitarian organizations, human rights organizations, and independent UN human rights experts have again and again called for the protection of civilians, an immediate ceasefire and the allowance of urgently needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, while a few influential governments continue to fuel the conflict and take no action to stop the ongoing humanitarian disaster in the occupied territory.
The entire population of the Gaza Strip - more than 2.2 million people - is affected by acute hunger and is at immediate risk of famine. The bombardment, ground operations and siege of the entire population, combined with the restriction of humanitarian access, have led to catastrophic acute food insecurity, increasing the risk of famine every day. At least 500,000 people are already affected by catastrophic conditions.
Despite repeated calls, a humanitarian ceasefire is still not in place to stop the killing of civilians in Gaza and enable the safe delivery of food, medicine, water and shelter.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimates that 1.7 million people are internally displaced, most crammed into overcrowded makeshift shelters in southern Gaza.
Families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety. Following intense Israeli bombardments and fighting in Khan Younis and the Middle Areas, numerous displaced people have moved again further south. The south, however, has not been spared from bombardment, with significant numbers of civilians killed there.
Rafah governorate is the main refuge for those displaced, with over one million people squeezed into an extremely overcrowded space, following the intensification of hostilities in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah and Israeli military’s evacuation orders.
On Friday, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) accused Israel of detaining thousands of Palestinians in secret locations in Gaza and the West Bank and subjecting them to mistreatment that could amount to torture.
Addressing journalists in Geneva by video link from Gaza, Ajith Sunghay, OHCHR representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), said he met “a number” of released detainees who said they’d been held by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for between 30 and 55 days.
“Getting to the bottom of numbers has been extremely difficult, but we have heard that it runs into the thousands,” said Sunghay.
“They described being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment and to what may amount to torture,” he added. “There are reports of men who were subsequently released — but only in diapers, without any adequate clothing in this cold weather.”
Sunghay also said the released detainees “reported being blindfolded for long periods — some of them for several consecutive days,” and that most said “they were taken at some time into Israel,” although they could not determine specifically where.
OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that her agency had been in touch with Israeli authorities regarding allegations of torture.
"We have raised our concerns with the Israeli authorities about ill-treatment, which would amount to torture of detainees in the occupied Palestinian territory, repeatedly prior to October 7 and since then."
“Unfortunately, we have not received any response,” she said.
OHCHR said Israel must ensure that all those arrested or detained are treated in line with international norms and standards of humanitarian law, and that all instances of abuse are investigated.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functional, and those that are open are suffering from extreme shortages of medicines, supplies and staff.
An estimated 60,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip, are in desperate need of prenatal and postnatal care. 350,000 people have non-communicable diseases and need access to medical care. There are overall 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as more than 135,000 children under two in the Gaza Strip with high vulnerability.
According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), more than 152,000 cases of diarrhea have been reported since mid-October 2023. Over half of these cases are among young children under the age of 5 years.
Hundreds of cases of miscarriages and premature births have been reported since the outbreak of hostilities
“Mothers face unimaginable challenges in accessing adequate medical care, nutrition and protection before, during and after giving birth,” said Tess Ingram, UNICEF spokesperson, speaking from Amman, Jordan, Friday.
“These conditions put mothers at risk from miscarriages, stillbirths, preterm labor, maternal mortality and emotional trauma. Seeing newborn babies suffer, while some mothers bleed to death, should keep us all awake at night,” she said.
Ingram said that nearly 20,000 babies had been born into war in the 105 days of escalating fighting in the Gaza Strip.
“That is a baby born into this horrendous war every 10 minutes,” she said. "Becoming a mother should be a time for celebration. In Gaza, it is another child delivered into hell."
"Humanity cannot allow this warped version of normal to persist any longer. Mothers and newborns need a humanitarian ceasefire," Ingram added.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Gaza: Report from the ground, OHCHR, press briefing notes, published January 19, 2024
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2024/01/gaza-report-ground
Full text: Born into hell, UNICEF, press briefing notes, published January 19, 2024
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/born-hell