Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed the Security Council on 8/29/24. After noting that they “have briefed this Council on the unconscionable suffering of civilian women, men and children on more than a dozen occasions,” she went on to recap the toll the Israeli war on Gaza has taken, including recent attacks on aid workers and the “devastating impacts on civilians” of repeated evacuation orders.

While all eyes in Israel are on a potential new regional war, there's another crisis going on – a pan-Palestinian water & sewage situation with dire health, social & political consequences. Israel, the main instigator of the crisis, seems to believe it won't be affected.

Food shortages, crumbling infrastructure, a failing medical system, flowing sewage, waste buildup, & summer heat have turned the humanitarian crisis in Gaza into a serious epidemiological threat. Ground incursions & heavy fighting also continues, as does rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups toward Israel. A case of polio has now been confirmed in a baby.

The horrific assaults on Gaza continue unabated with devastating health and humanitarian consequences. Of particular concerns are: constant evacuations of internally displaced people, overwhelmed and largely destroyed healthcare system, hunger and famine, risk of outbreak of paralytic polio epidemic, Israeli obstruction of aid, rising settler and army attacks in West Bank/East Jerusalem, clear evidence for Israeli torture of Palestinian detainees, and continued US support to Israel.

Since 11/23, Israeli forces have taken into custody thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, mostly men & boys, but some women & girls. They have generally been held in military facilities & further transferred to detention facilities & prisons inside Israel & the West Bank.

Continued attacks on refugee camps have led to the displacement of >190,000 from Khan Younis & Deir al Balah. Despite the increasing need, humanitarian aid entering Gaza has decreased 56% since April. Polio has been detected in the sewage system and more than 100,000 cases of acute jaundice have been reported.

Attacks on IDP shelters in tent camps & schools, & their supportive infrastructure, have led to a horrific increase in casualties. Poliovirus (VDPV) type 2 has been found in environmental surveillance samples collected from Khan Younis & Deir al Balah. 

Gaza City: tens of thousands were ordered to evacuate on 7/7-8, and more again on 7/10. ~90% of the Gazan population are now Internally Displaced by Israeli military action.

Ninety percent of the Gazan population are now Internally Displaced by Israeli military action, (displaced up to 10 times) & 110,000 are refugees in Egypt.

In Gaza City, 6/27: 60-80,000 people were displaced from Gaza City & 5,000 more were driven from Rafah overnight. About 78% of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders by Israeli military.

Israeli army said it will observe a limited daily “tactical pause” along one of the main roads in Gaza to allow delivery of increased quantities of humanitarian aid, as UN agencies have suspended deliveries from a US-built pier. Israeli military added that pause should not be seen as a “cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip.”

UN: both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes. UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report covers the period from 10/7 to 10/31, findings based on interviews with victims & witnesses, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, medical reports & verified open-source information.

Ground fighting continues, particularly in Rafah. Airstrikes have been especially intense in central Gaza, particularly in Al Bureij, Al Maghazi, & Nuseirat refugee camps & eastern Deir Al Balah. The levels of public health disaster are catastrophic.

Ground incursions & heavy fighting continue to be reported, particularly in Rafah. Intensified hostilities following the issuance of evacuation orders & the Israeli military operation in Rafah have so far forced the displacement of about one million people, amid a decline in the entry of humanitarian aid.

Israeli bombardment from air, land, & sea continues to be reported across much of Gaza, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, & destruction of houses & other civilian infrastructure. Ground incursions & heavy fighting also continue to be reported, especially in Jabalya as well as eastern & central Rafah.

Israeli bombardment from the air, land, & sea continues to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, & destruction of houses & other civilian infrastructure. Ground incursions & heavy fighting also continue to be reported, especially in Jabalya & eastern Rafah. Rafah Crossing remains closed. Kerem Shalom Crossing is barely operational if at all.

This week has been increasingly horrific as Israeli troops moved into Rafah and up to 300,000 Palestinians fled (again). Humanitarian aid has stopped with the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings. There is continued obstruction to aid, more evidence for widespread starvation.

This week has seen more hopeful up and down negotiations for a cease-fire and continued horrific deaths & injuries in Gaza with evidence of a imminent ground invasion of Rafah. While more humanitarian aid is getting in, there is continued obstruction to adequate aid, more evidence for widespread starvation. Nonviolent campus protests are spreading with repeated aggressive police responses.

This week saw the discovery of mass graves at destroyed hospitals, and continued obstruction in aid to starving Gazans. We also witnessed the Iranian attack on Israel & the Israeli attack on Iran. Suppression of speech on Palestine continues in both Israel & the US. Positive signs are the explosion of campus protests in the US & the growing documentation of the genocide.