12/04/2025
'The Gates of Hell Are Open Night and Day': Malnutrition, Illness and Lack of Drinking Water Plague Gaza
There is a severe shortage of tents and fuel, and the IDF is in no hurry to approve repairs to the water pipeline that supplied approximately 70 percent of Gaza's consumption. The army denies preparing a plan to renew aid and says it will act only on government instructions
Displaced Gazans wait in line for food distribution in Nuseirat this week. Doctors in the Gaza Strip say everyone they meet is suffering from severe nutritional deficiencies.Credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters
Nir Hasson
Apr 9, 2025
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It has been five weeks since Israel started blocking all food and aid from entering Gaza, leading to a worsening humanitarian crisis. Many residents of Gaza have lost their homes, while others are facing a severe shortage of food and water. Medical teams struggle to provide assistance due to insufficient medications and medical equipment. Furthermore, international humanitarian organizations are increasing their warnings regarding the health conditions of the people in the Strip.
According to the United Nations, since the cease-fire ended and fighting resumed on March 18, approximately 390,000 Palestinians – about 18 percent of the population – have been forced to leave their homes once more and are now living in tents.
Satellite photos of the Muwasi area on March 18 and April 3. Parts that had been emptied of tents filled up again.
Satellite images of the Muwasi humanitarian zone in southwestern Gaza show that areas previously cleared of tents during the truce have filled again. "People pitched tents in the first place they found, hundreds of families have come here with nothing," according to Olga Cherevko, spokeswoman for OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza.
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Throughout the Strip, there is a pronounced shortage of tents, and the condition of the existing ones has worsened considerably. Thousands of people are living in tents that no longer provide basic shelter.
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A new estimate based on analysis of aerial photographs carried out by the Education Task Force has found that 88 percent of the schools in Gaza (499 out of 564) have taken direct hits during the war and will need significant reconstruction or repairs before they can be used again. Moreover, 62 percent of the school buildings used as shelters for displaced persons have also taken direct hits.
Nutritional deficit
Last week, the UN World Food Program shut down the last subsidized bakeries operating in Gaza because of a lack of flour and cooking gas. However, the WFP still operates community kitchens that provide inhabitants with about 900,000 hot meals daily. The meals consist primarily of rice alongside beans, hummus, or lentils.
Satellite photos of the Muwasi area on March 16 and April 3 show that the condition of the existing tents has deteriorated considerably.
According to humanitarian sources in Gaza, this is the only meal in a day for most people, and it does not provide enough calories and essential nutrients. Though it is still possible to find bread and foodstuffs in shops, the prices are very high. Fresh produce like fruits, vegetables, milk, dairy products and meat are nearly impossible to obtain.
Earlier this week, the UN reported that a sack of potato flour has soared by about 450 percent, a single flatbread now costs one shekel, and one egg costs six shekels. It has also been reported that the price of cooking gas has soared by 4,000 percent compared to its price before the war, and the shortage of this fuel is forcing people to burn plastic or wood to cook.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, an American doctor who was in Gaza until about a week ago, told Haaretz that all the people he met suffer from grave nutrient deficiencies, particularly of proteins. "Children need protein to develop their brain, protect them from infections, and produce antibodies. Without proteins, the muscles begin to atrophy, which is what we see." Sidhwa said he had operated on a boy of 16 who had hardly any muscles, even though, according to his parents, he had been very active and played soccer often. "This is caused solely by protein deficiency."
As the shortage of food and fuel becomes more acute, there are increasing reports of violence and social collapse. Last week, a mob attacked a UNRWA flour storehouse and looted it. In another incident, a young Palestinian was shot by a policeman in the line for food, and members of the young man's family executed the policeman.
Gazans are experiencing a severe water shortage, which has worsened since approximately a week ago, when the Israel Defense Forces struck the main water pipeline in the Shujaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City. Because of damage to the city's other water sources, the pipeline provided about 70 percent of the water consumption there.
Waiting in line for water distribution in Jabalya, last month. About 36 percent of households have no access to the minimum amount of water required for drinking, cooking and hygiene.Credit: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
According to a statement issued by the Gaza City municipality on Monday, the Israeli army is not allowing repair crews to reach the site and fix the pipeline. According to the IDF, a few days ago, the first maintenance crew was allowed to enter there to evaluate the damage, and a second crew will arrive in the coming days to repair the pipeline.
In a survey conducted by several humanitarian organizations, it emerged that about 36 percent of the households in Gaza do not have access to 15 liters of water a day per person, an amount that constitutes the minimum daily requirement for drinking water, cooking and hygiene necessary for the maintenance of public health. "When we talk to people in the Gaza Strip, says Cherevko, "the first thing they mention is the water shortage, even before they talk about food."
Shortage of medical equipment
A man evacuating a girl wounded in a bombing in Gaza City, last week. An American doctor in Gaza reported using regular soap to sterilize wounds.Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP
WHO, the World Health Organization, warned that the blockade had caused a severe shortage of medical equipment and medications in Gaza. Among other things, there are shortages of anesthetics, antibiotics, child immunizations, and pints of blood, as well as equipment needed for Caesarean sections and infusions, respirators, incubators and oxygen generators.
Another American doctor who was in the Gaza Strip recently told Haaretz that he used ordinary soap he had brought along for his personal needs to sterilize patients' wounds. He stressed that he had experienced a grave lack of anesthetics and painkillers at the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital, where he worked.
Ever since the aid dried up, "Gaza is a killing field – and civilians are in an endless death loop," said UN Secretary General António Guterres on Tuesday, noting that "for weeks, guns fell silent, obstacles were removed, looting ended – and we were able to deliver lifesaving supplies to virtually every part of the Gaza Strip."
He added: "Hope sank for Palestinian families in Gaza and families of hostages in Israel – as I was reminded when I met again with hostage families yesterday." Earlier this week, several top UN officials, including the heads of WHO, UNWRA, UNICEF and the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, signed a sharp letter warning of a humanitarian collapse in the Gaza Strip.
"More than 2.1 million people are trapped, bombed and starved again, while, at crossing points, food, medicine, fuel and shelter supplies are piling up, and vital equipment is stuck," adding: "...assertions that there is now enough food to feed all Palestinians in Gaza are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low."
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Jonathan Whittal, the head of OCHA in Gaza, says that "Gaza has become a deathtrap." According to him, "We cannot accept – and as humanitarians, I need to emphasize this – that Palestinian civilians are dehumanized to the point of being somehow unworthy of survival." He added that people's survival depends on aid systems, which themselves are under attack.
During this past week, there have been talks between the heads of the humanitarian organizations in Gaza and COGAT, the unit for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories. The mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth has reported that the army has begun planning for aid to enter the Strip again and intends to oversee its distribution.
Corpses of people killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip last week. According to the head of OCHA, "Gaza has become a death trap."Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP
However, the IDF hastened to deny the report, noting that "the IDF is acting under instructions from the government. Israel is not transferring and will not transfer any aid into the hands of Hamas."
One idea under examination in the IDF is using the American private security contractor SRS, which has been operating in Gaza since the beginning of the truce. Haaretz has learned that the company's representatives recently contacted the humanitarian organizations providing aid in Gaza and proposed a model for restoring aid to certain areas.
Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, said in response: "For more than five weeks, Israel has blocked all goods from entering Gaza – no one item of food nor one tent has entered, and essential goods such as vaccines and incubators are waiting at the border for a population in desperate need. Food is running out, bombing continues on an unprecedented scale, and Israel's displacement orders are causing hundreds of thousands to flee.
"All of this was recently confirmed by the High Court of Justice when it ruled that Israel is "going above and beyond" in terms of humanitarian aid, but the court chose not to examine Israel's policy of completely blocking aid for the past five weeks, in order to avoid the obvious and only possible conclusion – that denying aid to a civilian population is a war crime."
