Thousands of Palestinians were caught in the crossfire while trying to escape attacks and dire food shortages in war-torn Gaza, with some injured or maimed persons with being left behind, according to the latest reports of UN officials on the ground and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities .
A 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who depends on a wheelchair was among crowds fleeing Israeli military aircraft operations east of Rafah in Gaza, said committee member Muhannad Salah Al-Azzeh, who presented a report on the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday in Geneva. In the melee, she lost her wheelchair.
"She was crawling on the sand and asking her family, telling them 'you can leave me here' because she felt that she was slowing them down," he said.
Indeed, some people are unaware of evacuation orders being given in Gaza due to their disabilities since the start of the nearly two-year-long war triggered by a Hamas-led attack on Israel.
"This is one of the most serious issues because in regular situations, personal disabilities are excluded in emergencies, more excluded," he said. "It's more complicated for them."
States fail to protect rights of persons with disabilities
Following extensive interviews with individuals, delegations and organizations working in Gaza and the West Bank, the UN committee submitted a series of recommendations and serious concerns to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The situation in Gaza is a grave concern, Mr. Al-Azzeh stated.
"What we are witnessing there is highly concerning for us," he warned. "We do believe that all the State parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , they really failed in one way or another to fulfill their obligations to protect and to ensure the minimum protection of persons with disabilities in the emergency situation."
Citing grim cases reported to the committee, he said in one instance, prolonged electricity shutdowns in Rafah left a mother unable to receive evacuation messages on her mobile phone, and she and her children subsequently died in an Israeli strike.
Nine-year-old Noor's parents, who are deaf, have heavily relied on her to survive Israeli tank shelling and attacks. She has had to learn new signing vocabulary for the language of war, including tanks, armed quadcopters, shrapnel and aircraft, the committee representative said.
There are dozens of examples of people like Abdulrahman Al-Gharbawi, with cerebral palsy and a lower limb disability, he said. All nine times the 27-year-old graphic designer's family has been forcibly displaced since the start of the war, his mother would carry his wheelchair while his father and brother would carry him.
Chronic aid delivery obstacles
Meanwhile, humanitarian efforts continue to face chronic obstacles. While a trickle of aid is getting into the war-torn Gaza Strip, steep challenges remain, according to the latest situation report from the UN emergency relief agency, OCHA .
Between 17 and 30 August, partners continued daily convoys to uplift humanitarian food aid from the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, bringing more than 6,900 metric tonnes of wheat flour, food parcels and bulk food supplies into Gaza through the UN-coordinated aid mechanism, OCHA reported.
"However, nearly all of this aid was offloaded by hungry crowds or looted by organized groups along convoy routes, preventing targeted household distributions and delivery to partner warehouses," the UN agency stated.
Since 20 July, when regular food cargo uplifts from Gaza's crossings resumed, less than 40 per cent of the 2,000 metric tonnes of food supplies required daily to meet basic humanitarian food assistance needs could enter the Strip, OCHA said.
"Daily, civilians continue to be killed and injured by military forces or due to violence erupting among desperate crowds while trying to access aid, including in the militarised zone near checkpoints waiting for aid convoys and at non-humanitarian militarised distribution sites," the UN agency reported.
'Two per cent of food aid reached warehouses'
As of 30 August, 99 kitchens supported by 19 partners were preparing and distributing 468,000 meals daily across the Gaza Strip, with 155,000 in the north and 313,000 in central and southern Gaza, according to the OCHA report.
"Partners relied on the two per cent of food aid that safely reached warehouses, coupled with resources secured locally from markets," the UN agency said.
"While representing an 80 per cent increase compared to the 260,000 daily meals prepared in early August, this remains far below the over one million meals produced in April with the humanitarian and commercial food stocks and cooking gas entered during the ceasefire."
Famine response
The UN and partners continued integrated famine response efforts on the heels of the UN-backed global hunger monitoring group, IPC, report finding famine conditions in parts of Gaza last month.
Efforts included scaling up cooked meal provision, promoting small-scale home gardening and community oven initiatives, expanding cash and voucher assistance and strengthening real-time monitoring and analysis systems.
"Intense advocacy continues with the Israeli authorities to increase the volume of humanitarian and commercial goods approved for entry, with a focus on fresh produce and fortified food, nutrition, health and cooking gas," OCHA said in its report.
New supplies and critical shortages
For the first time in over five months, concentrated fodder for livestock owners entered Gaza. Approximately 60 metric tonnes were distributed to 600 livestock holders in Deir Al-Balah, OCHA said.
However, despite sustained advocacy, cooking gas has not entered Gaza for more than five months and is no longer available in markets, the UN agency stated.
"Firewood has also become increasingly unaffordable," according to the agency. "Many people are reduced to using waste and scrap wood as alternative cooking sources, exacerbating health and environmental risks."
Meanwhile, the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA , health facilities continue to serve around 132,000 patients with non-communicable diseases despite facing dire shortages of medical supplies. Insulin stocks will be exhausted within one to two weeks, leaving at least 16,000 diabetic patients without an essential part of their treatment, OCHA reported.
Access to clean water is severely limited. At the same time, hospitals remain lacking in essential supplies and continue to face overcrowding as daily attacks are seeing a rise in the numbers of dead and injured.
