The military operation in Rafah is causing extraordinary chaos and hardship for Palestinian civilians. The Israeli military has now issued five separate evacuation orders since May 6, resulting in nearly 600,000 people – most of whom were already displaced – to flee Rafah. In addition, approximately 100,000 more people have been displaced in northern Gaza over the past week. Of these newly displaced people, 70% reported that the “humanitarian zones” to which they fled had no sanitation facilities at all, 50% reported no access to safe water, and 58% reported no access to food. Oxfam staff have reported that people fleeing have found it difficult to navigate around piles of human waste and rivers of sewage along congested evacuation routes. Amid soaring temperatures, these conditions are ripe for epidemics like Hepatitis A and cholera.

Meanwhile, aid entering Gaza has once again slowed to a trickle. The Rafah crossing remains closed, leaving more than 2,000 trucks waiting at the border and approximately 4,500 at al Arish. Perishable food contained in these trucks is rotting. But the numbers of trucks entering Gaza do not provide a complete or accurate picture as to the extent of humanitarian access constraints or likely humanitarian outcomes. Access to northern Gaza is as poor as ever, with the Erez crossing once again closed and nearly half of planned aid missions from southern Gaza in the past two weeks either denied, impeded, or cancelled. The denial of humanitarian movements combined with a lack of safety for aid workers have forced a reversal in the scale-up of nutrition services. This is causing a sharp increase in the number of children experiencing severe acute malnutrition against the backdrop of collapsed health, water, and sanitation systems. Though it may not be declared until new evidence is available, famine in northern Gaza is now either present or just days away, with southern Gaza not far behind.

The United States must do everything in its power to push for a long-term ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, and full, unimpeded humanitarian access. Please contact me or Jacob Batinga (Jacob.batinga@oxfam.org) if you have any questions about the current situation or Oxfam’s work.

Gaza:

• Since the start of hostilities, 35,233 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and around 79,141 have been injured. The Ministry of Health has shifted its reporting on the disaggregation of fatalities, reporting only the number of women and children among the deceased that have been fully identified. This has unfortunately, and wrongly, been misreported as a revision in the overall number of fatalities being reported by the Ministry of Health. The World Health Organization has reiterated its confidence in MOH figures, which the US Department of State has also verified as having been accurate in previous military escalations in Gaza.
• To date, 285 square kilometers, or approximately 78% of the Gaza Strip, have been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military; this encompasses all areas north of Wadi Gaza, whose residents were instructed to evacuate in late October, as well as specific areas south of Wadi Gaza designated for evacuation by the Israeli military since December 1.
• According to UNRWA and OCHA, 23 out of 35 hospitals in Gaza are not functioning at all. Remaining hospitals are not able to function fully due to damage, lack of fuel, medicine, and personnel. 130 ambulances have been damaged.
• Gaza remains under a full electricity blackout since October 11. Fuel is urgently needed for the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO) teams to conduct damage assessments and field repairs. With a small number of limited exceptions, fuel has not entered Gaza since the Rafah operation began.
• Gaza is experiencing internet and phone outages and disruptions. Among humanitarian partners, only JHOC, UNICEF, and WFP have been able to maintain connectivity. Communication with partners and suppliers is extremely difficult for humanitarian organizations.
• 7 water wells continue to operate, pumping approximately 3,000 cubic meters. 83% of all groundwater wells in Gaza are not operational, a number which is increasing as fuel supplies dwindle. Wastewater treatments systems are wholly nonoperational.
• WFP warns that famine is either setting in or days away in northern Gaza. Without safe, large-scale, and consistent food and nutrition assistance, famine thresholds across Gaza will be breached within the next six weeks.
• The system of education in Gaza is in tatters: 80% of school buildings are damaged, including 38% directly hit. 6,200 students and more than 300 educational staff have been killed since October 74. 65% of the school buildings used as IDP shelters have either been directly hit or damaged.
• The Coordination of Governmental Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced that it would oversee the opening of a new crossing for humanitarian assistance: Erez West/Zikim and noted the possibility of facilitating 500 trucks per day through this crossing. Thus far, 36 trucks operated by WFP have entered through Zikim since it opened a week ago, which coincided with the closing of Erez once again.

The West Bank:

• Since October 7, 480 Palestinians, including at least 116 children, have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Approximately 463 were killed by Israeli forces, 10 killed by settlers, and 7 remain undetermined. Approximately 5,040 Palestinians have been injured in the same period, 34% by live ammunition. Ten Israelis have been killed and at least 105 have been injured in the West Bank since October 7; these include six members of Israeli forces killed and 70 injured.
• The UNRWA West Bank Field Office in East Jerusalem was subject to arson attacks by Israeli residents on May 9 and again on May 15, who set fire to the perimeter of the compound while staff were inside. This followed a violent protest outside the office on May 7, during which windows were broken and UNRWA staff were attacked with stones. Following these incidents, the UNRWA West Bank Field Office was temporarily closed.
• A group of Israeli settlers attacked a large Jordanian aid convoy in the West Bank while it was en route to the Gaza Strip on May 13, in the third such incident this month. A total of 98 trucks carrying food and relief supplies were coming from Jordan early on Monday when dozens of settlers blocked their route at the Tarkumiya and Kiryat Arba checkpoints that lie near Israeli settlements in the south of Hebron. They damaged the trucks’ tires and vandalized the cargo, throwing the parcels of food on the ground and tearing them apart.

Israel:

• 1,139 Israelis and foreign nationals, including at least 27 Americans, were killed and at least 3,400 people were injured on October 7.
• From November 24-30, 86 Israeli and 24 foreign nationals in Gaza have been released by Hamas. Around 133 Israelis and foreign nationals, some of them elderly people and children, remain in Hamas custody. Oxfam reaffirms that hostage-taking is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and calls for the immediate release of all remaining hostages in Gaza.

Oxfam is calling for:

• Respect for international humanitarian law. We are deeply dismayed by the unprecedented violence against Israeli civilians on October 7 and since. Attacks that deliberately target civilians are never justifiable. The government of Israel’s decision to cut off the flow of food, fuel, electricity, and water to the Palestinian population of Gaza is also legally impermissible and a form of collective punishment.
• Release of hostages. The abduction of civilians is a grave violation of international humanitarian law. Civilians being held by Palestinian armed groups must be swiftly and unconditionally released.
• An immediate ceasefire. Ongoing fighting is unlikely to deliver real, sustainable security to Israelis or Palestinians – but it is sure to cause untold suffering for Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is entitled to defend its people against armed attacks after the deadliest day in its history. It also has a duty to ensure the safety of people under occupation. The cycle of violence must end.
• Humanitarian aid and basic services for those most in need. It is impossible for agencies like Oxfam to restart humanitarian operations in the face of bombs, shells, rockets, and bullets. The cutoff of basic services like fuel and electricity serves as a double blow, hurting Palestinian civilians directly and undermining the ability of aid organizations to help them.