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Rafah: Palestinians near a house destroyed by Israeli airstrikes

Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / dpa

The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly precarious after weeks of fighting between Israel's army and the terrorist organization Hamas. According to the World Health Organization, 93 percent of the population is currently affected by a hunger crisis – with inadequate food and high levels of malnutrition. "Hunger, misery and death are the order of the day," the organization wrote on X.

The WHO also lamented a "deadly combination of hunger and disease" leading to more deaths. According to the report, the number of infectious diseases in Gaza has already risen sharply. More than 100,000 cases of diarrhoeal diseases have been reported since mid-October – half of them in children under the age of five.

In addition, more than 150,000 cases of upper respiratory tract infections have been reported, as well as cases of meningitis, rashes, scabies, lice and chickenpox. In addition, hepatitis diseases are suspected, as many people show signs of jaundice, the organization continues.

The UN Palestine Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) also said on X that local people were stopping trucks with aid supplies and eating the goods directly – a completely new situation, according to the agency.

According to the World Health Organization, there are also no functioning hospitals left in the northern Gaza Strip. Patients are not only dying because of a lack of medical care, WHO relief coordinator Sean Casey said on Thursday. "They are starving and dying of thirst," he said in a video link from Rafah.

In the entire Gaza Strip, only 9 of the 36 health facilities are still partially operational, according to WHO representative Richard Peeperkorn. Hospitals in the northern part of the Palestinian coastal strip are no longer able to perform surgeries and care for their patients, but they still house thousands of people, including many refugees.

In the war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, there is no end in sight to the fighting for the time being. On Thursday, about 30 rockets were fired at southern Israel and the coastal city of Tel Aviv. According to the UN, Israel had previously ordered the evacuation of about one-fifth of the area of the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, and Hamas also reported Israeli shelling of the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Meanwhile, talks about a possible ceasefire continued.

aeh/AFP/dpa