The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that the number of people displaced across Gaza has now topped 263,000 men, women and children — an increase of 40 per cent since yesterday.
More than 1,000 housing units in Gaza have been destroyed, and some 560 have been severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable. An additional 12,630 have sustained lesser damage.
All 13 hospitals and other health facilities in Gaza are only partially operational due to supply shortages and fuel rationing. The Beit Hanoun hospital is also inaccessible due to damage to the surrounding area.
With water supplies cut off from Israel into Gaza, there is a severe shortage of drinking water impacting 650,000 people.
Also Israeli airstrikes have damaged seven facilities that had been providing water and sanitation services to over a million people. In some areas, sewage and solid waste are now accumulating in the streets, posing an obvious severe health hazard.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is telling us that 220,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in 88 UNRWA schools across the Gaza Strip. The numbers continue to increase as airstrikes from the Israeli Air Forces are continuing.
Eleven UNRWA staff, personnel, have been killed since Saturday, while three teachers have been injured. Meanwhile, 30 UNRWA students have been killed and another eight have been injured.
UNRWA staff are working around the clock to respond to the needs of the displaced in the shelters. However, some are overcrowded and have limited availability of food and other basic items such as potable water.
Two UNRWA schools were affected by airstrikes, bringing the total number of installations affected by the conflict to 20 since 7 October. Sixteen internally displaced people sheltering at an UNRWA school were injured, including two critically, as a result of an airstrike nearby.
In coordination with the World Food Programme (WFP), bread was distributed to the displaced people in the UN shelters.
