Humanitarian Needs and Response Update | 9–15 April 2024

A medical team member attending the wounds of a Palestinian in Gaza. Photo by the World Health Organization

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Period: 9–15 April 2024

The information below is provided on a weekly basis by Clusters and select Technical Working Groups operating in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). It is updated throughout the week to reflect new content.

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HEALTH

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Needs

Enhance preparedness in the coastal areas of Rafah.
Support the expansion of the capacity of the remaining key hospitals across the Gaza Strip.
Expand access to all levels of essential healthcare services for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities, particularly those most vulnerable, such as children, pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBW), and people with chronic illnesses.
Expand routine immunization, disease surveillance, diagnostics and laboratory capacity.
Establish field hospitals in northern Gaza, given the significant pressure on the five remaining partially functioning hospitals.

Response

Six field hospitals (four in Rafah and two in Khan Younis) continue to provide trauma care and other essential services.
Partners continue to expand health service delivery points in the coastal areas of Rafah and some locations in Deir al Balah, as part of contingency planning efforts.
An inter-agency assessment mission on 11 April to Nasser Medical Complex, Al Amal Hospital, and Al Kheir Hospital.
A mission to Al Ahli Hospital on 13 April delivered fuel and evacuated three patients to field hospitals in Rafah.

Challenges

Limited access to fuel continues to pose major challenges, especially to local NGOs.
Poor living conditions and limited or no access to proper water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities continue to fuel a high risk of disease outbreak.
Denial of missions to northern Gaza is putting patients’ lives at risk, in addition to being daunting and mentally draining for patients’ families and companions.

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Nutrition

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Needs

An intact supply pipeline of ready-to-eat therapeutic food (RUTF) and of preventative nutrition commodities. The latter include high-energy biscuits, lipid-based nutrient supplements (MQ-LNS), and micronutrient supplements. These supplies are essential for over 160,000 PBW and some 346,000 children under the age of five, who are at the greatest risk of malnutrition and preventable mortality, including about 135,000 children under the age of two who are highly vulnerable to acute malnutrition. Overall, some 50,400 children under the age of five are estimated to be acutely malnourished.
Immediate humanitarian access to address increasing acute malnutrition. The rate of malnutrition is particularly high in northern Gaza, where an alarming 31 per cent of children under the age of two suffer from severe wasting.
Continued active identification of nutrition cases to ensure timely detection, referral, and treatment of acutely malnourished children.
Scale up preventive nutrition interventions, including infant and young child feeding (IYCF) and the provision of age-appropriate supplementary feeding products for people in need.
Expand the Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) targeting children with acute malnutrition to ensure greater proximity of nutrition treatment services to affected people.
Strengthen partners’ capacity to provide nutrition-in-emergency services, including community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) and IYCF practices in emergencies.
Enhance the mapping of service coverage as well as monitoring and reporting systems to identify gaps and ensure effective coordination and a streamlined nutrition response.

Response

Overall, Nutrition Cluster partners are providing nutrition services at 21 health facilities, 235 formal and informal shelters, and 37 sites in host communities.
Since mid-January, 43,355 children aged 6-59 months have undergone Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) screenings at shelters and healthcare facilities and, with UNICEF’s support, are currently receiving treatment in accordance with the simplified protocols. To date, 2,932 children have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition, including 2,168 with Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and 764 with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
UNICEF and 13 partners have so far expanded the outpatient therapeutic programme to 85 sites: 26 in North Gaza, 11 in Deir al Balah, 2 in Khan Younis, and 46 in Rafah.
Referral of children who were undergoing treatment at the IMC field hospital, which is in the process of relocating, to other appropriate healthcare centres in Rafah.
Ongoing establishment of a stabilization centre at Kamal Adwan Hospital for acute malnutrition cases with medical complications. An international NGO, supported by WHO and UNICEF, is providing the needed supplies and technical support and scaling up screening services and outpatient treatment.
WFP and seven partners have so far distributed MQ-LNS to 30 per cent of children under five and PBW across Gaza, with access challenges limiting reach despite sufficient stocks. Between 7 and 9 April, 1,192 PBW and 2,757 children under five received a 15-day allocation of MQ-LNS.
During the first two weeks of April, 5,354 PBW and other caregivers of children under two received sensitization sessions on IYCF practices in emergencies (IYCF-E).
A local NGO, with support from Save the Children, is currently establishing 10 mother-baby areas to strengthen IYCF interventions in Rafah, Deir al Balah, and Gaza city.

Challenges

Limited humanitarian access throughout Gaza, particularly in the northern areas, continues to exacerbate the catastrophic levels of food insecurity already faced by people and to prevent the urgent delivery of life-saving nutrition commodities. This dynamic, compounded by deteriorating health and (WASH) services, is resulting in an increasing number of acutely malnourished children.
Continued displacement undermines the effective provision of nutrition services.
Extreme fear and stress, malnutrition, and complex living conditions due to protracted hostilities have resulted in mothers being unable to breastfeed their newborn babies.

Food Security

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