Humanitarian Needs and Response Update | 16–22 April 2024

UN mission to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where the World Health Organization and Cadus emergency medical team safely evaluated four critical patients and referred them to hospitals in the south, 20 April 2024. Photo by WHO
UN mission to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where the World Health Organization and Cadus emergency medical team safely evaluated four critical patients and referred them to hospitals in the south, 20 April 2024. Photo by WHO

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Period: 16–22 April 2024

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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

  • Expanded primary healthcare services in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah.  
  • Medications for non-communicable diseases and psychotropic drugs. 
  • Expanded Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services to the community level. 
  • Field hospitals in Deir al Balah, Khan Younis, and Gaza city. At present, six field hospitals (four in Rafah and two in Khan Younis) provide trauma care and other essential services.   
  • Restore health services at Nasser Medical Complex. 
  • Laboratory equipment and reagents. 
  • Blood products for hospitals. 

Response

  • UNFPA has set up SRH clinics to provide Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CeMONC) services at the International Medical Corps field hospital in Rafah and the and the UK-Med field hospital in Rafah. 
  • Two Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) have been deployed to North Gaza to support Kamal Adwan and Al Awda hospitals. At present, there are 20 EMTs across Gaza, including two in northern Gaza.  
  • Between 13 and 20 April, WHO and CADUS evacuated 13 cases from Kamal Adwan Hospital to the IMC field hospital and the European Government Hospital (EGH).
  • Ongoing discussions on the restoration of health services at Nasser Medical Complex.

Challenges

  • Shortages of fuel, food, medicine, and medical supplies in North Gaza and Gaza City governorates 
  • Access to healthcare service points significantly affected by ongoing hostilities. 
  • Lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitation conditions driving increase in cases of acute jaundice syndrome and bloody and acute watery diarrhoea (AWD).

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 Nutrition

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Needs

  • Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and preventative nutrition commodities, including high-energy biscuits (HEB), lipid-based nutrient supplements (MQ-LNS), and micronutrient supplements. These supplies are essential for more than 160,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBW) and 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, 50,400 children under 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 severe wasting is seen in 31 per cent of children under the age of two. 
  • Continued active identification of nutrition cases to ensure timely detection, referral, and treatment of acutely malnourished children. 
  • Preventive nutrition interventions, including infant and young child feeding (IYCF) and the provision of age-appropriate supplementary feeding products for people in need. 
  • Expanded 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 and monitoring and reporting systems to identify gaps and ensure effective coordination and a streamlined nutrition response.

Response

  • Cluster partners continue to conduct Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) screenings; to date, 51,679 children aged 6-59 months have been screened, of whom 3,513 have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition, including 2,559 with Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and 954 with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).  
  • Since 1 April, 37 children suffering from SAM with medical complications have required inpatient care at three Stabilization Centres (SCs) at Kamal Adwan Hospital, Tall as Sultan Hospital, and the IMC field hospital. Sixty-eight per cent of these admissions were at Kamal Adwan Hospital. WHO has provided supplies and technical support to the SCs while UNICEF has provided RUTF/nutrition commodities.  
  • UNICEF has expanded outpatient treatment of acutely malnourished children to 95 OTP sites, providing services in North Gaza (36 sites), Deir al Balah (11 sites), Khan Younis (2 sites), and Rafah (46 sites) through 13 nutrition partners.  
  • Since 1 April, WFP and seven organizations have distributed 15-day allocations of supplementary food (MQ-LNS) to 9,187 people, including 6,426 children under five and 2,761 PBW, in Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah.  
  • Since 1 April, 9,970 caregivers of children under two, including PBW, received sensitization sessions on IYCF practices in emergencies (IYCF-E). Save the Children is supporting efforts to foster IYCF-E practices by setting up 10 mother-baby areas in Rafah, Deir Al-Balah, and Gaza city, together with UNRWA and Juzoor. As part of a wider IYCF programme, Save the Children facilitated a one-hour training in Rafah for Cluster partners on how to provide lifesaving support to infants under six months who have no option for breastmilk feeding; they plan to replicate the training in Arabic in Deir al Balah.  
  • Nutrition interventions are being provided at 296 sites, including 21 health facilities, 238 formal and informal shelters, and 37 sites in the host communities. 

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. Compounded by deteriorating health and WASH services, this is resulting in a higher number of acutely malnourished children.  
  • Continued displacement undermines the effective provision of nutrition services.  
  • Protracted hostilities and stress have resulted in an inability of mothers to breastfeed babies.

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 Food Security

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Submitted on 25 April 2024