Gaza residents starve to death with water access ‘matter of life and death’

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are “starving to death” due to restrictions imposed on humanitarian aid, while access to clean water “has become a matter of life or death.” The WHO made its comment as Israel’s genocidal war continues, despite the ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering the occupation state to take immediate steps to prevent civilian casualties, stop and punish incitements to genocide, and enable the provision of urgently needed humanitarian assistance in the enclave.

“This is a population that is starving to death, this is a population that is being pushed to the brink,” said Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme on Wednesday. “The civilians of Gaza are not parties to this conflict and they should be protected, as should be their health facilities.”

The official noted that the Palestinian people in Gaza are right in the middle of a “massive catastrophe” that could get worse. “Populations are not supposed to survive indefinitely on food aid. It’s supposed to be emergency food aid to tide people over. And if you mix a lack of nutrition with overcrowding and exposure to cold through lack of shelter… you can create conditions for massive epidemics.” This is particularly so in children. Indeed, such epidemics are already being seen, added Ryan.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, meanwhile, said that the organisation is facing ongoing “extreme challenges” in supporting Gaza’s health system. “Over 100,000 Gazans are either dead, injured or missing and presumed dead,” he pointed out. “The risk of famine is high and increasing each day with persistent hostilities and restricted humanitarian access. The Nasser medical complex, the chief hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, is now operating with one ambulance, with patients being brought in on donkey carts.” Although the WHO attempted to deliver food to the hospital on Tuesday, that aid was stripped from the trucks “by crowds who are also desperate for food,” added Ghebreyesus.

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The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) confirmed its own view that access to clean water is a matter of life and death. “In #Gaza, every day is a struggle to find bread and water. Every day is a struggle to survive. Without safe water, many more people will die from deprivation and disease.”

According to UNRWA’s head of communications, Tamara Alrifai, “Constant crowding, including thousands sharing few showers and toilets, has aggravated outbreaks of skin diseases including scabies and lice, worsened by people being unable to shower. Our latest figures show that for every 2,000 people there is one shower unit, and 500 people for every toilet.”

Days after major donors said that funding for the agency is being withdrawn, UNRWA pointed out that there have now been at least 270 Israeli attacks on UN facilities sheltering displaced Palestinian families “These have killed 372 people. Because there is nowhere else to go, people continue to shelter in these same UN facilities, even after attacks. The situation is utterly desperate.”

The level of destruction from the latest Israeli military operation has made Gaza “uninhabitable”, said the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in a new report. “New data indicates that 50 per cent of the buildings in Gaza are damaged or destroyed,” warned UNCTAD economist Rami Alazzeh. “The longer these [military] operations in Gaza last… the more serious their impact will be.”

The Gaza Strip, said UNCTAD, was in a deplorable state before the outbreak of war, as the Israeli-led siege that has been ongoing for 17 years and repeated military operations — six of them major offensives — have made about 80 per cent of the population dependent on international aid. The agency estimates that Gaza’s already savaged economy contracted by 4.5 per cent in the first three quarters of 2023.

Alazzeh pointed out that, “The entire economic sector in Gaza has stopped.” The only people currently working in the sector are those involved in humanitarian operations, he added. It is estimated by UN officials that even if the reconstruction process begins immediately, it will take seven decades for Gaza to return to the GDP level it recorded in 2022. Massive international aid — “several tens of billions of dollars” — is needed to rebuild Gaza and push its development to a more inhabitable level.

“Only by ending the military confrontation and fully lifting the blockade of Gaza can there be hope to resolve sustainably the political, socioeconomic and humanitarian crisis engulfing Gaza,” concluded UNCTAD. “The vicious circle of destruction and partial reconstruction needs to be broken by negotiating a peaceful solution, based on international law and relevant UN and Security Council resolutions.”

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