UNRWA: More than 70% of Gaza’s population were forcibly displaced from their houses and children are starving

On Nov 7, 2023

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) revealed that more than 1.5 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes in the Gaza Strip.

“More than 70% of Gaza’s population have been displaced since October 7, with most of them living in terrible conditions in UN shelters”, UNRWA director of external relations and communications, Tamara al-Rifai, said in a statement.

“UNRWA is unable to access many of these shelters to assist or protect the displaced and does not have information about their needs and conditions”, al-Rifai noted.

She pointed out that the conditions of UNRWA’s overcrowded facilities as inhumane and deteriorating.

Al-Rifai warned of the risk of the situation turning into a public health crisis due to the damage to the water and sanitation infrastructure, as thousands of cases of acute respiratory infections, skin infections, diarrhea, and chickenpox have been recorded.

Humanitarian and environmental concerns rise by the decomposition of bodies under collapsed buildings amid limited rescue efforts, as well as children’s dire situation and fears for their lives and health, al-Rifai said.

Regarding this situation, a nurse activity manager for Doctors Without Borders, Emily Callahan who left the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, pointed out that “There are children suffering from severe burns to their faces and necks, recent open wounds, and partial amputations in their limbs, and because the hospitals are very crowded and do not have supplies, they are immediately discharged and deported to the camps without access to clean water, and there were no services in the camp”.

She added that these displaced children “are at risk of starving to death or running out of water.”

According to data from the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, more than 4,000 child martyrs have fallen since October 7, out of more than 10,000 Palestinian martyrs during the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip.