New report highlights continuing aid challenges in Gaza and the West Bank amid growing safety risks

The latest Humanitarian Snapshot Report from NGOs operating in Gaza, including ActionAid, has revealed the safety risks and huge challenges in delivering aid faced by humanitarian workers in Gaza over the last two weeks as the Polio vaccination campaign gets underway.

ActionAid Ireland CEO, Karol Balfe, described the overall humanitarian situation as devastating. Ms Balfe said: “Delivering aid is still extremely challenging and dangerous in Gaza. Without a ceasefire that facilitates vaccination campaigns for deadly diseases such as polio and ensures a fuel supply for hospitals and health centres, aid cannot be provided safely and at the scale needed to save lives.”

Ms Balfe continued: “Humanitarian workers should not have to work in such challenging and dangerous conditions and that unhindered access should be facilitated for all humanitarian assistance in both Gaza and the West Bank to guarantee the safety of all humanitarian actors”.

The key findings of the report are:

• Aid workers continue to face huge logistical challenges as the humanitarian space in Gaza shrinks. As a result, three ActionAid partners were left unable to access their warehouses. On September 10th, Israeli military strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians and wounded 60 others in a camp for displaced families located in an Israeli military-designated “humanitarian” zone in Al-Mawasi, proving yet again that nowhere is safe in Gaza.
• Despite Israeli forces revising some displacement orders on 29 and 30 August, hundreds of thousands of families remain confined to Israeli military-designated “humanitarian” zones, covering approximately 13% of Gaza’s total land area. At least 553 Palestinians were killed and 1291 injured between 27 August and 8 September, with the death toll now rising to 40,988, and at least 94,825 injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Thousands of people remain buried under the rubble and are presumed dead.
• In August, the number of humanitarian missions and movements within Gaza that have been denied access by Israeli authorities has doubled in the north (34% vs.19%) and almost doubled in the south (27% vs 14%), compared with July.
• A World Food Programme (WFP) convoy and an Anera convoy were attacked by Israeli forces, and an Israeli strike also hit a UN warehouse in Nuseirat, killing nine Palestinians and injuring others.
• On 28 August, Israeli forces launched the largest-scale and longest military operation in the West Bank in two decades, raising serious concerns over the excessive use of force, killing at least 36 people, including 8 children. Israeli forces have imposed blockades and seriously damaged road infrastructure, electricity networks, and water supplies.
• In the West Bank, aid activities have been severely disrupted by Israeli military incursions into northern cities and refugee camps. Due to the extreme danger and movement restrictions, Médecins du Monde reported that it was only able to access displaced civilians in the Jenin governorate six days after the army’s operation in the area began, causing a detrimental delay in the provision of direly needed medical and psychological emergency support.

A Polio vaccination campaign, led by the WHO, UNICEF, and humanitarian agencies, which aims to vaccinate 640,000 children under 10, got underway on September 1 and has now entered its second week.

Despite the campaign’s success so far, NGOs said challenges existed – including safety concerns around the transportation of vaccines to medical points around the Gaza strip and fuel shortages at hospitals. A UN convoy transporting staff to the north of Gaza to vaccinate children was stopped for more than eight hours on Monday, despite prior detailed coordination with the Israeli authorities, according to UNRWA.

Dr Mohammed Salha, acting director of the Al-Awda Hospital, an ActionAid partner, said: “In collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the Al Awda Health and Community Association is carrying out a polio vaccination campaign through primary healthcare centres throughout Gaza. However, medical teams face challenges such as fuel shortages due to restrictions imposed by the Israeli army”

Al-Awda medical teams face challenges such as fuel shortages due to restrictions imposed by the Israeli army, which hinders the delivery of fuel to northern Gaza, making it difficult to keep healthcare centres operational and ensure the correct storage, transportation and distribution of vaccines.

At least 13 Palestinians were reportedly killed in attacks by the Israeli forces on aid warehouses or vehicles, despite teams using the required humanitarian coordination and notification systems.

The report is available here.

More information on our work here.