At least 300,000 displaced in Gaza amid blackout, Israeli bombardment

The situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate as the health sector collapses and bodies begin piling up in front of hospitals.

Three days into the Israeli siege and bombardment, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is quickly worsening, with the death toll now over 1,400 and the number of displaced surpassing 300,000.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described the Hamas-Israeli escalation as “abhorrent.”

“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement on Thursday.

Meanwhile, more than 650,000 people have been affected by water shortages resulting from Israeli actions, according to the United Nations.

“Israeli airstrikes have also damaged seven facilities that had been providing water and sanitation services to over 1,100,000 people,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press release on Wednesday.

OCHA added that 1,000 housing units have been destroyed in the airstrikes, displacing more than 300,000 people, more than 10% of the population.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said in a Wednesday statement that it is seeking $104 million “to cover the urgent immediate food, non-food, health, shelter and protection needs” of the affected people.

The total number of displaced people “increased by 30 percent over the past 24 hours, now totaling 338,934, of whom over two thirds are taking shelter in UNRWA schools,” the agency said.

بعد امتلاء الثلاجات داخل المستشفى.. وضع جثامين الشـهداء أمام مستشفى الشفاء في #غزة مع استمرار القصف الإسرائيلي العنيف على القطاع#عملية_طوفان_الأقصى pic.twitter.com/NIqR29W1vE
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) October 12, 2023

Rights groups are sounding the alarm about the catastrophic humanitarian situation after Israel imposed a total blockade on the already besieged enclave on Sunday, cutting off power and water supplies and banning the entry of goods.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Israel’s blockade, imposed in response to Hamas’ surprise attack on Saturday, “a form of collective punishment.”

“These moves risk exacerbating the situation in Gaza, where conditions were already dire after 16 years of crushing restrictions,” HRW said in a report released Wednesday.

Gaza’s sole power plant shut down on Wednesday, after running out of fuel, adding to Gazans’ overall burden and straining the already fragile health sector in the territory.

An official from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza told reporters on Thursday that the enclave’s health sector has already collapsed due to the lack of supplies and the power blackout.

He said that intensive care units and operating rooms across Gaza had reached capacity, unable to treat more of the injured. “Hundreds of the injured are now laying in the corridors of all of Gaza’s hospitals,” the unidentified official said.

More than 1,417 people, including 447 children and 248 women, have been killed and another 6,268 injured since Israel began a bombing campaign of Gaza on Saturday, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

With the morgue filled to capacity, the bodies of the dead have begun to pile up in front of Al-Shifa, Gaza’s main and largest hospital.

Rafah crossing active

Egypt has urged all countries to send urgently needed relief assistance to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing.

In a statement on Thursday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced, “The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is open for business and has not been closed at any stage since the start of the current crisis.”

It further noted that El-Arish International Airport, in North Sinai, has been designated to receive international aid bound for Gaza.

Later in the day, Jordan dispatched its first tranche of aid to Gaza, according to the official Petra news agency. The planeload of medical supplies, for delivery via Rafah, was organized by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry and the Jordanian army in coordination with Egyptian authorities.

Nonetheless, concerns remained that the delivery of assistance might be impeded by Israel’s continued bombardment of the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, and the crossing from the Palestinian side.

In a separate statement on Thursday, the UN refugee agency also called for the need to protect civilians at all times after confirming the death of 12 of its staffers in Gaza since Saturday.