Gaza: Humanitarian situation

Aid agencies are battling to meet the urgent needs of tens and thousands of displaced, homeless and injured people in Gaza, as well as to get damaged water, power and sewage infrastructure back even to their ailing pre-war levels.

That stage alone will cost "hundreds of millions" of dollars, while long term reconstruction will run into "billions," the UN has said.

Two separate Palestinian surveys have put the cost of the damage just under $2bn.

One said it would take three to five years to rebuild even under normal conditions - never mind with the continued Israeli blockade which stops all but humanitarian basics entering the strip.

As well as killing more than 1,300, and leaving 5,000 injured, the UN says that at its height, the Israeli operation left two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5m residents without power, a third without running water and medical facilities overwhelmed and lacking basic supplies.

Even before the fighting, most Gazans lived a precarious existence, with half the population dependent on UN food aid and the economy at a virtual standstill. Israeli and international human rights groups also accuse Israel of using closures in the month before the assault to further drain supplies of food and fuel in Gaza.

Israel has stressed that it is working to speed the flow of aid into Gaza, and while more truckloads of supplies have entered Gaza than in the weeks preceding the operation, aid agencies say they are far from enough - and all border crossings must be opened if Gaza is to recover.

Israel tightened its blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory in November after rocket attacks by militants.

FOOD

Even before the Israeli assault, aid agencies were warning of malnutrition in Gaza, as the aid-reliant population struggled to afford and access dairy, meat and fresh vegetable products to supplement the bread, rice and oil that form the backbone of humanitarian aid.

Although food aid has entered the strip during and since the fighting, security problems hampered distribution, while damage to tunnels under the Egyptian border and agricultural fields have pushed up prices for other goods.

Days after the ceasefire, the UN said there was an "acute shortage" of bread, as mills and bakeries lacked wheat flour and cooking gas.

A survey by Care International found that 89% of families had received no humanitarian assistance, 84% of Gazans said they faced problems accessing food, and 50% said food was their most urgent need.

UN food agency the World Food Programme (WFP) says the price of chicken increased 23% percent; the price of wheat flour by 45%; the price of peppers by 100% and the price of tomatoes by 500%.

WATER AND SANITATION

Before the Israeli operation, Gaza's water and sewage system was already in dire need of maintenance and spare parts.

The fighting damaged water wells and pipes, and led to shortages in the fuel that powers them, leaving half a million Gazans without running water. Five days after the ceasefire, 400,000 Gazans were still without water.

Officials have confirmed that all two million litres of wastewater at Gaza City's treatment plant, bombed on 10 January, leaked into surrounding agricultural land.

A pump that sends sewage from Beit Hanoun to the Beit Lahia wastewater treatment plant was also damaged, leaving sewage flowing onto the streets.

FUEL AND ELECTRICITY

At the height of the crisis, two-thirds of Gazans were without power. The strip's only power plant shut down on 30 December because of lack of fuel, and damage to power lines from Israel and Egypt, and to transformers and the distribution grid.

Five days after the Israeli ceasefire, the power plant was operating at a third of its capacity.

Israel said it had allowed the delivery of a total 3.2m litres of fuel for it in the three and a half weeks since the military operation began.

Aid agencies point out that this is well below the 2.2m litres a week the Israeli Supreme Court set as a minimum - which itself is less than the 3.5m litres for the plant to operate at full capacity.

On 21 January, Gaza's power utility said 40% of the population were still without power, while 60% were receiving intermittent supply.

Cooking gas has been in short supply for months. Small amounts began entering Gaza in the days after the ceasefire - by 22 Jan, enough to cover about 10% of the estimated weekly need had arrived.

Israel has for months limited fuel supplies into Gaza in response to rocket attacks.

MEDICAL FACILITIES

Eight hospitals and 26 primary health care clinics were damaged during the fighting, according to the World Health Organisation.

A few days after the ceasefire, two of the hospitals and several of the clinics remained unable to function.

The World Health Organization says Gaza's hospitals were "completely overwhelmed" during the Israel assault, with only a total of 2,000 hospital beds in Gaza, but more than 5,000 people injured.

Hospitals suffered shortages of basic supplies - even when these were able to enter the strip, security problems hampered efforts to get them to where they were needed.

Medical facilities were also hit hard by power cuts and fuel shortages, being forced to rely on back-up generators and fuel for them delivered by Unrwa, with Israeli coordination.

Since the ceasefire shortages of supplies and fuel have improved. But shortages of skilled medical personnel and ailing equipment had brought the health infrastructure close to collapse before the Israeli operation, and the UN says it remains under "enormous strain".

More than 50% of people surveyed by Care International said they faced difficulties accessing basic medicines such as antibiotics and drugs for diabetes, and heart disease - 60% of them said their health had worsened as a result.

Israel has evacuated a small number of injured Palestinians for treatment in Israel, and dozens of others have been sent to Egypt - partly because the Strip lacks specialist medical facilities.

SHELTER

Some 55,000 people were sheltering in UN-run schools at the height of the fighting, but many thousands more moved to stay with friends and relatives in different areas.

More than half of the people surveyed by Care International were hosting displaced people in their homes.

Five days after the ceasefire, 35,000 of those people were still staying in shelters, the UN said.

Gazan officials have estimated some 4,000 residential and government buildings were severely damaged and another 20,000 destroyed.

An initial survey by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics said 4,100 homes were totally destroyed and 17,000 others damaged during the conflict.

About 1,500 factories and workshops, 20 mosques, 31 security installations and 10 water or sewage pipes were also damaged, it said.

In the days after the ceasefire, the International committee of the Red Cross distributed plastic sheeting to 800 families in some of the hardest hit areas.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7845428.stm

Published: 2009/01/22 16:42:09 GMT

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