Latest UN report from Gaza Strip and Israel January 2024

Photo by UNICEF/El Baba, 11 January 2024

Source: OCHA

"None of the children has winter clothes. Four of us are sharing a single mattress… The little one sleeps in his carrier... They are all with diarrhea … It's cold… Hatem has a cough. Their skin is peeling…" Mena, a single mother staying with her four children, including two with disabilities, in a makeshift tent in Al Quds Open University, Gaza.

Key points

- Intense Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea continued across much of the Gaza Strip on 19 January, resulting in further civilian casualties and displacement, as well as destruction. The indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups from Gaza continued. Ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups were also reported across much of Gaza. On 17 January, the UN Secretary-General repeated his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

- Between the afternoons of 18 and 19 January, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 142 Palestinians were killed, and another 278 people were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 12:00 on 19 January 2024, at least 24,762 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 62,108 Palestinians were injured, according to the MoH.

- As of 19 January, telecommunication services in Gaza have remained shut down since 12 January. In light of this, new information is limited in this Flash Update. This is the sevnth time that communications have stopped working since 7 October, and is the longest blackout recorded to date. The blackout of telecommunications prevents people in Gaza from accessing lifesaving information or calling for first responders and impedes other forms of humanitarian response.

- The availability of water for drinking and domestic use in Gaza is shrinking each day. At present, only one of the three Israeli lines is functional, yielding less than half (22,000 cubic metres a day) of what would have been available if all lines were working....

- Reporting that cases of Hepatitis A have been confirmed in Gaza through test kits supplied by his organization, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus warned that "inhumane living conditions - barely any clean water, clean toilets and possibility to keep the surroundings clean - will enable Hepatitis A to spread further ... The capacity to diagnose diseases remains extremely limited. There is no functioning laboratory. The capacity to respond remains limited too. We will continue to call for unimpeded and safe access of medical aid and for health to be protected."

To read on see: www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-97