Displaced Palestinians surviving on just 3% of minimum daily water needs: UN report
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) has released an update on the deteriorating situation in Gaza as communicable diseases rise and displaced people are desperately short of water as Israel intensifies its attacks from north to south.
No hospitals are currently accessible in northern Gaza, the World Health Organization reports, and as of Friday only the al-Awda Hospital was “considered partially functional” in the north, though it, too, was inaccessible amid Israeli military operations.
The International Rescue Committee and the organisation Medical Aid for Palestinians reported that in central Gaza displaced people are surviving on just 3 percent of the internationally recognised minimum requirements of water.
At one shelter for displaced Palestinians, 10,000 people received just 4,000 litres of water per day, “translating to about 0.4 litres per person, for drinking, washing, cooking and cleaning”, UN OCHA reports.
Children under five are being hit hardest, with that age group accounting for 29 percent of acute respiratory infections, 33 percent of bloody diarrhoea cases, and 28 percent of watery diarrhoea.
The World Food Programme (WFP) warned this week that “if food and humanitarian supplies do not begin to enter Gaza in massive quantities, desperation and hunger will spread”.
Displaced Palestinians in the central town of Deir el-Balah form queues to receive clean water distributed by aid organisations on May 20
Israeli strike in Nuseirat refugee camp kills 4: Report
An Israeli air attack on an apartment building in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, has killed at least four people, local media is reporting.
Elsewhere, an unspecified number of people have been reported killed by an Israeli air attack on a residential building in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north of the territory, according to the Wafa news agency.
The youngest casualties – Children suffer as Israel’s war on Gaza rages
A displaced Palestinian woman and children at a wood-burning stove in Deir el-Balah on May 24
Palestinian children search through a rubbish dump in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Friday
Palestinian PM calls out book-burning Israeli soldiers
The social media account of the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa has shared an image of an Israeli soldier reading a book in a library at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University while a shelf of books burns in the background.
The prime minister said the soldier had shared the image of himself “posing in front” of the burning books at the library, “which they had set on fire”.
“Israel has targeted all universities in the Strip, with some being completely destroyed,” the post on the prime minister’s X account adds.
An #Israeli_occupation soldier posted an image of himself posing in front of the Al Aqsa #University #library, which they had set on fire.#Israel has targeted all universities in the Strip, with some being completely destroyed.@Gaza @Palestine pic.twitter.com/RIEREFMoqg
— PM of Palestine (@PalestinePMO) May 24, 2024
