Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | OCHA Flash Update #12

KEY POINTS

• Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mr. Martin Griffiths briefed the Security Council today, stressing the need for humanitarian actors to be able to “deliver relief to civilians in need throughout Gaza, without impediment, in places of their choice, in places where they consider themselves to be safe and where we can seek to ensure that safety.”
• On the evening of 17 October, 471 people, including children, health care staff, and Internally Displaced People (IDPs), were killed in an explosion at Al Ahli Arab/Baptist hospital in Gaza city, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza. This was the deadliest incident in Gaza since hostilities escalated. In the wake of this incident, the UN Secretary-General called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
• The cumulative fatality toll in the Gaza Strip is 3,478 as of 17:00 (18 October), including at least 853 children (as of 17 October), according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Hundreds of additional fatalities are believed to be trapped under the rubble.
• The number of IDPs in Gaza is estimated at about one million, including over 353,000 people staying in UNRWA schools in central and southern Gaza alone, in increasingly dire conditions.
• The complete siege of Gaza continues. The Rafah Crossing has remained closed, preventing the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid, including food, water and medicines awaiting on the Egyptian side. The Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings with Israel also remain closed.
• The average water consumption for all needs (drinking, cooking and hygiene) is currently estimated at three litres per day per person in Gaza. People consume more and more water from unsafe sources, risking death and placing the population at risk of infectious disease outbreak.
• The Palestinian armed groups’ indiscriminate rocket firing towards Israeli population centres continued, with no new Israeli fatalities reported (as of 21:00 on 18 October). Overall, about 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel, according to Israeli authorities, the vast majority on 7 October.
• At least 199 people are held captive in Gaza, including Israelis and foreign nationals. At the Emergency Briefing to the Security Council, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, Mr. Tor Wennesland, stated: “We need the time and space to achieve two urgent objectives: Hamas’ immediate, unconditional release of all hostages; secondly, and fast, unrestricted access of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.”
• In the West Bank, since the afternoon of 17 October, Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians during protests following the explosion at Al Ahli hospital in Gaza. This has brought the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers since 7 October to 64, including 18 children. Confrontations in the same context, between Palestinian protestors and Palestinian security forces, resulted in the killing of one child.
• At least 74 Palestinian households, comprising 545 people, over half of whom are children, have been displaced from 13 herding/Bedouin communities in Area C of the West Bank since 7 October, amid intensified settler violence and access restrictions.