This report is produced by OCHA oPt in collaboration with humanitarian partners. It covers the period from 21 July (1500 hrs) to 22 July (1500 hrs). The next report will be issued on 23 July.

Highlights

  • 120 Palestinians, including 26 children and 15 women, are reported to have been killed or their bodies recovered since the last update. One child has been killed in Gaza every hour for the past two days.
  • Intense overcrowding in shelters raises increasing concerns, as mass displacement continues: over 117,000 IDPs now seeking shelter in UNRWA schools and additional thousands in Ministry of Education-run schools.
  • There is concern about eight IDP shelters and thousands of households in northern Gaza that could not be reached for two consecutive days, due to intense fighting.
  • A request for a humanitarian pause has been rejected by the Israeli authorities.

Situation Overview

The casualty toll among Palestinian civilians continues to increase, as the Gaza emergency enters its third week and the Israeli ground offensive continues for the fifth consecutive day. Since the launch of the latter over 120,000 have fled their homes and a three kilometer-wide strip, encompassing 44 per cent of Gaza's territory, has been declared by the Israeli military a 'buffer zone'.

Hostilities and casualties

Since the last situation update, 120 persons have been reported killed or their bodies recovered from under the rubble in Ash Shuja'iyeh neighborhood, including 26 children and 15 women. Many residents of Ash Shuja'iyeh are reportedly still missing, believed to be buried under the rubble, in areas that have not been accessible.

On 21 July at around 16:00, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential tower in southern Gaza city, killing ten members of the Al Qassas family, all civilians, including six children: Saman, 3 years old, Arwa and Mohamad, 4 years old, Isra' and Nesma, 7 years old, and Layma, 13 years old. On the same day at around 20:00 pm, another Israeli air strike hit a house in central Gaza city, which killed another ten, including three children: Yasser, 7 years old, Yaseen, 9 years old and Sawsan, 11 years old.

The killing of multiple members of the same families as a result of the targeting of homes became increasingly frequent in the past few days, with at least five families (36 individuals) almost completely erased during the previous reporting period alone. Human rights organizations have estimated that since the start of the emergency, the Israeli military targeted and destroyed or severely damaged over 530 residential properties, including many multi-storey buildings, causing civilian casualties and displacing the survivors.

The cumulative fatality toll among Palestinians, as of this afternoon, stands at 599, according to preliminary data collected by the Protection Cluster from various sources. This includes at least 443 civilians (74 per cent), 87 members of armed groups and 69 persons whose status is yet unknown. A third of the civilian fatalities (147) are children, including 36 children under five. The pace of child deaths in the past two days has increased dramatically, with one being killed every hour.

The huge loss of civilian life, alongside credible reports about incidents where civilians or civilian objects (including homes) have been directly hit by Israeli shelling, in circumstances where there was no rocket fire or armed group activity in the close vicinity, raise concerns about the principles of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law (IHL).

Despite a decrease since the start of the ground offensive, indiscriminate firing by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza into Israel continued, with most falling in open areas or intercepted by the Iron Dome system, resulting in no additional fatalities among Israeli civilians. During the reporting period, three Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the fatality toll among soldiers since the beginning of the ground incursion to 28, including one missing in action and assumed dead.

“Going back to the status quo ante won't solve the problem, it will only defer it for another day. It will not stop the bloodshed, it will make it even worse the next time the cycle rolls over the people of Gaza and plagues the people of Israel. Gaza is an open wound and Band Aids won't help. There must be a plan after the aftermath that allows Gaza to breathe and heal”. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, 21 July.

Displacement

Tens of thousands have continued to flee their homes in search of a safe haven, particularly in the northern area and in eastern parts of Gaza City. By this afternoon, UNRWA was hosting over 117,000 IDPs in 80 schools operated as emergency shelters and safe spaces, up from some 100,000 in 68 shelters yesterday. At approximately 17:00 hours yesterday, one of the UNRWA shelters in Al Maghazi was struck by explosive ordnance, reportedly fired by Israel.

There are 12 government schools (the majority in Gaza City), which have been officially opened as emergency shelters and are currently hosting several thousand IDPs; they are managed by the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs and their exact locations have been communicated to the Israeli military. Additionally, an unknown number of IDPs have taken refuge in other government schools, not opened as shelters, as well as in buildings under construction, both of which are considered unsafe.

Intense overcrowding, compounded by the limited access of humanitarian staff to certain areas, is increasingly undermining the living conditions at many shelters and raising protection concerns. Water supply has been particularly challenging, with IDPs in some shelters being supplied with as little as 3 liters per capita per day, to be used for all purposes including drinking and hygiene. The largest concern relates to the current conditions and shortages at eight UNRWA schools in the northern area, which could not be reached from outside for two consecutive days, due to the ongoing fighting.

Public infrastructure and services

Public infrastructure and services continued to be hit and sustain damages, including health facilities and ambulances. Yesterday afternoon, an Israeli airstrike hit the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir El Balah, destroying the top two floors, killing three people, and injuring over 40. Since the start of the emergency at least 18 medical

facilities have been hit by airstrikes and shelling. Under IHL, medical personnel, hospitals and ambulances, exclusively assigned to medical duties, must be spared and allowed at all times to carry out their duties.

Electricity supply is another major concern. Initial reports indicate that Gaza's Power Plan was hit today during an airstrike; the scope o damage remains unclear. While two of the ten feeder lines from Israel to Gaza that were damaged three days ago have been repaired on the Gazan side, there has been no progress in the repairs on the Israeli side, resulting in the vast majority of households supplied for just four hours a day. Some 25 per cent of all WASH facilities have no electricity and transformers and rely on generators only.

Key humanitarian priorities

Protection of civilians: ensuring respect for the IHL principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution in attack.

New humanitarian pause: urgently needed, among other reasons, to complete search and rescue operations in Ash Shuja'iyeh; reach IDPs and families in northern Gaza; and repair critical water and electricity infrastructure.

Scale up response to IDPs: additional shelters are needed to reduce overcrowding and accommodate new IDPs, alongside the replenishment of food, water, and NFI stocks.

Humanitarian needs and response

Protection

Needs

  • At least 116,000 children require direct and specialized psychosocial support (PSS) on the basis of families who have experienced death, injury or loss of home over the past thirteen days.
  • Child protection and psychosocial support is urgently required to address issues of child abuse, exploitation and violence inside shelters and refuges.
  • There is a major concern regarding the risk of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), especially to children.

Response

  • UNRWA is providing basic UXO awareness in shelters.
  • Protection Cluster members continue monitoring and investigating incidents to identify possible violations of international law, as well as consolidating information on civilian fatalities.
  • Since 7 July, emergency psychosocial teams and PRCS teams have been able to provide initial psychosocial support to 1,196 children across the Gaza Strip.
  • On 20 July and 22 July, Sawa Child Protection Helpline sent texts messages with instruction to10,000 caregivers. Since 13 July the Helpline has been operating 24/7 with capacity to take 30 calls simultaneously.
  • The NGO Right to Play has reached 2,000 children in UNRWA emergency shelters since 8 July.
  • World Vision is providing PSS to children in hospitals and UNRWA shelters.
  • Radio spots continue to alert children and their families to the dangers posed by Explosive Remnants of War. In addition, partners are preparing for the provision of UXO risk education, as soon as the situation allows.

Gaps and Constraints

  • Ongoing hostilities continue to impede movement of child protection staff and emergency PSS teams.
  • Increased hostilities and major electricity outages since July 18 hamper communication with PSS staff. Sawa Child Protection Help Line needs additional trained counsellors that can answer phone calls.
  • Displaced children hosted with relatives remain largely unreached by child protection interventions.
  • Due to the precarious security environment and ongoing military operations, verification of information, in particular in regards to casualties, is difficult.
  • NFI emergency shelter repair interventions such as nylon and tarpaulin are needed for about 3,175 families (19,000 individuals) whose homes sustained damage but are still inhabitable. Another 105,000 individuals living in slightly affected houses (broken windows and/or damaged doors) need NFI assistance such as nylon and plastic sheets.

Response

  • 117,000 people are being provided with shelter at 80 UNRWA schools across the Gaza Strip and several thousands at 12 government schools.
  • 9,157 individuals whose homes were destroyed or sustained damage have been provided with NFIs by different cluster members.

Gaps and Constraints

  • Cash assistance of over US$ 13 million is needed to allow 2,655 displaced families to cover rental fees and urgent expenses.
  • Additional shelters for IDPs are required to reduce overcrowding at UNRWA schools.
  • UNRWA's NFI stock is at zero.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Needs

  • IDPs hosted at UNRWA shelters, public schools, with host families or in open spaces, as well as communities disconnected from the municipal water supply need water for drinking and domestic use. An estimated 1.2 million people have no or very limited access to water or sanitation services due to damage to the electricity system or lack of fuel to run generators to power WASH facilities.
  • 15 wells and six sewage pumping stations are not operating. Less than half of the required amount of water is being pumped, according to the Municipality of Gaza.
  • WASH facilities east of Salah ad Din road and in north Gaza (both areas in the new three km no-go zone) have not been accessible for repairs, while also likely to be inaccessible to water trucking due to the unsafe security situation.
  • Several areas are experiencing sewage flooding, in particular in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, posing public health hazards.
  • Humanitarian access to allow for repairs of wells, sewage pumping station and water and sewage lines is urgently needed to avert the outbreak of public health diseases.

Response

  • On 21 July, UNRWA delivered 40,000 tonnes of diesel to water and sewage pump stations.
  • UNRWA is providing water tankering to IDPs in UNRWA shelters. The Municipality of Gaza restarted three wells following delivery of fuel to the generators.
  • In the past 24 hours, Oxfam GB distributed water to ten government schools in Gaza city and to eight UNRWA schools in Rafah.
  • Technicians continued to do limited repairs of damaged water and waste water facilities under ICRC protective escort and in coordination with Israeli Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) for Gaza.

Gaps and constraints

  • The lack of protection during damage repair, operation and assessment remains the biggest constraint, impeding the immediate repair of water and waste water pipelines.
  • UNRWA's sanitation staff could not reach Al Maghazi, Bureij and Deir El Baleh camps due to heavy fighting and access restrictions.

Health and Nutrition

Needs

  • The health needs, including mental health needs for displaced families sheltering in UNRWA schools need to be immediately addressed.
  • Psycho-tropic drugs for patients with mental illness, trauma and anxiety are in critically short supply.
  • Shifa hospital urgently needs neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists, plastic and general surgeons, and orthopedic specialists, as well as 20 ICU beds, a digital C-ARM machine for orthopedic surgeries, three operation tables and a lighting system for the five operation rooms.

Response

  • On 22 July six casualties were referred to medical treatment in Jordan via Israel.
  • $1 million worth of drugs, primarily fluids and surgical kits funded by Switzerland is under procurement by WHO while the Islamic Development Bank is procuring $ 6 million worth of medical supplies from within Gaza to resupply health facilities.
  • Medecins Sans Frontieres is operating an outpatient clinic for patients discharged from hospitals requiring medical follow up.

Gaps and constraints

  • Only two of six Community Mental Health Centers are functioning (in Rafah and Zwaydeh)
  • Shortage of medical equipment, skilled medical teams and drugs and disposables means that complex surgeries for vascular, neurological and spine cord injuries are being referred outside of Gaza. However, access through Rafah and Erez crossings is constrained.
  • Lack of adequate protection of health facilities and personnel, impeding emergency assistance to sick and injured.
  • The military incursion restricts access to healthcare for wounded and for patients with acute and chronic illness.

Food Security

Needs

  • IDPs hosted at UNRWA shelters, public schools and other facilities, with host families or in open spaces are in need of emergency food assistance.
  • Farmers, breeders and fishermen's livelihoods are heavily compromised. Although a comprehensive picture of exact needs is not yet available, animal feed for 3,000 herders is needed to avoid further loss of livestock and erosion of livelihoods.
  • Continuation of regular food distribution programmes by UNRWA, WFP and their partners to over 1,150,000 people should be maintained.

Response

  • WFP, in cooperation with UNRWA, continues to provide daily emergency food rations to IDPs in UNRWA shelters.
  • WFP continues to provide weekly food vouchers to 6,200 IDPs living with host families and daily emergency food rations to 2,039 hospital patients and staff across the Gaza Strip.
  • Other food security partners have reached 38,725 people so far since the beginning of the current crisis. Gaps and Constraints
  • Half of Gaza's bakeries and four of Gaza's six wheat mills are not operating due to difficulties in staff accessing these premises. Operating bakeries have wheat stocks for at least one week.
  • There is a lack of information about IDPs residing in private shelters.
  • The military ground incursion is both limiting access to food warehouses and making the regular emergency food distribution to over 1 million people extremely difficult.
  • Immediate emergency funding to address the food needs of the increasing IDP population and for fodder provision for 3,000 herders.

Education

Needs

  • Since the start of the emergency, 90 schools, including two in the Access Restricted Areas (ARA), have been damaged due to their proximity to targeted sites and need repairs.

Response

NTR

Gaps & Constraints

  • Access restrictions impede the ability to assess impact of hostilities on school infrastructure.

General Coordination

Today, the Emergency Operations Room (EOC) led by Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) in Ramallah held the first coordination meeting with the HCT-led EOC in Gaza via video link. This resulted in various arrangements to ensure proper communication and flow of information between the two EOCs, as well as a division of labor pertaining to data collection on needs and responses, and resource mobilization.

Funding

A number of bilateral contributions have already been received from donors who have provided funding for urgent needs in the most critical sectors. Based on initial cluster/sector analysis, it was estimated that US $ 40 million is needed for immediate assistance in Gaza, excluding UNRWA's requirements. A number of clusters have also made a preliminary estimate of a further US $87 million that is needed for medium term interventions once the security situation permits. These figures are currently under revision (due to the increase in needs on the ground) and an update will be shared tomorrow.

UNRWA has issued an emergency flash appeal – the initial ask of $60 million has been revised up to $115 million. The amount requested is intended to respond to the most pressing humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza, including the tens of thousands taking shelter in its facilities. New funding will enable UNRWA to respond to needs in shelter, food, health and psychosocial of internally displaced persons (IDPs), while replenishing emergency supplies and preparing for vital interventions necessary after a cessation of military activities.

The 2014 Strategic Response Plan (SRP) for the oPt has received US$ 170 million (43 per cent) out of a total request of US$ 390 million. Nearly 90 per cent of 1.9 million vulnerable people targeted in the SRP are in Gaza. Gaza-specific projects have received 32% of their requested funding. The HCT has undertaken an exercise to identify the most urgent SRP projects that if funded would help support the response in Gaza, as well as any new needs and a list was shared with donors today.

The Emergency Response Fund (ERF) is an additional mechanism available to fund interventions in Gaza through rapid and flexible support to affected civilian populations. The ERF has begun processing project applications in regards to the Gaza emergency. Thus far, two ACF project proposals, worth of US$ 368,624.2) to distribute NFI and water storage tanks to 1,475 households in Gaza, are being processed. A number of donors have come forward with expressions of interest or pledges for the ERF including Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland, as well as Italy, which is a new donor set to come on board. Further funding for the ERF is still being sought. The CERF is another existing pooled funding mechanism that can be mobilized.

Background to the crisis

On 7 July 2014, the Israeli army launched a large military operation in the Gaza Strip, codenamed "Protective Edge", with the stated objective of stopping Palestinian rocket firing at southern Israel and destroying the military infrastructure of Hamas and other armed groups.

This development marked the collapse of the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire understanding reached between Israel and Hamas in November 2012, which has been gradually undermined since December 2013. The latest escalation round started in early June, characterized by an intensification of Israeli airstrikes and rockets launched from Gaza at southern Israel. Tensions further increased following the abduction and killing of three Israeli youths in the southern West Bank, on 12 June, which the Israeli government attributed to Hamas. Overall, in the period leading up to the start of the current operation a total of 15 Palestinians, including one civilian, were killed, and another 58 others, mostly civilians, injured, as a result of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip; seven Israelis, five of whom were civilians, were injured due to rocket fire.

The current crisis comes against a backdrop of heightened vulnerability and instability. Unemployment increased dramatically since mid-2013, following a halt of the illegal tunnel trade, exacerbating the impact of the Israeli blockade in place since June 2007. Additionally, former de facto government employees, including the security forces, have not been paid salaries regularly since August 2013 and no salaries at all since April 2014. Delivery of basic services has been also undermined due to an ongoing energy crisis, involving power outages of 12 hours per day.

For further information, please contact:

Katleen Maes, Head of the humanitarian Emergency Operations Center in Gaza, nnaes@un.org, +972 59 291 1047

Yehezkel Lein, Head of Analysis, Communications and Protection Unit, OCHA oPt, lein@un.org, +972 54 331 1809

For media enquiries, please contact:

Hayat Abu-Saleh, Communications and Information Analyst, OCHA oPt, abusaleh@un.org, +972 (0) 54 3311816

For more information, please visit www.ochaopt.org

Endnotes

‘These figures do not include many reported cases that could not yet be verified. Data on fatalities and destruction of property is consolidated by the Protection and Shelter clusters based on preliminary information, and is subject to change based on further verifications.

2Data on injuries is provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.


Document symbol: OchaGazaSitRpt_230714
Download Document Files: https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/OchaGazaSitRpt_230714.pdf
Document Type: Situation Report, Update
Document Sources: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Subject: Access and movement, Armed conflict, Casualties, Children, Closures/Curfews/Blockades, Extrajudicial killings, Food, Gaza Strip, Health, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Humanitarian relief, Internally displaced persons, Living conditions, Poverty, Protection, Refugees and displaced persons, Security issues, Shelter, Water, Women
Publication Date: 23/07/2014