The death toll in Gaza has passed 1,867, nearly half a million people have been left displaced,
and to date 9,536 people are left wounded, with 2,877 of these being children.
The politics aside, innocent civilians in Gaza are deeply affected by the conflict.
They have lost loved ones, their homes and for some of them, their lives.
I’m going to look into what it’s like to be living in Gaza right now.
Gaza is home to more than 1.8 million people, with an estimated 1.2 million Palestinian
refugees.
Since 2007, a blockade was enforced between Israel and Gaza.
The justification of this by Israelis is that it is necessary to limit Palestinian rocket
attacks from the Gaza Strip and to stop Hamas from acquiring weaponry.
The 8-year blockade has pushed the Gaza Strip to the brink.
An already impoverished enclave is now faced with more turmoil as buildings are left heavily
damaged and many lives have been lost.
The UN has estimated 68% of deaths in Gaza are civilians.
Although numerous humanitarian ceasefires have been called to try and halt the conflict
and allow for the gathering of basic supplies and the retrieval of bodies, they have subsequently
been broken by both Hamas and Israel.
Most recently, US Secretary of State John Kerry’s 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire ended
within hours while many people were still trying to retrieve belongings, find families
and gather aid.
It is not only the loss of family and friends that those left behind in Gaza must deal with.
The provision of food, water, hygiene and cleaning items remains a daily struggle.
A recent report published by Save the Children shows that families in Gaza are facing a complete
collapse of essential services as electricity and water supplies run out.
Some hospitals are reporting they only have enough fuel to run electricity generators
for another four to five days.
According to OCHA, air strikes on Gaza’s sole power plant have left residents of Gaza
with a maximum of two hours of electricity a day.
One third of the hospitals in Gaza are damaged.
The Najjar Hospital in Rafah was evacuated and is closed.
This affects not only the hospitals still running but the refrigeration of food.
According to Save the Children -“This could leave nearly one million children trapped
in a war zone without access to electricity, water or medical services.”
Egypt’s Rafah border crossing – Gaza’s only exit route not controlled by Israel has
opened and closed again numerous times since Israel began Operation Protective Edge on
8th July.
Rafah has been severely hit during the attacks forcing trucks carrying good and supplies
to turn back.
With Gaza’s ports closed by the Israel Navy, food and medicine can only get through the
one point of entry, the Kerem Shalom crossing.
James Rawley, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator speaks of a conversation he has had with the
people of Gaza.
“Mr Rawley, you work for the UN, where can I go?” and I have to tell them, ‘I don’t
have an answer.
There’s no safe place in Gaza.’
Rawley also believes an outbreak of serious diseases is inevitable.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency are offering aid to those displaced in Gaza
with almost 260,000 living in shelters at 90 UNRWA schools.
The death toll and wounded counts come from the UNRWA’s daily situation reports.
Three deadly attacks on UN schools sheltering people fleeing the attacks have happened so
far.
The UN Chief Ban-Ki-moon has called it a “moral outrage and a criminal act” Sami Abu Zuhri,
Hamas spokesperson, blamed the school attack on Ban ki-Moon, saying he legitimised the
killings by condemning the death of an Israeli soldier, who was earlier presumed captured.
Israel began its offensives after a surge of rockets reportedly came from Hamas to Israel.
The IDF’s main offensive goal was to destroy the tunnels breaching borders known as “terror
tunnels” running from Gaza to Israel and Egypt.
They now claim to have destroyed all 32 of these.
They also claim to have destroyed the 3,000 rockets they believe Hamas to hold for future
use, following the 3,300 reportedly already fired.
And the cost?
Reconstruction of the shelters alone will cost $380 million.
The UNRWA estimates a total of $187.6 million will be needed in order to provide emergency
assistance for a revised scenario of up to 250,000 people displaced for a period of up
to eight weeks.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
The current access regime imposed by the Government of Israel makes it impossible to build new
homes for the displaced, as there is no construction material available on the local market.
But the money and lifting of impositions won’t fix everything.
You’re not only rebuilding homes, you have to rebuild lives.