Fifteen months into the war in Gaza, where more than 46,500 Palestinians have been killed and almost all of the population of 2.1 million are living in makeshift accommodation, conditions continue to deteriorate in the face of famine and cold.
At least 1.9 million people – or about 90% of the territory’s population – are displaced. Many have been forced to relocate repeatedly, some as many as 10 times.
Over the past three months, Israeli ground operations have concentrated on the northern third of the territory, where Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping and Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate a buffer zone.
At least 5,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s 100-day siege of northern Gaza, according to the Gaza government’s media office, although that figure does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel says it goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties.
‘Simply unimaginable’
Shaina Low, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s communications adviser in Palestine, described the conditions in northern Gaza as “simply unimaginable”, with acute shortages of food and water, and very little aid being allowed to enter.
Although the Israeli military has said it has been working to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance in Gaza, humanitarian aid organisations have accused Israel of routinely stopping aid shipments and even encouraging armed groups to loot convoys. In August, the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, head of one of the hardline nationalist religious parties in the government’s coalition, said blocking humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza was “justified and moral” even if it caused 2 million civilians to die of hunger, in order to defeat Hamas.
Hunger remains severe in southern Gaza, where the prices of basic food are now about 20 times the regular prices, out of reach for most people, who have already been financially exhausted by a lack of income and repeated displacement.
The price of a 25kg sack of flour has increased from $10 to $140, according to residents, who said that while there has been an increase in the entry of inessential commercial items, there not been any improvement in the delivery of aid. A recent delivery of meat and eggs, was the first such shipment in four months.
In 2024, the UN and partners planned 5,321 humanitarian aid deliveries across Gaza. Of those, 24% were denied, 19% faced impediments, and 9% were cancelled.
“We are suffering a lot: bombing, death and destruction in one hand and on the other hand, hunger and cold,” said Nusseibeh, 25, who has been displaced with her son five times, and whose sister Sumaya was killed in a Israeli airstrike. “I say that my sister is lucky: death is much better than living such a life. We are so tired and exhausted, we just want to stop this war which has taken everything precious from us … The children are dying, not because of the bombing, but because of starvation and cold. All we want is to stop the war.”
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, eight newborns died from hypothermia within three weeks because of the cold winter weather, lack of shelter and winter supplies.
The Ministry of Public Works and Housing said in a recent report that the war had left more than 161,600 housing units destroyed, another 194,000 structures partly damaged, and approximately 82,000 homes being rendered uninhabitable.
Strikes on medics and journalists
Only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partly operational, according to the World Health Organization, with a total capacity of approximately 1,800 beds – entirely insufficient for the overwhelming medical needs. The WHO said more than 25% of the 105,000 injured civilians face life-changing injuries.
Last month a report by the UN Human Rights Office documented 136 strikes on hospitals and other health facilities between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024. “The destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, along with Israel’s restrictions on the entry and distribution of medical supplies, has led to the drastic deterioration of health outcomes across the entire population and a health catastrophe, with the spread of infectious diseases including polio, hepatitis A, acute diarrhoea and jaundice,” the report found.
More than 1,000 healthcare workers have been killed since October 2023.
The Israeli military claims to be targeting militants using schools and hospitals as bases – but this is denied by residents and officials on the ground.
“Wearing scrubs and white coats is like wearing a target on their backs,” said Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan from Medical Aid for Palestinians.
With rare exceptions, Israel’s military continues to bar foreign journalists from entering Gaza. Only Palestinian reporters who were already there are able to report from there, often paying a heavy price.
Between 7 October 2023 and 25 December 2024, at least 217 journalists and media workers were killed in Gaza.
Continuing violence
Despite reports that the warring parties are inching closer towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal, fighting continues.
“We hear that there are negotiations every day, but we see nothing,” said Mazen Hammad, who lives in the southern city of Khan Younis. “When we see it on the ground, then we believe that there is a truce.”
On Monday, Israel’s foreign minister described progress in talks for a Gaza ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages amid intensifying indirect negotiations in Qatar attended by Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy.
Israeli and western intelligence services estimate that at least a third of the remaining 95 Israeli captives in Gaza are dead.
The Israeli army said Friday it had identified the body of a hostage recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza as the son of Yosef al-Ziyadnah, another hostage whose body was recovered last week.
Ziyadnah was kidnapped during Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, triggering the war.
