Gaza: Vital aid supplies running low as schools hit in further strikes

This article is published in association with United Nations.

UN aid teams have warned that vital chorine supplies that are essential for purifying water are running out and deteriorating in Gaza, while humanitarians condemned new strikes on schools sheltering people displaced by the war. 

There are enough chlorine reserves to last just one month, said the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, while double the amount of purifying solution needs to be used to be effective now.

Children are particularly at risk of waterborne diseases, and the danger is set to rise during the winter months if Gazans continue to be forced to live in overcrowded shelters lacking adequate water and sanitation facilities, OCHA noted. 

Shortages of everything

The UN agency added that acute shortages of soap for handwashing, laundry powder/liquid and shampoo and a lack of disinfectants, continue to allow diseases to spread easily. 

“Even when these products are available in the market, people cannot afford them,” OCHA said, adding that many Gazans now rely on water trucking operations, with 22 partners now distributing more than 7,000 cubic metres of water daily to 775 registered locations.

In a related development, humanitarians condemned another strike on a UN school in Gaza City whose blast could be seen from more than 12 kilometres away.

The strike on Wednesday was the third time that the school has been hit, after strikes in December and July, according to the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, which runs the facility.

The UN agency noted that a day earlier, a strike landed at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City. Children were reportedly killed and injured and some burned to death, said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. 

Since Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel sparked the war on 7 October, more than half of schools used as shelters in the Gaza Strip have been directly hit during the war, according to the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.

Seven in 10 UNRWA schools have been hit, and over 500 people have been reported killed, with over people 1,700 injured despite being protected under international humanitarian law.

“Yet again, people looking for safety have only been able to find death and destruction. Schools and other civilian infrastructure must never be used by any party to the conflict for military or fighting purposes,” said UNRWA.

Deadly toll still rising

Amid a lack of a ceasefire agreement, more than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, health authorities say.

In its latest humanitarian update, OCHA warned that repeated displacement, including among children diagnosed with malnutrition, has made it difficult for partners to monitor their progress and for families to carry sufficient supplies to prevent and treat the condition.

Between 3 and 16 August, 26,825 children under the age of five and 12,728 pregnant and breastfeeding women received a 30-day allocation of special nutritional supplements in Khan Younis, Deir Al-Balah and Rafah, from the UN World Food Programme (WFP). 

The lack of entry of seeds, fertilsers and other livestock and crop production inputs is also hampering the restoration of local food production in Gaza, OCHA noted.