Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #15 [EN/AR/HE]

KEY POINTS

• Today (21 October), the Rafah crossing with Egypt opened for the first time since 8 October, allowing the entry of 20 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies. As stated by the UN Secretary-General, these supplies “are the difference between life and death for so many people in Gaza.”

• The volume of goods that entered is equivalent to about four per cent of the daily average of imports into Gaza prior to the hostilities, and a fraction of what is needed after 13 days of complete siege. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator indicated that it is imperative to increase the access of aid to at least 100 trucks per day.

• Bombardments continue almost unabated as hostilities enter the fifteenth day in Gaza, where an additional 248 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours (as of 17:00), according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza. This brings the cumulative fatality toll to 4,385 Palestinians killed, with 62 per cent of the fatalities being children and women, according to the MoH. More than 1,000 people Palestinians have been reported missing and are presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble.

• At least 42 per cent (164,756) of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have been either destroyed or damaged since the start of the hostilities, according to the Ministry of Housing in Gaza.

• About 1.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) are estimated in Gaza, with nearly 566,000 sheltering in 148 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters (DES) in increasingly dire conditions. There are reports of displaced families returning to northern Gaza due to ongoing bombardments and an inability to meet basic needs in the south.

• Health partners have detected cases of chicken pox, scabies and diarrhea, attributable to the poor sanitation conditions and consumption of water from unsafe sources. The incidence of such diseases is expected to rise unless water and sanitation facilities are provided with electricity or fuel to resume operations. Palestinian armed groups’ indiscriminate rocket firing towards Israeli population centres continued, with no new Israeli fatalities reported (as of 21:00). Overall, about 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel, according to the Israeli authorities, the vast majority on 7 October. Israeli media reported that, as of 20 October, the names of 767 of these fatalities have been released, 22 of them children for those whose ages have been provided. The reported fatality toll is over threefold the cumulative number of Israelis killed since OCHA began recording casualties in 2005 (nearly 400).

• According to the Israeli authorities, at least 210 people are currently held captive in Gaza, including Israelis and foreign nationals. The Secretary-General has called upon Hamas to release hostages immediately and unconditionally. Two hostages with United States citizenship were released on 20 October.

• In the West Bank, since the afternoon of 20 October, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian boys during confrontations, bringing the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers since 7 October to 84, including 27 children.

• At least 84 Palestinian households, comprising 545 people, over half of whom are children, have been displaced from 13 herding/Bedouin communities in Area C of the West Bank since 7 October, amid intensified settler violence and access restrictions.