UNICEF in the State of Palestine Escalation Humanitarian Situation Report No.20

Highlights

• The nutrition situation in the Gaza Strip continues to further deteriorate. Tragic and preventable child deaths are unfolding with a number of reports of children who died of malnutrition at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip and fear that many more might follow.
• Hospitals continue with severe disruptions in providing health care in the Gaza Strip. As of 4 March, 155 health facilities have been damaged, and 32 hospitals and 53 health centres have been rendered non-functional, due to hostilities or shortages of essentials. Also, 126 ambulances had been damaged and rendered unusable, as reported by the Ministry of Health.
• Through the PSEA network hotline, there have been at least 1,060 mentions of either poor access to food or starvation since 7 October 2023. Most calls are about the lack of food and water in the Gaza Strip, mainly from the north of the Gaza Strip, in which is stated that people are dying of starvation, and that children are crying from hunger.
• UNICEF delivered vaccines for 6,000 children during inter-agency hospital visits for a duration of two months, and nutrition supplies for 300 children for one month.
• UNICEF has moved 25 truck loads into the Gaza Strip in the past week including hygiene kits and sanitary pads for 15,000 people, blankets for 2,000 people, nutrition supplements for 2,000 babies, neonatal incubators, 100 tents.
• In the West Bank, UNICEF continued to provide essential child protection preventative and response services to 1,183 people including 868 children and 315 caregivers who are directly or indirectly impacted by the violence.