The Israeli extermination war on Gaza enters its 400th day amidst unprecedented living, humanitarian, and health conditions for nearly one million displaced people in the southern and central parts of the Strip, while northern Gaza experiences a real famine as the occupation continues to prevent aid from reaching it, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
Living under the weight of multi-front war
The residents of the Gaza Strip live under the weight of multi-front war and suffering that the world has failed to end or convince the Israeli occupation to alleviate the urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, which has completely destroyed its infrastructure, leaving it without schools, universities, hospitals, electricity, or sewage networks.
Haq: 4650 massacres
According to the International Commission to Defend the Rights of the Palestinian People (Haq), the occupation has committed more than 4650 massacres against civilians during the war, most of whom were targeted inside their homes or in shelters during a campaign of forced displacement, which affected two million people, representing 90% of the total population of the Strip.
War crimes
The occupation has committed war crimes and human rights violations, including the regular use of Palestinian children and their families as human shields during battles, according to documents compiled by the Global Movement to Defend Children.
The occupation authorities have detained 5,000 prisoners from the Strip under the “Illegal Combatants” law, subjecting them to harsh physical and psychological conditions, and subjected them to various forms of torture and mistreatment, with some facing rape and sexual assault.
Workers in international and humanitarian organizations have not been spared from the fires of the occupation, which has killed around 200 employees, while convoys of aid have been attacked, many of which were destroyed. At least 184 journalists have been killed, many of whom were directly and deliberately targeted, and the infrastructure of most media institutions has been destroyed to prevent coverage of the violations and war crimes being committed.
10,000 missing persons
Data from the government media office has recorded 10,000 missing persons whose statuses are unknown, whether they are martyrs, prisoners, or buried under rubble.
A report from the United Nations revealed on Friday that women and children make up nearly 70% of the victims of the extermination war, whose martyrdom has been confirmed by the international agency between November 2023 and April 2024. According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Health in Gaza on Friday, the toll of the Israeli aggression has reached 43,552 martyrs and 102,765 injuries since October 7, 2023.
Food insecurity
Famine has ravaged the people of the Gaza Strip, and dozens of children and elderly individuals have died from severe hunger, while some have perished due to the lack of basic life and health care necessities. Meanwhile, residents continue to live without fuel or gas to help them cook the little food they have for their children, resorting to using wood and plastic despite the diseases and cancers it may cause. Reports indicate that many children have been born with deformities due to malnutrition.
Reuters reported that experts in global food security stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is extremely dire and deteriorating rapidly. They added that "there is a strong possibility that a famine is imminent in areas of northern Gaza."
The experts stressed the urgent need for immediate action within days, not weeks, from all parties involved in the Gaza war or those who have influence, in order to alleviate this catastrophic situation. They emphasized that "if effective action is not taken, the scale of this impending disaster will far exceed anything else we have seen in Gaza since October 7, 2023."
Bombing of Displacement Centers
Throughout the 400 days of extermination, the occupation has not spared displacement shelters, with more than 1,200 citizens having been martyred due to the bombing of displacement and shelter centers in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, 2023.
According to data from the government media, the occupation has targeted more than 185 centers for displacement and shelter, including 163 schools housing hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documented the Israeli occupation army targeting shelter centers 39 times last October, resulting in the martyrdom of 188 Palestinians and injuries to hundreds more.
The international system has failed over the 400 days of extermination to achieve the principles upon which it was founded, demonstrating a complete failure to stop the war or to deter the occupation army from implementing the generals' plan in northern Gaza. Residents have been living under a fire siege, both aerial and artillery, for 36 days, facing systematic starvation aimed at forcibly displacing them, all while the occupation continues to bomb three of its hospitals.
The spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Kazem Abu Khalaf, confirmed that thousands of children in northern Gaza have been deprived of their right to vaccination against polio due to the blockade imposed by the Israeli occupation in the northern areas, and the aggression that has prevented all organizations from entering those areas.
Abu Khalaf noted that “delays mean an increased time interval between the first and second rounds of vaccination, which will affect the anticipated benefits of completing vaccinations in two rounds,” pointing out that more than 105,000 children have been deprived of the second phase of the polio vaccine.
Collapse of the Healthcare System
Out of three hospitals (the Indonesian, Al-Awda, and Kamal Adwan hospitals) in the northern Gaza Strip, two have completely gone out of service.
Dr. Marwan Al-Hamss, the field hospitals manager in Gaza, confirmed that the northern hospitals have completely ceased operations due to systematic destruction from bombings, deprivation of water and food, arrests of doctors and nurses, bombing of ambulances, and the prevention of civil defense services from reaching the injured.
In a remark to Al Jazeera Mubasher, Al-Hammas stated that the occupying forces have compelled numerous doctors to escape to Gaza City and are denying them re-entry to fulfill their medical responsibilities in hospitals located in northern Gaza. It equally declines to provide hospitals with fuel and medical resources. He characterized the circumstances at Kamal Adwan Hospital, the sole facility functioning with a restricted medical team, as disastrous, noting that they handle cases of starvation and malnutrition, asserting that the hospital cannot offer medical assistance for the rising number of injured, given that there are merely 5 doctors, none of whom are surgeons or possess surgical expertise.
No Hospitals in Rafah
Al-Hammas emphasized that the health situation in hospitals in central and southern Gaza is not much different. “In the city of Rafah, there is no hospital, and the wounded there receive treatment in a field hospital of the Red Cross in the Mawasi area of Rafah. As for Khan Younis, the Nasser Medical Complex, the European Gaza Hospital, and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah are all filled with the wounded and are severely lacking in medical supplies and urgently need fuel.”
The government media official stated that the crime of ethnic cleansing and genocide being committed by the occupation in northern Gaza has claimed the lives of more than 1,800 martyrs, 4,000 injured, and hundreds missing, in addition to the destruction of residential neighborhoods, hospitals, and infrastructure. The occupation has turned many residential areas and gatherings in northern Gaza, especially the Jabalia camp and Beit Lahia town, into barren deserts and heaps of rubble. This military approach is based on a strategy of demolishing residential blocks and gatherings to alter the demographic and geographical shape of the area after the ongoing Israeli war for the second consecutive year, and to prevent resistance from regrouping in a closely-knit geographical area.
Dozens of video clips published by occupying soldiers on their pages and accounts on social media show moments of demolishing residential blocks, homes, and mosques, while they celebrate these actions. The Israeli occupation has not yet halted this method, indicating that it is a military tactic employed in the ongoing military operations for the second consecutive year.
65% to 80% residential buildings destroyed
According to estimates, the destruction of buildings and residential gatherings by the occupation ranges between 65% and 80%, including total and significant partial destruction unfit for habitation, and partial destruction that can be restored, meaning that the Strip will need decades for reconstruction and to return to its pre-war state in Gaza.
