The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has deteriorated to unprecedented and catastrophic levels as the genocide persists in the besieged Gaza Strip. Israel continues to use starvation and dehydration of civilians as a weapon of war to forcibly displace them from their neighborhoods and depopulate entire squares under threat, particularly in the northern Gaza Strip. Civilians there have been displaced after being left with no food or medicine and facing death without hospitals to treat them as directed attacks and recurrent raids on hospitals continue to empty them from patients and medical personnel.
Earlier on Friday, 06 December, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) ordered the evacuation of patients and medical personnel from Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip under non-stop bombardment on the Hospital and its proximity. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyah stated to the media that the Israeli military vehicles and warplanes targeted the hospital, killing 4 of its staff while tightening the siege on it and giving evacuation orders to patients and their companions as well as forcing the Indonesian medical delegation to leave via a checkpoint established by IOF near the hospital. Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that it has no indication that a warning was issued before Israel’s bombing of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital.
Amid all this, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) expresses disappointment at the continuous the international community’s silence towards Israel’s crimes and their inaction towards the atrocities and crime of genocide committed against civilians. Despite the International Criminal Court’s historic decision that has revived hopes for thousands of innocent victims to hold the Israeli leaders accountable and issue arrest warrants against them, the Israeli crimes have drastically escalated to unprecedented levels intending to inflict physical and mental destruction to the Palestinians by imposing dire life conditions including denial and restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries, continuous destruction of residential neighborhoods, forced displacement and mass killing of civilians even in shelters, and targeting and killing relief workers while on their humanitarian duty. All of this has proven Israel’s disregard for all UN agencies’ calls and pleas and its non-compliance with the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures and UN Security Council Resolutions.
According to its field documentation, PCHR emphasizes that the Gaza Strip population lives through constant fear and worry for their lives amid the devastating humanitarian conditions particularly after many humanitarian organizations had ceased their operations while indications of unprecedented famine crisis unfolded across the entire Gaza Strip. Moreover, IDPs’ economic and social conditions have drastically deteriorated enduring the harshest living conditions in tents and displacement camps amid the rainy bitter cold weather.
Despite repeated warnings by independent famine experts several months ago declaring Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza, where relief efforts remain paralyzed, and the entry of food aid is stifled, plunging the Gaza Strip into an unprecedented hunger crisis. In northern Gaza, IOF continues to besiege and starve civilians amid its ongoing military operations to forcibly displace and ethnically cleanse the residents in blatant disregard for global warnings. PCHR has documented harrowing testimonies exposing the dire conditions endured by the besieged residents in these areas and forcing most to flee under the threat of death and starvation.
In blatant defiance of international appeals, the siege on civilians in central and southern Gaza has been tightened, with the entry of food and medicine severely restricted to levels insufficient for their survival. According to UN bodies, IOF continue to ban commercial imports into these areas overcrowded with displaced people and has constrained the ability of humanitarian agencies to deliver critical aid supplies to a bare minimum for over six weeks. Moreover, IOF insists on creating an atmosphere of insecurity that has encouraged and led recently to a surge in armed looting of many humanitarian convoys, including approximately 100 trucks carrying flour for the WFP. As a result, WFP has been able to meet only 45% of the needs of its targeted population, offering reduced aid due to the limited resources available in its Gaza warehouses. Consequently, aid distribution operations are now deemed unsafe, rendering the delivery of essential supplies to those in need a near-impossible task. Following announcements by international organizations such as the World Central Kitchen (WCK) and UNRWA halting aid distribution operations, vulnerable families are now at heightened risk. This is particularly true for female-headed households, children who have lost their families, the sick, the wounded, individuals with chronic illnesses, and persons with disabilities. These fragile groups, already marginalized and neglected, now face even greater threats as the humanitarian crisis deepens.
In recent weeks, central and southern Gaza have experienced a strangulating crisis due to the lack of flour and skyrocketing prices, leading to the shutdown of bakeries for several days. With the spoilage of available supplies, many residents were forced to use spoiled flour to meet their basic need for bread. The exorbitant cost of flour has driven thousands of civilians to wait in long lines for hours at the few remaining operational bakeries, only to secure limited amounts of bread. Tragically, the chaos and overcrowding have claimed lives, including three women who lost their lives outside a bakery in central Gaza. Additionally, the limited fuel and cooking gas allocations for approximately 20 municipal bakeries in Deir Al-Balah have forced their closure, exacerbating the plight of the city’s residents and displaced individuals. According to the latest statistics published by OCHA, the population in the city now exceeds 700,000, amplifying the scale of the humanitarian disaster.
After over a year of genocide, civilians’ capacity to cope with new displacements has drastically diminished. Most have been forced to move multiple times, many have reduced their food intake, and the majority rely on unsafe water sources. Residents now spend most of their day trying to secure water, often enduring arduous efforts to fetch it from distant locations as clean water becomes increasingly scarce. Municipalities in central and southern Gaza have suspended their operations due to the IOF’s ban on the entry of essential supplies needed to run water-pumping equipment and generators for homes and displacement camps. Saeb Al-Laqaan, spokesperson for Khan Younis Municipality, stated to PCHR’s researcher that: “For nearly two weeks, diesel supplies to the water and sewage departments in Khan Younis Municipality have been halted. As a result, water pumping to entire neighborhoods in the city, including the overcrowded Al-Mawasi area where thousands of displaced persons are, has ceased. People are now forced to walk long distances to access water suitable for multiple uses. Sewage pumping stations have also become non-operational, causing sewage pools to spread in streets among makeshift tents, while garbage collection has completely halted, leading to the accumulation of tons of waste and creating catastrophic public health risks.”
As the rainy season and cold weather fronts begin, more than 1.9 million people live in overcrowded shelters and tents, struggling to survive daily, including around half a million displaced individuals in areas at risk of flooding, who are in urgent need of safe shelter. According to the Palestine Red Crescent, approximately 10,000 tents were destroyed during the latest storm at the end of November 2024. Additionally, families displaced from northern Gaza to Gaza City are facing severe shortages of supplies and services. Their tents were flooded during the latest rainfall, exacerbating their suffering due to extreme overcrowding and dire sanitary conditions.
Mrs. Saadia Atef Sweilem (40) displaced woman living in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis stated to PCHR’s researcher:
“I have been displaced multiple times with my three children over the past year of war, without my husband, who left before the war began. With no source of income, I have endured immense hardships to secure food, water, and shelter for my children, living in a tattered tent. As winter begins, we do not have clothing to warm us up in such cold weather. Living in a tent near the seashore, I tried to reinforce it with whatever resources I could gather, but it was blown away by the first storm on the evening of Tuesday, 26 November 2024. Our clothes and bedding were also soaked as the tent was flooded with seawater and heavy rain. I am now staying in a tent with one of my sisters after losing my shelter. I hope this war ends soon because our living conditions have become unbearable. It is a daily struggle to provide even the bare minimum of bread for my children, especially with the skyrocketing price of flour”.
According to United Nations reports, Gaza’s economy is facing total collapse. The entire population is suffering from unprecedented levels of poverty, driven by an 85% decline in GDP — the highest drop in the history of the occupied Palestinian territory especially with Inflation skyrocketing to 250%, and unemployment rates surging to 80%. The ongoing situation has significantly increased the burdens on Gaza’s residents, driven by soaring prices of available goods to unprecedented levels. This is compounded by the growing hardship caused by high fees on cash withdrawals and profiteering by merchants amid the instability of the local market and cash shortage crisis caused by IOF’s tightened economic and financial blockades and not allowing Palestinian banks to solve the problem and even forcing them to shut down all branches across the Strip. This has left the population drained of resources and further exacerbated the deteriorating humanitarian conditions. For months, civilians have faced extreme limitations in accessing adequate food, clean water, and essential hygiene products, pushing the already dire situation into a state of humanitarian emergency.
PCHR views the unprecedented deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip as a natural result of the policy of impunity granted to Israel and the double standards of the international community in dealing with it as an occupying power. This leniency is demonstrated by ignoring the most egregious crime it is explicitly and undoubtedly committing the fully-fledged crime of genocide that leaves no doubt about its comprehensive nature. Therefore, PCHR:
