As the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza enters its 10th month, NGOs are once again sounding the alarm. The Palestinians, who have been displaced several times in the enclave on the Israeli army’s orders, are crammed into overcrowded areas where humanitarian aid can no longer get through.
As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its tenth month, vast military operations are being carried out in Gaza, making the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave inexorably worse.
The conflict has displaced over 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people. In Gaza City where 300,000 to 350,000 people are crowded together, according to the UN, Israel has intensified military operations in various neighbourhoods and issued multiple evacuation orders.
A leaflet seen by an AFP correspondent reads: "To all those present in Gaza City, the safe passages will allow you to pass quickly and without inspection from Gaza City to shelters in Deir Al-Balah and Al-Zawiya [in central Gaza]." "Gaza City will turn into a dangerous battlefield," continues the leaflet.
But where can Gazans evacuate to? "Since October, there hasn’t been a place in Gaza that is completely safe. As a reminder, even in the southern part of the enclave, which was supposed to be secure by the end of 2023, the mortality rate was already at 30%. So the situation remains dramatic," says Jean-François Corty, a humanitarian doctor and president of the NGO Doctors of the World. "This civilian population is living in an open-air prison, because Gaza is 40 kilometres long and eight kilometres wide, and is completely closed off."
Gaza City, which was home to a quarter of the Palestinian enclave's inhabitants before October 7, was almost completely destroyed during the first weeks of fighting in 2023. In recent months, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to their ruined homes in the wake of various Israeli evacuation orders. "Now people have to cram into tiny areas, tiny alleys and tiny camps that are so overcrowded that people are now sleeping under the stars. They don't know where to go, they're heading into the unknown," says Ahmed Bayram, media adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). "The situation when people arrive is appalling. In the areas where we are supplying water, for example, there is an extreme fuel shortage. We are only supplying half the amount of clean water that we did last week. The situation is not improving. On the contrary, the situation is getting much worse for everyone in the region."
Many residents refuse to comply with the evacuation orders. Testimonies are pouring in on social media. "We will die but we won't go south. We have endured starvation and bombs for nine months and we are ready to die as martyrs here," wrote Mohammad Ali, 30, in a text message to Reuters.
‘Malnutrition is on the rise’
The few humanitarian organisations still present on the ground describe situations never seen before in armed conflicts, including a lack of food, water and medicine. "We're under constant pressure for medical supplies because not much is getting into Gaza. Humanitarian aid is disproportionately low. And another worrying factor is that malnutrition is on the rise," says Corty, whose NGO has around 50 people still working there. "This malnutrition correlates with the UN’s July 9 report: the Israeli army's sea, air and land blockade, plus the bombings, are causing an intentional famine that has all the hallmarks of a genocide. So the situation is absolutely atrocious."
Read more‘More than 186,000 dead’ in Gaza: How credible are the estimates published on The Lancet?
In the hospitals that are still operational, the injured are being treated on the ground, using whatever resources are available. "There are still five or six hospitals that are saturated with patients, have run out of everything and are therefore providing substandard medicine," says Corty. Chronic illnesses, even when detected, cannot be treated. "Health services collapsed a long time ago. People are once again having to make do with what they have, with the little equipment and very few medicines they have,'' says Bayram.
Delivering humanitarian aid has become almost impossible. "Food is dwindling in quality and quantity. There are only 10 foodstuffs," says Bayram. "Up until last week, you could only find aubergines, onions and tomatoes on the market. Other foodstuffs are also running out. But food is the absolute priority at the moment."
A trickle of humanitarian aid
Already under Israeli blockade since 2007, very few goods enter Gaza. Since early May and the closure of the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, Kerem Shalom has become the main gateway for supplies to the Gaza Strip. Some 250 trucks pass through daily, according to Cogat, the Israeli Ministry of Defence body overseeing civilian affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This is far less than the 500 trucks a day before the war.
"The international community’s silence is astounding," says Corty. "The United States's humanitarian communication is ineffectual. It tells us that a jetty with a humanitarian corridor is supposed to bring in boats from Cyprus. But it is not working. There are passages to the south, notably at Rafah, where thousands of trucks are pre-positioned. It is closed on the Egyptian side. There is a small crossing that has opened up to the west, notably to the northern part of the Gaza Strip, which is relatively functional. But in June, for example, 80 trucks came in out of the 500 to 1,000 needed every day to support Gaza’s 2 million inhabitants. And of the few trucks coming in every day, half are empty." US President Joe Biden voiced dissatisfaction on Thursday over failures in providing aid to Gaza through the makeshift humanitarian corridor, which US authorities say will be permanently decommissioned. Since its installation in mid-May, the $230-million military pier has been beset by rough seas and onshore distribution problems, leading to repeated operational obstacles.
Read moreUrbicide: ‘Even if Israel stops bombing Gaza tomorrow, it will be impossible to live there'
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Israel is not issuing permits quickly enough to allow convoys to reach certain areas inside the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, only a few shipments enter and most come from the private sector, which is not affected by the crisis. According to the NRC, a box of eggs costs €30, baby formula costs €17 and shampoo goes for €24. Lacking money, the poorest of the poor trade what they can for clothes or jewellery. "Today, transfers from the private sector are more effective than humanitarian organisations," Shimi Zuaretz, a spokesman for Cogat, told AFP.
The Palestinians are deprived of "essential means of life", according to the NRC. "There is a real militarisation of food, which should never be the case in a conflict zone, because these people have nothing to do with any of this," says Bayram. "These people are facing famine."
"Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since 7 October, the majority being children," announced 10 independent UN experts on July 9 (though not speaking on the UN’s behalf), accusing Israel of conducting a "targeted famine campaign".
"This famine is intentional and has all the hallmarks of genocide," says Corty. "These are the words being used by the United Nations, and they are in line with what the International Court of Justice said in April when it spoke of an 'increased risk of genocide in Gaza'. And yet the international community today remains silent."
Israel entirely rejects these accusations, placing the blame on Hamas, which they accuse of "intentionally stealing and concealing aid from civilians". "Since the beginning of the war, more than 565,000 tonnes of food have entered Gaza," said the Israeli mission to the UN in Geneva after the publication of the independent experts' communiqué.
‘We need a ceasefire now’
The security situation has become untenable for humanitarian aid workers on the ground. "The two biggest risks are obviously on the Israeli side," says Bayram. "The aid routes are not secure, and law and order inside the country have totally collapsed. We have seen criminal elements on the road, of course there is a state of desperation. Trucks have been attacked. But Israel must provide these guarantees to humanitarian workers so that they can travel safely along these aid routes, as in all other conflicts. Nothing will be safe while hostilities rage."
US-backed talks resumed on Wednesday in Egypt and Qatar. This time, Hamas has conceded that it will not make an end to Israeli military operations a precondition for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. "We need a ceasefire now," concludes Bayram. "For the sake of the population, for the sake of the hostages. None of this helps either side. We hope that the next round of negotiations will be successful."
This article has been translated from the original in French.
