As Israel’s latest military assault escalates, the situation in the Gaza Strip, where a man-made famine has been confirmed, continues to deteriorate, with more than two million civilians facing a humanitarian catastrophe. Earlier this week, Israel ordered hundreds of thousands of civilians to evacuate Gaza City. With no safe place to turn, they have few options but to flee to overcrowded, unsafe areas or risk being caught in the crossfire.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that nearly one million people in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, are facing daily bombardment and restricted access to the means to survive after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the entire city.
OCHA warns that, as the Israeli offensive on famine-stricken Gaza City intensifies, people are being displaced once again. Heavy military strikes continue to hit buildings, houses and tents across the area, further adding to the already devastating toll on civilians.
In a joint statement on Friday, 45 humanitarian and civil society organizations warned that Israel’s assault on Gaza City amounts to a death sentence. They stated that civilians are facing a choice between death on the road or in overcrowded, unsafe displacement areas, or staying and facing relentless bombardment in their shelters, with starvation and siege awaiting them either way.
Israeli offensive threatens survival of hundreds of thousands
On Friday, Olga Cherevko, the OCHA spokesperson in Gaza, briefed journalists at the UN Headquarters in New York from Deir al Balah. She described the current situation also as a 'death sentence' for Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have been ordered to leave their homes.
„Hundreds of thousands of battered, exhausted and terrified civilians were ordered to flee to an area already so overcrowded that even small animals must search for spaces to squeeze between to move around,“ she said.
„Where hospitals house patients in the halls and balconies, as clean water, nutritious food and life are no longer basic rights, but commodities so rare, that most only dream of having them one day. If they survive the bombings, that is.“
People in Gaza are dying not only from Israeli bombs and bullets, but also from a lack of food, clean water and shelter, and from hospitals without power or medicine, as the latest Israeli offensive threatens the survival of what remains of the health system.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost half of all functional hospitals and half of all Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds are located in Gaza City. With the offensive already underway in the area, WHO says that the Gaza Strip cannot afford to lose any of these remaining facilities.
The conflict in Gaza has resulted in the displacement of over 1.9 million people, many of whom have been forced to flee dozens of times as fighting continues.
„The unmistakable smell of death is everywhere – a grizzly reminder that the ruins lining the streets hide the remains of mothers, fathers, children. Humans who once laughed, cried, dreamed. Their lives cut short by the war’s killing machines, many to never be found again,“ Cherevko said.
„On our way back into Gaza yesterday, we drove down barely passable roads, as people crowded around our convoy, visibly distraught, pleading for this horror to end.“
Shocking death toll keeps mounting
According to health officials in Gaza, Israeli forces have killed over 64,600 Palestinians, most of whom were children, women and elderly people, and injured more than 163,000 others in attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
However, the true death toll is expected to be much higher. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble. It is also estimated that thousands have died from indirect causes, including starvation, lack of medical care, dehydration and lack of shelter.
“Dignity and hope have been stripped away, with every killing of a loved one, every strike on a civilian lifeline, every denial of access,“ the OCHA spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the number of casualties among people trying to access aid supplies has surged to nearly 2,500 fatalities and about 18,000 people injured since the establishment of the militarized supply sites system in the Gaza Strip on May 27. Most of deaths and injuries have been near militarized supply sites and more than 1,000 along convoy supply routes.
According to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), the majority of deaths and injuries among those seeking aid supplies are among younger men and older boys, with most reportedly resulting from Israeli live fire.
Famine-related deaths and child malnutrition rates continue to rise
At the same time, hunger-related deaths are mounting. According to officials in Gaza, more than 400 deaths related to malnutrition, including over 140 children, have been documented since October 2023. However, the true death toll due to the ongoing famine is expected to be much higher.
On Thursday, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip is deteriorating at an alarming rate. The latest evidence shows that a record proportion of children screened were identified as acutely malnourished last month.
According to the latest figures from aid agencies, 12,800 children were identified as acutely malnourished in August – 13.5 per cent of those screened, up from 8.3 per cent in July.
The proportion of children admitted for treatment suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), the deadliest form, has risen sharply since the beginning of the year. In August, 23 percent of children admitted for treatment were suffering from SAM, compared to 12 percent six months earlier.
OCHA’s Cherevko stressed that life-supporting systems have been systematically dismantled and destroyed.
“Parents struggle to shield their children from violence, from hunger, from fear. Fleeing families flood the street, clutching their children in their arms, not knowing where they will go as every option appears to have been exhausted,“ she said.
„The race against time, against death, against the spread of famine, feels like we as humanitarians are running through quicksand.“
At the same time, aid workers are hindered in their efforts by denial, delay or obstruction of humanitarian convoys from Israeli authorities. Israel continues to deliberately obstruct humanitarian operations and to impede humanitarian movements inside Gaza.
Despite the ongoing horror, Cherevko expressed respect for the resilience of the Palestinian people.
"Yet, even in such hardship, humanity shines," she said, highlighting the efforts of Palestinian doctors, nurses, and paramedics, working around the clock, often without pay, medicine or electricity,” she said.
„Aid workers, from UN agencies, the Red Crescent, local and international NGOs, delivering food, medicine and clean water under fire. Ordinary people sharing the little they have with strangers.“
Aid workers are risking their lives for humanitarian causes in Gaza, which remains the deadliest place in the world for humanitarian workers. Since October 2023, an unprecedented number of 540 aid workers, including 373 UN staff, have been killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
Cherevko said she was often asked if she had any hope left.
„Hope may be all we have left, so we must nurture it. Because the silence of fatigue must not drown out the voices of those enduring this nightmare,” she said.
But, the OCHA spokesperson cautioned that hope alone will not be enough to save lives
„Urgent decisions are needed that must pave the way to a lasting peace before it’s too late. Voices that can silence the bombs. Actions that will stop the bloodshed. An immediate and sustained ceasefire,“ Cherevko added.
„Protection of all civilians, wherever they are in Gaza. Unfettered humanitarian access, including to the north, with aid flowing through all crossings, and via all corridors.“
The world will be judged by history
According to international and Israeli human rights organizations, human rights experts, UN commissions, and the worlds' leading genocide scholars, Israel's actions in Gaza, including the blockade and obstruction of humanitarian aid, not only meet the legal definition of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but also amount to genocide against Gaza's population.
Their findings conclude that the Israeli government is deliberately inflicting living conditions intended to destroy a group or part of a group, as defined in the Genocide Convention. Genocide is widely regarded as one of the most serious international crimes, alongside war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
At the same time, Israel's assault on Gaza continues to be marked by grave war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated with impunity by Israeli military personnel and government officials.
These crimes include using starvation as a method of warfare, denying humanitarian aid, collectively punishing civilians, carrying out indiscriminate attacks, targeting civilians, aid workers, and journalists, deliberately attacking civilian objects and undefended buildings, forcibly transferring people, torturing individuals, and forcibly disappearing people.
On Monday, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk denounced Israel’s commission of “war crime upon war crime” and expressed his horror at the “open use of genocidal rhetoric” by senior Israeli officials.
In a speech before the UN Human Rights Council, Türk condemned the mass killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians, as well as the obstruction of lifesaving aid. He decried the international community's lack of action and asked: “Where are the decisive steps to prevent genocide?”
He urged countries to take action, calling for an end to the flow of arms to Israel that risk violating the laws of war.
Regarding accountability, Cherevko said on Friday, „laws of war are not optional, and their violations must be investigated and addressed, for the sake of justice and to prevent setting a dangerous precedent.“
She stressed that the international community must match words with action, as humanity demands.
„The people of Gaza are not asking for charity. They are asking for their right to live in safety, in dignity, in peace. And our humanity - yours, mine, all of ours – demands that we act now,“ she concluded.
„History will judge us not by the speeches we make, but by our actions. When Gaza burned, children starved, hospitals collapsed – did you act?“