Displaced Palestinians gather at a makeshift camp on the Egyptian border, west of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 14, 2024. Photo by AFP
Doha, Qatar: The World Food Program, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization have been stressing the need for new entry routes to be opened in Gaza as civilians of the besieged enclave grow more desperate. They further stated that more aid trucks should be allowed in each day, and aid workers as well as those seeking aid must be allowed to move around safely.
The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza worsens each day as more than a quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million population is starving.
The death toll has now surpassed 24,000 and more than 60,800 have been injured since October 7.
Watch this page for more live updates:
[11pm Doha Time] Qatari mediation succeeds in reaching an agreement between Israel and Hamas to send medications and aid to Gaza. Read more.
[10pm Doha Time] UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Al Jazeera "there will be a moment to look seriously into holding Israel legally accountable for the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza."
“I think there is a way this war has been conducted in which there has been no effective protection of civilians. I think there are violations of international humanitarian law,” he told Al Jazeera’s James Bays. He called the scale of civilian death “unprecedented” in any other conflict during his tenure as the head of the UN.
[4:33pm Doha Time] 2.2 million people in Gaza at imminent risk of famine: UN
Of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, the UN agency OCHA says 378,000 are at what it classifies as phase 5, or catastrophic levels of hunger.
Phase 5 refers to extreme lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping capacities.
It added that 939,000 people face phase 4 “emergency” levels of hunger.
According to OCHA, nutrition-focused NGOs and other UN agencies can only meet 25 percent of the nutritional needs for malnourished children and vulnerable mothers in the next two months.
[3:50pm Doha Time] Ministry of education: 4,368 students killed, 388 schools bombed since October 7
The Palestinian education ministry says that 4,368 Palestinian students have been killed in the occupied territories since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7 on the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the ministry said that the number of students killed in Gaza over the past three and a half months is 4,327, with another 7,819 wounded in Israeli attacks.
In the occupied West Bank, 41 students were killed and 282 others injured. At least 85 students were arrested by Israel in the same time period.
In the Gaza Strip, 231 teachers and administrators were killed and 756 injured.
According to the ministry, at least 281 government schools and 65 schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) were bombed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, resulting 83 of them being severely damaged and seven completely destroyed.
A Palesitinian man inspects his damaged home on the southern outskirts of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip on January 16, 2024. Photo by AFP
[3:05pm Doha Time] Health ministry: 350,000 patients deprived of medication in Gaza
At least 350,000 chronically ill patients are not receiving their medications due to the ongoing Israeli war, the health ministry in the Gaza Strip has said.
The spokesperson for the ministry, Ashraf Al-Qudra, warned of serious health complications that may worsen the patients’ conditions, calling on the international organisations to urgently provide medications.
Al-Qudra had previously announced the depletion of the anesthesia nitrous oxide gas in operating rooms along with severe shortage of other medical gases.
Palestinian and international health and human rights organisations had warned of the collapse of the faltering healthcare system in Gaza due to the ongoing war.
A Palestinian man who was released along with other civilians by Israeli forces after being rounded up for questioning during the latest military ground operation in Gaza receives treatment at Rafah's Al-Najjar hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on January 12, 2024. Photo by AFP
[1:23pm Doha Time] Health ministry: Gaza death toll rises to 24,285
The number of Palestinians killed since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7 has risen to 24,285, the health ministry says.
At least 61,154 others have been injured.
According to the ministry, Israeli forces committed “15 massacres against families” in the Gaza Strip, killing 158 and injuring 320 others during the past 24 hours.
[11:45am Doha Time] UNRWA: Largest Displacement of Palestinians since 1948
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) described the situation in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Israeli occupation aggression as the largest displacement of the Palestinian people. Read more
[9am Doha Time] Israel denying deliveries of medicines, water-pump fuel to north Gaza: UN
The UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) has said that Israeli authorities are still denying access to northern Gaza for deliveries of medicines and fuel to run water and waste pumps.
“Lack of fuel for water, sanitation and hygiene increases risks of health and environmental hazards,” OCHA said in its daily update, while “lack of medicine debilitated the functionality of the six partially functioning hospitals”.
Only one of 19 planned missions delivering fuel and supplies for water facilities has been allowed north of Wadi Gaza since the beginning of January, OCHA said.
The following eighteen missions were denied access:
- five planned missions to the Central Drug Store
- four planned missions to the Jabalia Health Centre
- eight planned missions to four critical reservoirs and water and waste pumps
[8am Doha Time] ‘Heavy, widespread & unrelenting bombardment’ preventing Gaza aid deliveries: UN Chief
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has shared a post on X calling for safety for humanitarian staff delivering aid.
“We can’t effectively deliver humanitarian aid while Gaza is under heavy, widespread & unrelenting bombardment,” Guterres said.
Earlier, Guterres told reporters that 152 UN staff members have been killed in Gaza since October 7. He said this was “the largest single loss of life in the history of our organisation, a heart-wrenching figure and a source of deep sorrow”.
The UN’s humanitarian agency yesterday said there had been a “significant deterioration” in aid access to northern Gaza since December, with only seven of 29 planned missions to deliver food, medicine, water and other supplies having reached their destinations this year.
