Humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza rages on as Israel widens war in Lebanon

Nearly a year into the war in Gaza, the humanitarian situation remains catastrophic. Israel's all-out war and blockade have devastated Gaza, displaced 1.9 million people who have been repeatedly forced into ever smaller areas, and cut off access to desperately needed food, water and medicine. Meanwhile, another humanitarian disaster looms in the region as Israeli security forces escalate their war against Lebanon.

For more than eleven months, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Gaza, with people dying from widespread attacks and starvation, and the threat of famine looming. Leading UN officials have called the situation in Gaza "apocalyptic," "hell on earth," "beyond catastrophic," and said that the humanitarian community is "running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza."

According to Gaza health officials, more than 41,700 Palestinians in the territory - most of them civilians, including women, children, the elderly, and in some cases entire families - have been killed, and more than 96,700 injured or maimed.

An estimated one-quarter of the injured in Gaza, or some 22,500 people, will require lifelong specialized rehabilitation and supportive care, including those with severe limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord damage, traumatic brain injuries and severe burns.

With thousands of bodies still unaccounted for, the actual death toll is likely to be much higher. More than 10,000 others are feared buried under the rubble in Gaza and are presumed dead.

Among the dead are at least 304 aid workers, 226 UN staff, 986 health workers and 174 journalists. More than 10,000 people - including thousands of children - are reported 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 nearly 150,000 people, more than 7 percent of Gaza's population.

“Since last October, Israel has conducted in Gaza the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years as Secretary-General. The suffering endured by the Palestinian people in Gaza is beyond imagination,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

“It is high time for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, the effective delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and irreversible progress to a two-State solution,” he said.

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 dozens of times. Among those uprooted by the war are at least 1 million children, including some 17,000 unaccompanied or separated boys and girls.

Meanwhile, 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.

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) today called on the Israeli military to immediately end the pattern of attacks in Gaza on buildings that serve as shelters for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Such attacks have become an almost daily occurrence. In the last 72 hours alone, at least 6 schools serving as shelters for IDPs have been attacked, resulting in dozens of deaths, including children and women. In addition, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Israeli military reportedly struck the Al Amal Institute for Orphans, which was also serving as an IDP shelter in west Gaza City, killing at least 6 Palestinians.

In September alone, OHCHR documented at least 14 schools in Gaza attacked by the Israeli military, and in August, one school was attacked every other day.

“Irrespective of whether Palestinian armed groups were present in these facilities, the resulting high rate of civilian casualties makes it difficult to conceive that such strikes are proportionate according to the principles of international humanitarian law,” the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement on Thursday.

“These attacks have long-term impacts on the civilian population, destroying the only viable shelters remaining for the more than one million Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced into an unsafe, unilaterally declared ‘humanitarian zone’ where there is little or no access to life-saving essential humanitarian assistance.”

Israel, as the occupying power, must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law to guarantee the provision of food, medical care and shelter to the people of Gaza, as ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but the Israeli government is failing to do so.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), more than 1 million people in Gaza went without food rations in August. By September, the number had risen to more than 1.4 million. At the same time, more than 100,000 tons of food are stranded outside Gaza due to access restrictions, insecurity, damaged roads, and the breakdown of law and order.

In September, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reached some 688,000 people in Gaza, well below the usual number of people reached by the UN agency, due to Israeli-imposed bureaucratic hurdles, lack of security guarantees inside Gaza, inadequate border crossings, and the risk of criminal gangs looting humanitarian convoys in southern Gaza.

Israeli forces have carried out widespread and systematic attacks on Gaza's health system and other critical civilian infrastructure. The health system is on the verge of collapse. Currently, only 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals and 56 of its 131 primary health care facilities are partially operational and able to receive new patients, although services are limited.

According to the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, MSF), Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from war wounds, infectious diseases, malnutrition and psychological trauma while living in overcrowded and inhumane conditions.  Since the escalation of the war last October, MSF teams have treated more than 27,500 patients for violence-related injuries, with more than 80 percent of wounds related to shelling.

“This has been a year of unrelenting horror and violence against civilians, with no end in sight,” said Avril Benoît, chief executive officer of MSF USA, in a statement Wednesday.

“As this conflict spreads across the region, we repeat our urgent call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This is the only way to stop the spiraling violence and bring lifesaving care to people who are struggling to survive.”

MSF medical staff have been treating patients with bomb wounds on a daily basis. People have extensive burns, shattered bones and amputated limbs - all of which require intensive and long-term care, which is not possible under the current conditions.

“Israeli bombardments of densely populated areas have repeatedly caused injuries on a massive scale,” said Amber Alayyan, MSF medical program manager.

“Our teams have been forced to perform surgeries without anesthesia, witness children die on hospital floors due to a lack of resources, and even treat their own colleagues and family members. Meanwhile, the health care system in Gaza has been systematically dismantled by Israeli forces.”

Lebanon war

Since September 23, Israel has intensified and expanded its indiscriminate and large-scale aerial bombardment of Lebanon, reportedly killing more than 1,300 people and injuring more than 6,000. Israeli forces have carried out relentless airstrikes throughout Lebanon, including Beirut. On October 1, Israel began "limited ground incursions" into southern Lebanon.

Since October 2023, more than 1,900 people have been killed in Lebanon - including more than 100 children and 200 women - and more than 9,000 wounded. An estimated one million people have been forcibly displaced.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the ongoing hostilities continue to take a devastating toll on civilians and civilian infrastructure. OCHA notes that more than 346,000 people have been confirmed displaced. According to the Lebanese authorities, the number of people who have fled to Syria now exceeds 300,000, including Syrian and Lebanese nationals.

Amid growing fears of all-out war in the Middle East following the escalation and exchange of hostilities in recent days, UN Secretary-General Guterres on Wednesday reiterated his pleas for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon and an end to violence in the region during the emergency meeting of the Security Council.

“The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno,” warned Guterres, who briefed the 15-member body on the alarming situation exactly one week ago.

He deplored the escalating tensions along the Blue Line, a demarcation line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights, and the repeated violations of Council Resolution 1701 (2006), with almost daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and other non-state armed groups in Lebanon and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), stressing that “Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected”.

Following the weeks-long war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, which caused widespread destruction throughout Lebanon, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701. In it, the Council established a buffer zone between the Blue Line in southern Lebanon and the Litani River in Israel.

Among other things, Resolution 1701 called on both Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent cease-fire and a comprehensive solution to the crisis.

“This deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop,” Guterres said.  Underscoring that “civilians are paying a terrible price”, he urged the international community to fully fund the UN’s humanitarian appeal.

On Tuesday, the UN and humanitarian partners, together with the Government of Lebanon, launched a Flash Appeal to address the rapidly escalating humanitarian needs in the country. The US$426 million appeal aims to provide humanitarian assistance to 1 million people over the next three months.