UN OCHA Warns Israeli Attacks Displace Gazans Amid Health And Environmental Risks

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday that conditions in Gaza remained extremely dire, with most people displaced and facing health and environmental risks alongside continued Israeli attacks on residential areas.

“The World Urban Forum (WUF13) continues in Baku, Azerbaijan on 18 May, addressing the global housing crisis”

AnewZ

OCHA said that only one in two trucks transporting aid from Egypt to Gaza managed to unload its cargo at the Israeli-controlled crossings on the Gaza border during the first 10 days of May.

AnewZ

The World Health Organization estimates cited by OCHA said more than 43,000 people in Gaza have suffered life-altering injuries, while rehabilitation services remained overwhelmed.

In the occupied West Bank, OCHA said 45 Palestinian-owned buildings were demolished by Israeli forces between May 5 and 11, and it pointed to a sharp increase in settler violence with a monthly average of incidents resulting in casualties or property damage rising 14-fold since 2020.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was deeply concerned by the shrinking space for civilians in Gaza, who are forcibly displaced by the Israeli army across broad swaths of territory.

The OHCHR press release said that since the resumption of the military campaign on March 18, the Israeli army has issued ten evacuation orders, and it said the north of the Gaza Strip, of which more than half appears to be subject to such orders, is particularly affected.

Latest news from Azerbaijan

It added that since March 18, at least 855 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army and 1,869 have been injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Separately, UN humanitarian agencies warned that in Gaza’s coastal areas, displaced people are trapped in flooded camps after heavy rains ripped, swept away, or flooded thousands of tents at displacement sites, exposing nearly 800,000 Gaza residents to major risks.

The UN warned that more than one million children in the Gaza Strip are in urgent need of psychosocial support, with Seema Al-Almi of the United Nations Population Fund saying that 96% of children in the strip feel that death is imminent.

“The United Nations condemns forcing Palestinians to flee and the demolition of homes in the West Bank”

Masrawy

Al-Almi told the UN News Center that about 61% of adolescents and youths suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, 38% from depression, and 41% from anxiety, while she said one in five adults contemplates suicide on a near-daily basis.

In Gaza camps, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said rat infestations are spreading as sanitation worsens, and a video released by the UN showed displaced residents describing how rodents are entering tents daily and contaminating food supplies.

OCHA also said humanitarian aid has tripled since the ceasefire and that since early December humanitarian partners have provided about 128,000 households with tents and other shelters as well as non-food items delivered to Gaza through UN coordination or bilateral channels.