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UNRWA Situation Report #90 on the situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem - All information from 12-13 March 2024, is valid as of 15 March 2024 at 22:30

UNRWA

15 Mar 2024

Key Points

The Gaza Strip

• Intense Israeli Security Forces (ISF) bombardment from the air, land and sea continued across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement and destruction of civilian infrastructure. Israeli forces airstrikes continue also in heavily populated Rafah in southern Gaza.

• On 13 March 2024, UNRWA released a statement on at least one UNRWA staff member killed and another 22 injured when Israeli Forces hit a food distribution centre and a warehouse in the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The distribution centre that was hit is one of the two main distribution centres in Rafah which provides life-saving emergency food assistance and other basic supplies like blankets, clothes and hygiene kits.

• UNFPA reported that only two out of the 12 partially functional hospitals are providing maternity services, and that up to 180 women are giving birth every day. Safe spaces for pregnant women and new mothers to deliver are becoming increasingly difficult to find, leading to an increased risk of infection and communicable diseases, compounded by the lack of clean water1. UNRWA continues to provide essential health services in seven out of 22 health centres, including support to complex pregnancy cases. On 12 March, Save the Children published a report2 highlighting that children's repeated and long-term exposure to traumatic events and oppressive living conditions in Gaza had already created a mental health catastrophe.

• Access to people in Gaza City and Northern Gaza remains insufficient. According to OCHA, only 25 per cent of aid missions planned to the North to date have been facilitated by the Israeli Authorities.

• According to OCHA, child malnutrition levels in northern Gaza are extreme, with now at least 23 children reported to have died from malnutrition and dehydration in northern Gaza.

• The first 14 days of March saw an average of 169 aid trucks per day crossing into the Gaza Strip. This remains well below the operational capacity of both border crossings and the target of 500 per day, with challenges at both Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) and Rafah. Security to manage the crossings has been severely impacted due to the killing of several Palestinian policemen in Israeli airstrikes near the crossings in early February.

• As of 13 March, the total number of UNRWA colleagues killed since the beginning of hostilities is 166.

• As of 13 March, up to 1.7 million* people (over 75 per cent of the population) ** have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some multiple times.*** Families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety. Following intense Israeli bombardments and fighting in Khan Younis and the Middle Area in recent weeks, a significant number of displaced people have moved further south.

*This includes 1 million individuals residing in or near emergency shelters or informal shelters. As of 12 October, approximately 160,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were recorded in UNRWA shelters in Northern Gaza and Gaza City governorates. UNRWA currently estimates that the population of Northern Gaza and Gaza City governorates is up to 250,000 people. The ability of UNRWA to provide humanitarian support and updated data in these areas has been severely restricted. The ongoing hostilities, evacuation orders issued by ISF, and the constant need for safer locations have resulted in people being displaced multiple times.

**UNRWA reported on 15 January in Situation Report 64 that up to 1.9 million IDPs were either residing in 154 UNRWA shelters or near these shelters. Due to the continued escalation of fighting and evacuation orders, some households have moved away from the shelters where they were initially registered.

*** There are instances where the same IDPs are registered in multiple shelters due to the fluid movement of populations; hereafter, estimates are used for these shelters. UNRWA plans to conduct a more accurate count of IDPs in shelters, including informal shelters, as soon as the security situation allows.

[1] "Gaza is at breaking point": Health workers and patients describe an unfolding catastrophe in Rafah - occupied Palestinian territory | ReliefWeb

[2] Trapped and Scarred: The compounding mental harm inflicted on Palestinian children in Gaza | Save the Children's Resource Centre

The West Bank, including East Jerusalem

• On 12 and 13 March, six Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, including three children. One was reported to be a 12-year-old boy shot by ISF in Shu'fat Camp in East Jerusalem.

• During the same period, 38 ISF search and arrest operations were recorded with 35 detentions. ISF operations continued to operate in Jenin Camp and Jenin city in the northern West Bank, with two Palestinians killed. Significant damage to camp infrastructure, including roads, was reported. One of these operations took place during working hours on the morning of 12 March, forcing UNRWA staff and camp residents to shelter inside UNRWA installations.

• On 13 March, ISF reportedly made preparations for a demolition in Hebron delivering a demolition order for a house belonging to a Palestinian resident from Jenin Camp believed to be in Israeli detention.

• Israeli settler' violence was reported in northern West Bank, with settlers reportedly throwing stones at Palestinian houses and setting fire to a Palestinian vehicle in Burin on 12 March. On 13 March, Israeli settlers shot at Palestinian houses, causing property damage.