UNRWA shows Al Jazeera around Gaza school sheltering 65,000 people
For more than 14 months, schools in Gaza have become home to tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians. Every shelter is overcrowded, with food, water and supplies severely limited, in some cases completely cut off, leading to widespread starvation.
Louise Wateridge, the spokesperson for UNRWA, showed Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud around one such school in Deir el-Balah.
She said some 15,000 people were sheltering inside the building, while more than 50,000 people were camping in makeshift tents outside.
“The weather and the temperature is getting very cold. It’s December now. We’ve had rains, we’ve had freezing temperatures, people just don’t have enough. We don’t have enough supplies coming in,” Waterige said.
“Just this week, I’ve spoken to an elderly woman who is 85 and she is sleeping on a mattress in a corner. She has a very thin blanket, and that’s it. And she’s been surviving on bread for 14 months. It’s unacceptable and inhumane when people are forced to live in these conditions.”
Nearly 19,000 children hospitalised for acute malnutrition in past four months
UNRWA says the number is nearly double the cases recorded in the first half of the year in the Gaza Strip.
The surge comes as Israel continues to restrict the entry of humanitarian aid into the war-torn enclave. It has also largely blocked all aid to besieged North Gaza since October 6. Among the items in short supply is baby formula.
UNRWA says one of its only functioning health centres recently received its first delivery in three months, but has only just six boxes to distribute. “Immediate aid and a ceasefire now are vital to save lives,” it says.
Translation: Moving scene of a child with a double amputation using skates to move between the tents of the displaced in Gaza.
According to the UN, Gaza now has the highest rate of child amputees anywhere in the world. That includes at least 1,000 children who lost one or both legs in just the first four months of Israel’s war on the Strip.
Many of these amputations were performed without anaesthesia, underscoring the dire medical conditions in Gaza.
Essay Pro