Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #8 [EN/AR/HE]

KEY POINTS

  • Heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted. Over the past 24 hours and as of 22:00 today (Saturday), there have been 315 fatalities in Gaza and 1,048 injuries, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

  • Mass displacement from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip has been ongoing since yesterday (Friday) morning, after Israel ordered residents to evacuate the areas ahead of military operations. Prior to the order, over 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced due to the hostilities.

  • Palestinian armed groups in Gaza continued their indiscriminate rocket firing towards Israeli population centres, including the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. There were no Israeli fatalities reported during the past 24 hours, but 183 were wounded, according to Israeli media.

  • The Israeli city of Sderot will be completely evacuated within 24 hours, according to Israeli media, and many have reportedly left Ashqelon and other Israeli towns. Previously, mass displacement in southern Israel primarily occurred in small communities in the immediate vicinity to Gaza.

  • People across Gaza have severely limited access to clean drinking water. As a last resort, people are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, triggering serious concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases.

  • For the fourth consecutive day, Gaza has had no electricity, pushing vital services, including health, water and sanitation to the brink of collapse and worsening food insecurity.

  • All hospitals in Gaza are believed to have about 48 hours of fuel to operate backup generators. The shutdown of generators would place the lives of thousands of patients at immediate risk.

  • From yesterday (Friday) afternoon to 16:00 today, Israeli forces killed 19 Palestinians, including seven children, across the West Bank. Forty-nine Palestinians, including 13 children, have been killed in the past week, making it the deadliest for West Bank Palestinians since OCHA began recording casualties in 2005.

  • On 12 October the OPT Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) launched a Flash Appeal calling for US$294 million for 77 humanitarian partners to address the most urgent needs of 1,260,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank.., This is set to be updated shortly.