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UNRWA Situation Report #92 on the situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem - All information from 17 - 18 March 2024, is valid as of 18 March 2024 at 22:30

UNRWA

19 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. ISF airstrikes continue also in heavily populated Rafah in southern Gaza.

• Famine[1] is imminent in Gaza, especially to isolated populations in northern Gaza, deprived of humanitarian assistance. On 18 March Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released its latest food security outlook and concluded that up to 1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. The report highlights the fast-deteriorating food security conditions, including a nearly 80 per cent increase in the number of people facing the highest classification of food insecurity since December, when the initial assessment was conducted. The increase has been triggered by the intensity of hostilities, extremely limited humanitarian access and severe limitations on the supply of goods and basic services. Nutrition screenings conducted in February by UNICEF and UNRWA show that rates of acute malnutrition among children in northern Gaza and Rafah have nearly doubled since January. The IPC report also predicts a worsening of malnutrition rates unless aid increases and reaches the most vulnerable and hard to reach populations.

• The first 17 days of March saw an average of 159 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 16 March, the total number of UNRWA colleagues killed since the beginning of hostilities is 168.

• As of 18 March, up to 1.7 million* people (over 75 per cent of the population) ** have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, the majority 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] Famine imminent in northern Gaza, new report warns | World Food Programme (wfp.org)