Gazans describe life in tents as ‘hell’ as summer’s heat arrives (2024)

Children, in particular, continue to bear the brunt of the conflict, humanitarian groups say.

The U.N. children’s agency warned this week that almost 3,000 children have been cut off from treatment for malnutrition in southern Gaza, “putting them at risk of death as harrowing violence and displacement continue to impact access to healthcare facilities.” There are “only two stabilization centers for severely malnourished children” currently functioning in the Gaza Strip, said OCHA, the U.N. humanitarian agency, in an update Friday.

“Catastrophic hunger grips a significant portion of Gaza’s population,” the update said.

“Horrific images continue to emerge from Gaza of children dying before their families’ eyes due to the continued lack of food, nutrition supplies, and the destruction of healthcare services,” said Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Unless treatment can be quickly resumed for these 3,000 children, they are at immediate and serious risk of becoming critically ill, acquiring life-threatening complications, and joining the growing list of boys and girls who have been killed by this senseless, man-made deprivation.”

The State Department on Friday announced sanctions against the right-wing Israeli group Tsav 9, which has been “blocking, harassing, and damaging convoys carrying lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

In response, Tsav 9 issued a statement saying its members include hostage families who “aim to stop the aid to the enemy Hamas in time of war.” About 250 people were taken hostage in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel; about half have since been released or rescued.

Residents of the northern Gaza Strip spoke Friday about severe food shortages amid sluggish aid movement into their area.

“There are often no foodstuffs. Vegetables, fruits and meat are not available, and what is available cannot be purchased by most residents due to the high prices,” said Beit Lahia resident Muhammad Mamdouh, who lives in a partly destroyed house with his family of six. “I spend most of my day searching for food for my family.”

Chronic water shortages, due to the widespread destruction of pumping infrastructure at wells, are also contributing to the misery, Rahma Hilal said by phone. “Water reaches our area once a week, but we find it difficult to raise it to the tanks above the house due to the lack of electricity.”

The summer’s heat is compounding the devastation, said Shireen Rajab, who lives in one of the tent cities in the south.

“Life in the tent is like hell. We do not know what to do, whether to stay inside or go outside. … The high temperatures are unbearable,” she said. “Children suffer from skin diseases as a result of excessive heat and sweat and the lack of water for bathing.”

Water and sanitation facilities continue to be damaged by fighting, the OCHA update said. Many people are “collecting water from unreliable sources in inadequate containers,” and they lack hygiene supplies such as soap. Such factors are contributing to rising levels of diarrhea, skin diseases and a hepatitis A outbreak, it said.

The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said this week that a “significant proportion of Gaza’s population” is facing “famine-like conditions.”

Violence against children caught in armed conflict globally reached “extreme levels” last year, according to a U.N. report published Thursday, with the highest number of grave violations verified in Israel and occupied Palestinian territory. It said the conflict had led to a 155 percent increase in such violations, which include killing, maiming, abduction and denial of humanitarian access.

“I am appalled by the dramatic increase and unprecedented scale and intensity of grave violations against children in the Gaza Strip, Israel and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, despite my repeated calls for parties to implement measures to end grave violations,” said U.N. Secretary General António Guterres.

Aid agencies continue to call for more aid to be allowed into the battered enclave, while Israel blames the United Nations for inefficiencies, saying much aid remains waiting at the border. COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees the Palestinian territories, said 220 aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday, most through the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and southern Gaza.

Aid agencies have said the fighting in Gaza and the difficulties of coordinating with Israeli authorities have made the Kerem Shalom crossing largely inaccessible to them.

The Pentagon plans to detach and temporarily move the U.S.-made floating pier used to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza, two U.S. officials familiar with the process said on Friday, as senior defense officials attempt to shelter it from rough waves forecast in coming days.

The move to shelter in the Israeli port of Ashdod could come within the day, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. The move would come about one week after the U.S. military resumed operations over the pier after heavy waves ripped the pier apart May 25, causing an estimated $22 million in damage and curtailing aid to Gaza for days.

The floating pier is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to get food and other necessities to starving Gazans as Israel continues its war against the militant group Hamas. But it is challenging to use when waves exceed two to three feet high, according past reports in military journals. Forecasts show waves could grow to upward of three feet on Sunday, and possibly four feet Monday.

Although operations resumed last weekend, the United Nations said it had paused its work with the pier while it assesses whether it was used by Israeli forces in a June 8 operation that rescued four hostages but killed more than 250 Palestinians. The United States and Israel have both denied any use of the pier in the raid.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Hamas of making unworkable demands in cease-fire negotiations. “It’s time for the haggling to stop and the cease-fire to start,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference in Qatar on Wednesday. Hamas submitted a response this week to a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, seeking assurances about an end to the war. Blinken said Hamas proposed “numerous changes” to the plan announced by President Biden late last month. “Some of the changes are workable, some are not,” he added. Israel, for its part, also appeared to be dragging its feet on the deal, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under pressure from the right flank of his cabinet not to accept it.

A Hamas official said that “no one has an idea” how many hostages are still alive in Israel. During an interview aired Friday with CNN, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said, “I don’t have any idea about that,” when asked whether the remaining 120 hostages seized by Hamas on Oct. 7 were still alive. He described Oct. 7 as a “reaction against the occupation” by Israel.

Israeli politician Yair Golan has scolded Netanyahu’s war effort, saying it has “no realistic goals.” Golan leads Israel’s center-left Labor Party and won widespread acclaim for personally rescuing people during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Golan said it was “impossible to free the hostages and destroy Hamas at the same time,” adding that Israel has “no plan for the day after the war.”

Israel will divert about $35 million in tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to Israeli “families of the victims of terrorism,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Thursday. U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller condemned the action as “extraordinarily wrongheaded” and said it “risks destabilizing the West Bank and further harming Israel’s own security.” Israel collects certain taxes, including custom and excise duties, on behalf of the Palestinians and transfers the money to the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries and other public expenses.

Yemen-based Houthi militants, in their second strike on a commercial vessel this week, damaged a cargo ship and left one of its crew members severely wounded, U.S. Central Command said. The MV Verbena — a Palauan-flagged, Ukrainian-owned, Polish-operated ship — was hit by two anti-ship cruise missiles as it passed through the Gulf of Aden. It was carrying wood construction material from Malaysia to Italy.

At least ​​37,266 people have been killed and 85,102 injured in Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 298 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operations in Gaza.

Dan Lamothe, Miriam Berger and Frances Vinall contributed to this report.