Day 14 of the War

Focus on shelter

Nearly 384,200 internally displaced people (IDPs) are sheltering in 90 UNRWA shelters in the Middle, Khan Younis and Rafah areas of the Gaza Strip. Due to continued bombardments in the southwest of Gaza area, in the last 24 hours the number of IDPs in the southern areas has increased by 16,000, with more than half of this increase in Rafah.

On 12 October 2023, before the evacuation order from the Israeli Authorities, nearly 160,000 IDPs were sheltering in 57 UNRWA schools in the northern and Gaza City governorates. UNRWA is no longer able to assist or protect the displaced in those areas and does not have information on their needs and conditions.

In an effort to improve conditions and reduce overcrowding at the Khan Younis Training Centre, where 17,000 IDPs are sheltering, UNRWA distributed 80 tents. UNRWA has not established any new camps in the Gaza Strip. The total number of Palestine Refugee camps in the Gaza Strip remains eight.

Living conditions in shelters are dire, with up to 70 people per classroom. Overcrowding, lack of privacy, limited availability of water and sanitation facilities are causing increased psychological distress. Anxiety, fear and grief are rising due to relentless Israeli Forces airstrikes, bombardments and the loss of family members, loved ones and people’s homes. Tensions amongst IDPs are increasing, including reports of violent disputes in UNRWA shelters.

To provide a safer environment, women and children are accommodated in classrooms at night while men and adolescent boys stay outdoors in the schoolyards. UNRWA has some counsellors and social workers in the shelters. They provide psychological first aid and other specialized protection services. In all shelters, displaced persons established committees to help with their management.

In cooperation with the World Food Programme, (WFP) bread continues to be distributed at shelters. However, due to the increasing numbers of IDPs on a daily basis, bakeries are overwhelmed and do not have the capacity to produce sufficient bread. In coordination with other UN agencies, UNRWA is providing logistics support to provide health care and potable water to shelters.

Area general updates

One more UNRWA colleague was confirmed killed in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number to 17 since the war began.

In Gaza, two UNRWA schools sheltering IDPs in the Middle Area and Khan Younis and one health centre were impacted.

UNRWA is conducting a Rapid Gender Analysis to better respond to the impact of the current conflict.

UNRWA and UN partners are prepositioning supplies at Al Arish ahead of a potential opening of the Rafah crossing. The Agency is ready to support distribution of supplies able to enter the Gaza Strip to populations in need.

In the West Bank, there was an Israeli incursion into Nur Shams refugee camp, near Tulkarem. 13 Palestinians were killed and roads, electricity and water networks damaged.

Protection of Civilians

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 4,137 people have been killed since 7 October, including 1,661 children, and 13,162 injured, including 4,232 children.

According to the same source, an additional 1,400 people are missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, including 720 children.

One UNRWA staff who was critically injured earlier in the conflict died. The total number of UNRWA colleagues confirmed killed since 7 October is 17.

Five UNRWA personnel have been injured, one of them critically. All were injured while on duty. Since 7 October, 15 UNRWA personnel have been injured.

An UNRWA school in Khan Younis was hit. Three IDPs sheltering at the school were killed and 55 were injured. The school sustained minor damage.

An UNRWA school in Nuseirat Camp, in the Middle Area, was affected by collateral damage due to a nearby strike. Eight IDPs and two UNRWA personnel were injured, while one person was killed. Since the beginning of the war, over 160 IDPs sheltering at UNRWA schools have been injured while 12 have been killed.

An UNRWA health centre in Nuseirat Camp in the Middle Area, was also affected by collateral damage.

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 7 October, 82 Palestinians have been killed and 1,425 injured (OCHA).

The situation in the West Bank is increasingly tense. There was a major Israeli incursion into Nur Shams, from 19 – 20 October, which resulted in the deaths of 13 Palestinians, including 11 from inside the camps. Streets were damaged and electricity and water lines cut. The UNRWA health centre sustained minor damages; no other damages to UNRWA installations were reported. The Agency is assessing the situation.

In Israel, 1,400 people have been killed and another 4,629 injured according to Israeli sources.

Health

UNRWA is providing health care in 90 shelters through 77 mobile medical teams and 80 mobile medical points.

According to UNRWA, initial health assessments, among the IDPs there are nearly 13,400 persons with non-communicable diseases, over 3,200 pregnant women and over 200 post-natal cases requiring medical attention.

UNRWA stocks of medicines continue to decrease, with around 15 days’ supply remaining overall and one week’s supply of insulin. Some items may run out sooner based on needs at shelters.  

Fuel stocks in the functional health centres are running extremely low, thus hampering the provision of primary health care in UNRWA health centres.

Since 7 October UNRWA has provided 3,000 individuals with psychosocial services.

Sanitation Services

Some solid waste collection from the camps and emergency shelters and transfer to landfills continue in Middle, Khan Younis and Rafah areas. The scarcity of fuel and staff is negatively impacting solid waste management activities.

The number of available water trucks is insufficient to provide water to all shelters and water tanks can be refilled only once a day. Considering the number of people in the shelters, the water provided is barely or not enough to cover the needs of the internally displaced people in UNRWA shelters.

UNRWA Installations

At least 36 UNRWA installations in Gaza have been impacted since the war began.

I never ever expected Massa to do this well. I thought he was done for, he's a "super minister" (He is in charge of the economy, basically) in a terrible government that is the one led by Fernandez, after losing the primaries he devauled the Peso which was seen as the sign of complete political suicide. But no, he rose from the ruins and positioned himself first. And he has done so without the explicit help from Cristina, and this is a HUGE factor. She didn't play a role in this. She did called the people that support her (A good solid base 20/25% of voters maybe?) to vote for Fernandez last election and this guaranteed his victory. But this time around, she didn't say a lot, in fact she even tried to distance herself from this current administration. To get 37% of the votes without Cristina's intervention is massive, props to the guy I guess.

Before election day, Massa surprised us with what I now call a "political masterclass". You see, in Argentina (but not in all parts, mainly Buenos Aires), public transport is subsidized by the State. Subsidies of all kinds came under fire during this election cycle, so a few days ago he announced a special program in which people could "voluntarily" renounce to transport subsidies and they would have to pay the full fee for the train or bus ride, adjusted with inflation. The ticket cost skyrockets, I pay my bus ride around 63$ Pesos, without any subsidies it goes up to 700$ Pesos. But it doesn't stop there, around last monday they made the machines in which you apply your card to pay for the ride show how much credit you have left AND the full value of the ride without any subsidies. On every screen that announces the train arrival times in the stations, they made them show the difference in cost with the "Massa Fee" compared to "Bullrich Fee" and "Milei Fee", both of which wanted to get rid of subsidies to public transportation. This is politics, this is how you play, dirty but direct. Sure it's using government agencies to promote Massa's campaign but it struck fear into the general population, made them realize that perhaps voting for these two ghouls isn't all that good after all. This must have played a role in a somewhat significant number of voters changing their vote in the very last minute in favor of Massa.

Juntos por el Cambio, your standard neoliberals mixed with some fash, were utterly defeated. 20% something of the votes for the female version of Bolsonaro. I thought she was going to do well and actually reach a second round with Milei, but nope. She failed, I think people saw her terrible display during the debates in which she looked completely out of place, she couldn't articulate one entire sentence. She is awful, she's the cop-friendly pro-security "let's crack down the protesters will all the might of the military" president, but she was the security minister during the Macri days and she completely sucked at her job, in fact, narco violence increased so she didn't fix shit. Her other social and economic policies were dogshit as well. She's a terrible candidate overall, they would have done much better with the other candidate, Larreta, who is the former mayor of Buenos Aires City.

Milei is far from being dead. He lost votes compared to his performance in the primaries, but it's far from over. Do I think he has a chance? Yes, he still does, but it depends a lot on the others and their decision to vote. Still, I don't think his message has enough traction to give him the presidency. I dunno, you can't really talk about dollarization, elimination of ministeries, erradication of all subsidies, having an extremely market oriented education all while allying yourself with some of the most repulsive figures in politics like his VP who's a fucking genocide denial piece of shit. We shall see, he will now have to beg the "political caste" he "hates" for votes, that could potentially ruin his persona. But his voters are completely losing it rn so it's all good.

Also the amazing phenomenom that is Peronism. Anti-Peronists are usually middle-high class little bourgeois who think most Peronists are poor uneducated dumb mestizos too stupid to have pity on themselves and thus rely on Peronism to get something. There is this idea of "clientelism" in which Peronism will literally give you money and subsidies and you will give them your vote, that Peronism keeps you in poverty so that you will vote for them all the time. This is extremely reductionist (and classist, let alone racist), the bases of Peronism are with working class people, plain and simple. And most of these proletarians are poor, but they're not stupid. They're all politically charged individuals whose main allegiance is with Peronism but will actually punish Peronism if they don't get what they want. To think of them as mere NPCs that are led against their will by the Peronists is stupid, but the opposition think it is this way, and this is why they continue to lose. Peronists don't get these votes for granted either, they have to work their asses off for them.

And lastly, the Left. Yet another atrocious result for the Trots, they are completely unable to grow and completely unable to craft a message that resonates among the workers. They do some excellent ground organizing, yes, but as a political party they're pretty terrible. They are a decent parliamentary protest party though, but I know Trots too well, I know if we give them political power they will break apart lmfao. Potential left wing voters are sucked towards Peronism, and the Left has this historical problem of never being able to convince Peronist voters to vote for them instead. So I think we need a new Left, fuck it I even accept socdems (third world socdems are much better than the ones in the first world, I can assure you that) or even mild socialists, Trotskyism doesn't work for this I'm sorry. It's like having an Anarchist party, what are they even going to do? Let Trots organize workers at a ground level which is incredibly based and they're good at it, but keep them away from electoral politics because they're not made for this I think.

In Khan Younis, the city in southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled from the north for safety, people are sleeping in the streets.

There are long lines in front of water tanks, bakeries and market stalls, with fights erupting over the last remaining bread loaves and tomatoes. Some people are building ovens from sand and soil to bake bread in the traditional way, hoping to save their families from hunger.

Everyone is “just trying to survive,” Yousef Hammash, an advocacy officer for the Norwegian Refugee Council, an aid group, said on Tuesday in a voice message from Khan Younis. Mr. Hammash is among those who have left their homes in the northern part of Gaza in recent days, after Israel warned residents to head south as its military prepares a possible ground invasion of the blockaded enclave.

Some newly displaced people are staying in schools operated by the United Nations that are being used as shelters. More are staying with relatives in overcrowded homes. Others are sleeping rough.

And despite Israel’s declarations, the south is not safe either, Mr. Hammash said, as Israeli forces continue to fire airstrikes that hit residential buildings. Dozens of people were killed in strikes overnight and Tuesday morning, the Gazan authorities said, and more were wounded. But there are not enough beds in the hospital to treat those who were injured, Mr. Hammash said, and not enough morgue space to store the bodies.

The conditions were so bad that some people were considering going back to their homes in the north, he said.

Israel pledged to open a water line in southern Gaza, but there is no electricity or fuel to pump it, said Shaina Low from the Norwegian organization’s Jerusalem office. Trucks carrying relief supplies have not been allowed to enter southern Gaza from either Israel or Egypt amid the ongoing blockade, she said. And after Israeli strikes on telecommunications towers, it has been increasingly difficult to get in touch with people in southern Gaza, she added.

The World Health Organization, which also has staff members in southern Gaza, said Tuesday that hospitals there were facing “an acute shortage of medical supplies and equipment,” and “an imminent water and sanitation crisis.” The limited water supply is putting the lives of more than 3,500 patients in 35 hospitals across the strip at immediate risk, the agency added.

On Monday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian affairs warned that many of Gaza’s two million people had begun drinking water from contaminated sources, raising fears of an explosion of waterborne diseases. It also said that it was “no longer able to provide humanitarian assistance” to the people of Gaza.

“It’s really a catastrophe what’s going on now in Gaza,” said Adnan Abu Hasna, one of 13,000 U.N. aid workers in Gaza who have been displaced from their homes since Oct. 7.

Mr. Abu Hasna, 61, left his home in Gaza City, in the north of the territory, and is living with some 40 relatives at his brother’s home in southern Gaza.

“We have 400,000 displaced people and we don’t have the resources to help them,” he said on Monday from the southern city of Rafah. “We don’t have the resources.”

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the U.N. agency for Palestinians, warned that if fuel and water were not allowed into Gaza, “people will start dying.” He added: “Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/17/world/israel-hamas-war-biden-gaza/aid-workers-in-southern-gaza-say-people-are-just-trying-to-survive?smid=url-share