The ongoing Israel-Hamas war has brought attention to the official humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the most dangerous place in the world.
“Even before October 7, the official start to the Israel-Hamas war, 80% of Gaza’s population were reliant on humanitarian assistance. In 2024, after the destruction of key infrastructure and mass displacement, nearly all 2.3 million people living in Gaza will need humanitarian aid,” the International Rescue Committee said it its 2024 Watchlist.
“Of those 2.3 million people, 95% are without safe water, 85% have been displaced…60% of Gazan homes [have been] damaged or destroyed, and the majority are without the necessary medical aid,” said an International Rescue Committee (IRC) article.
In regards to the lack of medical care, “aid delivery has been further constrained by the damage to roads, lack of fuel, and the displacement and death of humanitarian aid workers…131 U.N. staff have been killed…Nearly all aid workers have been displaced,” the IRC reported. With that comes the declaration that Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world, both for aid workers and civilians.
Consequently, organizations are being restricted from entering and delivering imperative supplies to Gazan people. These supplies, while limited, are the sole form of resources that the people of Gaza are surviving off of due to their inability to produce or import food. The people of Gaza are famished and thus are more vulnerable to a plethora of diseases.
Children are particularly under duress as their severe level of malnutrition has led to an intense surge in child wasting. In fact, UNICEF predicts child wasting to “increase…pre-crisis conditions by nearly 30 percent, affecting up to 10,000 children.” Phillip Lazzarini, the Commissioner General for the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) reflects on the situation.
“The flow of aid has been a trickle in comparison to a sea of humanitarian needs,” Lazzarini said.
Until barriers and restrictions are lifted, Gaza will only become deeper entrenched in this conflict that threatens its thousands of civilians every day.
