Humanitarian Needs and Response Update | 27 February – 4 March 2024

A UN team delivering fuel, medicines, and vaccines to Shifa hospital in Gaza city, 1 March 2024. Photo by UNICEF/Sonia Silva

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Period: 27 February – 4 March 2024

The information below is provided on a weekly basis by Clusters and select Technical Working Groups operating in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). This update was initially published on 4 March and additional content has been subsequently added.

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HEALTH

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Needs

Expanding essential healthcare services is critical to safeguard public health and mitigate the spread of infectious diseases especially amongst the IDPs. These essentials encompass medication supplies, enhanced immunization rates, access to reproductive and maternal health services, the availability of laboratory equipment and reagents critical for precise diagnostics and testing, and the provision of blood products in hospitals.
Military operations at hospitals have resulted in a reduction in their capacity, which necessitates the establishment of field hospitals across the Gaza Strip.
Reports of death and threat of death among children who suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) due to inadequate food and nutrition supplies necessitate urgent access to the northern regions of Gaza to supply food and establish SAM stabilization centres, along with outpatient therapeutic feeding programs.
There is a need to improve access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation facilities.

Response

Between 26 February and 3 March, 19 health cluster partners delivered health services to 80,000 patients.
As part of the WHO Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) program, 16 EMTs treated 13,000 patients in Deir Al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, providing primary and secondary healthcare services at 5 MoH hospitals.
A WHO-led mission, in partnership with UNICEF and OCHA, delivered medicine, medical supplies, and 10,000 liters of fuel to Al-Shifa hospital on 1 March. These supplies included medication for SAM management and therapeutic milk formula.
A WHO-led mission, in partnership with OCHA, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNMAS visited Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza on 3 March. The mission delivered medicine, medical supplies, and 9,500 litres of fuel to each of the two hospitals. The supplies to Kamal Adwan Hospital included medication for treating SAM and therapeutic milk formula for children. WHO also discussed with the Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital the potential establishment of a stabilization centre for the management of SAM cases with medical complications.
WHO has prepositioned psychotropic medication in Rafah.

Challenges

Hospitals in the northern regions of Gaza have been largely inaccessible and are experiencing fuel, food, medicine, and medical supplies shortages.
Continuous hostilities in Khan Younis pose significant barriers to accessing healthcare service points.
The increase in bloody and watery diarrhoea is attributed to the unavailability of safe drinking water, posing a significant public health challenge.
The absence of segregated sanitation facilities and electricity within shelters presents a considerable safety risk, depriving women and girls of secure environments and thereby increasing their vulnerability to sexual violence.

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Food Security

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Needs

The food security situation continues to be extremely severe, particularly in northern Gaza:
- People reportedly feed their children animal fodder and native plants, leading to potential health consequences, such as malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies.
- Consuming improperly prepared native plants carries risks of toxicity or food-borne illness. The reliance on wild food during extreme food shortages is a stark indicator of highly severe food insecurity.
- There is an urgent need for humanitarian assistance and intervention to address the underlying causes of famine and ensure access to adequate food supplies.
- Vulnerable segments of the population, including children, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions, are particularly exposed to the risk of malnutrition and famine.
In the middle and southern governorates, the food security situation is also critical, with most of the population queuing for hours to receive hot meals when trucks manage to enter.
In Rafah, the situation is increasingly concerning, with growing reports of people stopping aid trucks to take food and eat it immediately.
It is critically important to increase the fleet of delivery trucks, together with the need to import the agricultural inputs necessary for reactivating domestic production of essential fresh foods, such as eggs, vegetables, meat, fish and milk, in order to ensure the availability of a balanced nutrition.
There is a need to establish secure and uninterrupted humanitarian corridors, with the support of the private sector, and focus on critical resources like fuel and cooking gas.

Response

Between 26 February and 3 March, a total of 17 partners engaged in providing food assistance, including food parcels and hot meals, across the Gaza Strip, reaching a daily average of 245,000 people (around 10% of the population) with food assistance at least once. Rafah Governorate received about 42 per cent of the total food distributed, 33 per cent in Deir al Balah, 18 per cent in Khan Younis, five per cent in Gaza (but did not include hot meals), and two per cent in North Gaza (mainly hot meals but very few food parcels).

Challenges

Operating partners are reporting a lack of food to distribute, as what is entering into Gaza is very limited compared to the needs. The number of hot meals provided to people remains insufficient to meet daily nutritional requirements.
Ongoing airstrikes and heavy fighting in Gaza continue to affect the flow of food supply, posing challenges for the conduct of safe and efficient humanitarian operations. Frequent border closures, restrictions, and security concerns hinder the delivery of a consistent and dependable food supply.

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Humanitarian Needs and Response Update | 27 February – 4 March 2024

Period: 27 February – 4 March 2024

HEALTH

Food Security

Nutrition