The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says critical aid lifelines to northern Gaza have been cut off, with no food or other essential supplies entering since October 1. The main crossings into the area remain closed, while the more than 400,000 people who remain there are under increasing pressure to flee southwards in response to Israeli evacuation orders.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been distributing its last remaining food stocks in northern Gaza to partners and kitchens sheltering newly displaced families. However, this is barely enough to last two weeks.
“Many of those kitchens, distribution points and bakeries were either forced to shut down, and others are at risk of shutting down if the conflict continues at this scale. The situation is at breaking point, as well, in the South of Gaza,” said Farhan Haq, UN spokesman, briefing reporters on Friday.
“There are no food distributions, and bakeries are struggling to secure wheat flour, which puts them at risk of shutting down any day,“ he said, adding that aid entering Gaza is at its lowest level in months.
According to OCHA, the intense fighting is preventing thousands of people from moving to safer areas and restricting access for aid workers. With hostilities particularly intense in the Jabalya refugee camp, people there remain largely stranded, with limited access to water or food.
The international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Friday that thousands of people are trapped in Jabalia camp as Israeli forces attack the area, without access to food and basic services. MSF said Israeli forces issued evacuation orders in Jabalia camp on October 7 while carrying out attacks, preventing people from safely leaving the area.
The UN humanitarian office stresses that civilians in Gaza must be protected, and those who leave must have enough time to do so, a safe route and a safe place to go. They must also have their basic needs met, whether they move or stay. OCHA reiterated its call on all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including by exercising constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects.
Haq said that despite the challenges, humanitarian agencies are responding to the best of their ability. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are distributing bread, ready-to-eat or cooked meals, and flour inside and outside designated shelters.
On October 6, Israel issued new mass displacement orders for the remaining Palestinians in northern Gaza, ordering them to leave to the south. OCHA warns that most of the displacement is now taking place in the north, where there are no tents available to support newly displaced families.
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have intensified their military operation in northern Gaza over the past week. Sudden displacement orders in northern Gaza are once again forcing tens of thousands of civilians onto the streets.
“Over the last week, the Israeli military has intensified operations in north Gaza, further severing the area from the rest of the Gaza Strip and risking afresh the lives of civilians in the area,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Friday.
“Intense strikes, shelling, quadcopter shootings and ground incursions have occurred over the past days, hitting residential buildings and groups of people, causing numerous casualties and once again, mass displacement of Palestinians in the area,” she added, noting that attacks on hospitals also continue.
“While the Israeli military continues to order Palestinians in North Gaza to leave, many are trapped and cannot safely move. Our Office has received reports that those most vulnerable, including people with disabilities and their families, are especially struggling to evacuate,” Shamdasani said.
Recent developments in the north have forced the suspension of protection services and the closure of malnutrition treatment and health services.
“We are greatly concerned about the safety of patients and the health workers amid these intensifying hostilities and the current evacuation orders covering Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the occupied Palestinian territories, briefing reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.
“We had three missions planned over the last week” to assist in the transfer of “critical nonwalking patients from these hospitals,” he said, adding that “none have been successful.”
He said the mission to Kamal-Adwan hospital was impeded after delays at the checkpoint, and a mission to resupply As-Sahaba hospital with fuel, blood units and medical supplies was denied on October 9 and impeded on October 10.
At the same time Kamal Adwan Hospital is seeing an influx of trauma injuries.
“Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda remain partially functional but are struggling due to shortage of supplies, including blood, trauma disposables and medications for patients with noncommunicable diseases and fuel,” he said, adding that Indonesian Hospital “is no longer able to provide services and accommodate patients.”
On Wednesday, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of Kamal Adwan Hospital, the largest operating hospital in north Gaza, within 24 hours - affecting hundreds of wounded, other patients and medical staff, as well as residents who rely on the hospital.
The WHO recorded 18 attacks on health facilities since September 17, resulting in 72 deaths and 40 injuries to health workers. It reported that 96 primary health care centers and health facilities in the south were forced to close due to increased hostilities.
Five hospitals were reported to be non-functional "due to physical or infrastructural damage, and four hospitals were partially evacuated, requiring the transfer of patients," the WHO said.
Amid this chaos, confusion and numerous challenges, UNICEF and WHO officials said, the second round of emergency polio vaccinations is scheduled to take place in Gaza on Monday. An estimated 591,700 children were successfully vaccinated against the crippling disease in the first round, which took place from September 1 to 12.
Like the first round, the second round will consist of three phases, each with three campaign days and one catch-up day in central, southern and northern Gaza.
“Local teams will be deployed in areas that need special coordination to reach children, including those who could not receive vaccines in the first round. It is critical they are reached,” Peeperkorn
Meanwhile, the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip continues in all parts of the territory. The Gaza Health Ministry reports that more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians, many of them women and children, and more than 98,000 injured since Israel began its war in the Palestinian enclave a year ago.
Among the dead are at least 307 aid workers, 229 UN staff, 986 health workers and 167 journalists. More than 10,000 people - including thousands of children - are missing and presumed dead. In total, Israel's air and ground operations in Gaza since October 7 last year have killed, wounded or left missing 150,000 people, more than 7 percent of Gaza's population.
Nearly all of those who have survived are displaced, trapped in ever smaller parts of the tiny territory, confined to overcrowded camps and shelters with nowhere to flee. Relentless bombing has turned so-called "humanitarian zones" into killing fields. Nowhere in Gaza is safe for civilians. More than a year into the war in Gaza, the humanitarian situation remains catastrophic. Israel's full-scale war and blockade have devastated Gaza, and cut off access to desperately needed food, water and medicine.
Since October 2023, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Gaza, with people dying from widespread attacks, disease and starvation, and the threat of famine looming. Israeli bombardment from the air, land and sea continues to be reported throughout the territory, resulting in further civilian deaths, injuries, maiming, displacement and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Some 1.9 million people - 90 percent of Gaza's total population - have been displaced by Israeli military attacks or Israeli evacuation orders, including people who have been forced to flee more than a dozen times. At least 1 million children are among those uprooted by the war.
According to human rights experts and humanitarian organizations, the forcible transfer of Palestinian civilians in Gaza is a serious violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) and does not qualify as a permissible evacuation under the rules of war.
Evacuees must have the means and sufficient time, a safe route and a safe place to go. They must also have their basic needs met and have unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance as they move and in the place to which they are evacuated. None of these essential requirements are being met in Gaza, as Israel has failed to meet its legal obligations for more than a year.
Earlier this week, leading international aid organizations called for the protection of all civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law. They expressed particular concern for children, pregnant women with complications or in advanced stages of pregnancy, and others who are sick, elderly, have disabilities, or are otherwise unable to leave.
“Civilians who do not leave the area do not lose their right to protection. Under international humanitarian law, Israel is defined as the occupying power and a party to the conflict. Both roles carry obligations to guarantee the protection of the civilian population and facilitate their unhindered access to humanitarian aid,” the non-governmental organizations said.