ReliefWeb

Crisis History

The people of Gaza have suffered over 15 years of siege, leading to a humanitarian crisis where 1.57 million people are suffering from severe need. The nature of the assistance required can be grouped into three cate-gories: improved protection and prevention of displacement, increased access to essential services, and enhanced resilience and preparedness.
Currently, the main factors driving humanitarian health needs include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, recurring flare-ups in violence and escalation in hostilities, access barriers, a weakened, overstretched, and fragile healthcare system, the internal Palestinian political divide, and limited human and finan-cial resources . Gaza suffers from a prolonged economic deterioration, with 53% of individuals in the Gaza Strip found to be poor in 2017. According to World Bank preliminary estimates, the percentage of poor households will increase to 64% in Gaza as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In 2021, an 11 day siege led to the death of 253 Palestinians, including 66 children and 38 women, of whom 129 were believed to be civilians. Almost 2,000 Palestinians were injured during the hostilities, including over 600 children and 400 women, of whom some 10 percent may suffer from a long-term disability requiring rehabilitation. The economy of the Gaza Strip was already struggling before the further destruction of factories, shops, companies, agricultural input suppliers, and farming assets. Additionally, the complete restriction of goods in and out of Gaza during and after the conflict has led to direct losses of productive and economic assets and indirect losses minimizing the economic return of all economic sectors.
The years 2021 and early 2022 have witnessed a further deterioration in the humanitarian situation due to the imposition of physical and administra-tive measures that restrict aid programs. For example, movement restrictions were imposed on the ground, impeding the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza, thus hampering the implementation of infrastructure projects and delaying economic recovery.
The health and nutrition needs in Gaza remain dire, with almost 1 million in need of services according to the 2022 Humanitarian Needs Overview. Par-ticularly vulnerable populations include women, children, and the elderly.
There are about 130,000 adolescent girls, 90,000 vulnerable women and 225,000 children, including 30,000 neonates in need of the provision of sexual and reproductive healthcare, gender-based violence, obstetric and neonatal care, and emergency nutrition services.
An impact assessment conducted by MedGlobal through the Gaza Strip revealed that, within the elderly population (age 65+) top health needs were for medication and lab tests, awareness and education sessions, home adap-tation, and assistive devices. A total of 6.3% of elderly people were suffering from one disease, 39.6% were suffering from two diseases, and 54.1% were suffering from three or more diseases. Additionally, one third of elderly people said that they do not have access to healthcare services.