United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Friday that three months into Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, the territory has become uninhabitable, and aid workers are left with the "impossible mission" of supporting more than 2 million people. Also Friday, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned while thousands of children have already died from violence, living conditions for children continue to rapidly deteriorate in Gaza, raising the risk of mounting child deaths.
“Three months since the horrific 7 October attacks, Gaza has become a place of death and despair. Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured,” Griffiths said in a statement on the conflict's three-month mark.
"This war should never have started. But it's long past time for it to end," he said.
"We continue to demand an immediate end to the war, not just for the people of Gaza and its threatened neighbors, but for the generations to come who will never forget these 90 days of hell and of assaults on the most basic precepts of humanity."
The war, sparked by attacks inside Israel on October 7 by Palestinian armed groups that killed about 1,200 people and saw some 240 others taken hostage, has led to a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Following the large-scale attack, the Israeli cabinet declared war and the military begun launching indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 22,600 Palestinians and wounding nearly 58,000. 70 percent of the fatalities are reportedly children and women. The UN says 1.9 million others – 85 percent of the population – have been displaced.
"Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment. Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety," the UN humanitarian chief said.
Since the start of hostilities, two thirds of hospitals in the Gaza Strip were forced to shut down due to the damage they sustained, lack of power and supplies or evacuation orders, increasing the pressure on the remaining health facilities that are still operational. Currently, only 13 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are partly functional and able to admit new patients, although services are limited.
Griffiths noted that a public health disaster was unfolding, and infectious diseases were spreading in overcrowded shelters.
"People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner. For children in particular, the past 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food. No water. No school. Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out."
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. More than 500,000 people are already affected by catastrophic conditions.
“Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on,” Griffiths stressed.
"It is time for the parties to meet all their obligations under international law, including to protect civilians and meet their essential needs, and to release all hostages immediately," he added.
The UN humanitarian chief said humanitarians are working in challenging and dangerous conditions.
"The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than 2 million people, even as its own staff are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent."
Among those killed by Israeli attacks are at least 144 UN staff, 326 health workers and 106 journalists. Thousands of people - including thousands of children - have been reported missing and may be still trapped dead or alive under the rubble. Rescue teams are unable to reach affected residential areas due to security risks, lack of equipment, and severe road damage.
At least 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 Children's Fund said Friday that the intensifying conflict, malnutrition, and the spread of diseases threatens more than 1.1 million children in Gaza. More than 8,000 have already died from Israeli attacks against the tiny strip of land, while living conditions for children continue to rapidly deteriorate, with increasing cases of diarrhea and rising food poverty among children, raising the risk of mounting child deaths.
"Children in Gaza are caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day," Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director, said in a statement.
She underscored that children and families continue to be killed and injured, and their lives are increasingly at risk from preventable diseases and lack of food and water.
"All children and civilians must be protected from violence and have access to basic services and supplies," Catherine said.
Since the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned of the risk of famine in the Gaza Strip in late December, UNICEF has found that an increasing number of children are not getting their basic nutrition needs met.
About 90 percent of children under two years of age are consuming two or fewer food groups, according to a UNICEF survey conducted on December 26. This is up from 80 percent of children compared to the same survey conducted two weeks earlier.
Most families said their children are only getting grains - including bread - or milk, meeting the definition of "severe food poverty". Dietary diversity for pregnant and breastfeeding women is also severely compromised: 25 percent only consumed one food type the day before, and almost 65 percent only two.
The deteriorating situation is raising concerns about acute malnutrition and mortality breaching famine thresholds. UNICEF is particularly worried about the nutrition of over 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as more than 135,000 children under two, given their specific nutrition needs and vulnerability.
UNICEF said malnutrition and disease create a deadly cycle, when combined and left untreated. Evidence has shown that children with poor health and nutrition are more vulnerable to serious infections like acute diarrhea. Acute and prolonged diarrhea seriously exacerbates poor health and malnutrition in children, putting them at high risk of death.
The conflict has also damaged or destroyed essential water, sanitation and health systems in the Gaza Strip, and has limited the ability to treat severe malnutrition. In addition, displaced children and their families are unable to maintain the necessary hygiene levels needed to prevent disease, given the alarming lack of safe water and sanitation, with many resorting to open defecation.
Meanwhile, the very few functioning hospitals are so focused on responding to the high number of patients injured in the conflict that they are unable to adequately treat disease outbreaks.
The UN agency is calling for the resumption of commercial traffic so the shelves of shops can be restocked, and for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to help save civilian lives and alleviate suffering.
"UNICEF works to provide the life-saving aid the children of Gaza so desperately need. But we urgently need better and safer access to save children's lives," said Russell.
"The futures of thousands more children in Gaza hang in the balance. The world cannot stand by and watch. The violence and the suffering of children must stop."
In a related development, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported Friday that hospitals and other vital medical infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank have been attacked nearly 600 times since war erupted in the enclave.
Some 613 people have died within health facilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) since 7 October 2023 – 606 in Gaza and seven in the West Bank – and more than 825 have been injured, according to latest WHO data.
WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier condemned the continuing fighting and bombardment, saying that the “ongoing reduction of humanitarian space plus the continuing attacks on healthcare are pushing the people of Gaza to breaking point”.
Further information
Full text: Statement by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, statement by Martin Griffiths, released January 5, 2024
https://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-war-gaza-must-end
Full text: Intensifying conflict, malnutrition and disease in the Gaza Strip creates a deadly cycle that threatens over 1.1 million children, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), press release, published January 5, 2024
https://www.unicef.org/mena/press-releases/intensifying-conflict-malnutrition-and-disease-gaza-strip-creates-deadly-cycle
Website: World Health Organization (WHO): Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA)
https://extranet.who.int/ssa/Index.aspx