Palestinians mourn the death of loved ones following Israeli bombardment on January 18, 2024, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo by AFP
Doha, Qatar: A widespread telecommunications blackout prevails in Gaza, says the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA), as it hampers its ability to accurately report the humanitarian situation on the ground.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus also recently stated several cases of Hepatitis A and jaundice have been detected in Gaza, warning that this could spread further due to the inhumane living conditions in the besieged enclave.
The latest round of Israeli attacks throughout the Gaza Strip has killed more than 40 people. Reports also indicate that an Israeli airstrike has killed at least 12 in an apartment block near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The death toll in Gaza since October 7 stands to at least 24,620 and wounded more than 61,800 Palestinians. Calls for peace and ceasefire continue as more protests and demonstrations proceed to take place around the globe.
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[11:58pm Doha Time] Developing: Israel begins new raids in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces have stormed two Palestinian communities in the west of Nablus, video verified by Al Jazeera shows. The video shows Israeli convoys entering the Rafidia neighbourhood and the village of Zawata.
[4pm Doha Time] ‘We live and witness sadness every day’
In Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, men are using hammers and axes to dig through the rubble in order to pull out the bodies of their relatives.
Sameer al-Kahlout is one of them. He says the rubble he is standing on top of used to be the home of his sister.
“She was hosting my other brother and his family,” he said. “The Israelis bombed their house without any warning and killed them all.”
He said more than eight people were staying at the house.
“We live and witness sadness every day,” he said. “They must be buried. Their bodies must have decomposed, but we will hug their bones.”
In the southern city of Rafah, Ghadeer al-Zamli said she woke up to the sound of an explosion.
“I didn’t know what had happened until my sister told me,” she recalled. “She said our family house was hit by a strike, and all those inside it were killed – 17 people. My sister-in-law and her children, her mother and sisters, all of them, no one from the family survived. They did nothing to deserve being struck by an air strike. There were children. What did they do?”
[3:49pm Doha Time] Gaza City mayor: Fuel depletion poses challenge to providing services
Yahya al-Sarraj, the mayor of Gaza City, has warned that the continued Israeli aggression and the fuel shortage crisis pose challenges to providing basic services to citizens.
“We call on the international community to intervene urgently and provide fuel, electricity generators and equipment to provide services,” al-Sarraj said in a press conference.
He added that more than 50,000 tonnes of waste have accumulated in the blockaded territory, threatening the spread of dangerous diseases and epidemics.
[2:32pm Doha Time] 142 killed, 278 wounded in last 24 hours
At least 142 people have been killed in Israel’s bombing of Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Another 278 have been wounded in the same period.
The latest casualties bring the total number of people killed in Gaza since October 7 to 24,762, with 62,108 injured. Many victims are still trapped under the wreckage and cannot be reached by rescuers.
[2:25pm Doha Time] Gaza’s north receives almost no aid as famine looms
The continuing difficulty in getting humanitarian relief into the Gaza Strip, particularly in the north, which continues to be under constant Israeli bombardment, is raising risks of malnutrition.
“Less than a trickle amount [of aid] has been delivered to the northern part in which people are suffering [from] an actual famine,” says Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza.
In December, the UN warned that Gaza’s entire population of 2.3 million people risks “imminent famine” as war rages on.
[11am Doha Time] Hepatitis A, jaundice detected in Gaza, warns WHO chief
Test kits have detected 24 cases of Hepatitis A among Gaza’s population, says the WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus who added that he was also aware of several thousand cases of jaundice in the besieged enclave.
Hepatitis A, an inflammation of the liver, can occasionally cause severe disease.
“The inhumane living conditions – barely any clean water, clean toilets and possibility to keep the surroundings clean – will enable Hepatitis A to spread further and highlight how explosively dangerous the environment is for the spread of disease,” he wrote on X.
A woman dries a baby in a towel after giving it a bath, inside a tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 18, 2024. Photo by AFP
[8:30am Doha Time] Israeli ‘massacres’ carried out under communications blackout: Ministry
Under the cover of a near-total communications blackout in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have carried out 15 “massacres” that killed 172 people and injured 326 others in a 24-hour period, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said.
In a post on social media, the ministry asks how much more Palestinian “blood and lives” must be lost before countries “recognise the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire”.
“Are they waiting for the displacement of millions of Palestinians to understand Netanyahu’s true goals for the war?” the ministry asks.
Gaza is entering its seventh day of a communications blackout on Friday, which has hampered aid agencies from accurately reporting the humanitarian situation on the ground.
Palestinians mourn over bodies of victims of Israeli bombardment on January 18, 2024, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo by AFP
[8am Doha Time] Gaza telecommunications blackout rolls on past sixth day: UN
Gaza has experienced its sixth day of a widespread telecommunications blackout, the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) reports in its latest daily update.
The telecommunications blackout has restricted the UN body’s ability to accurately report the humanitarian situation on the ground, limiting new information in its latest report, it added.
The UN reports that, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, between the afternoons of January 17 and 18, 172 Palestinians were killed, and another 326 people were injured.
OCHA also noted that the availability of water for drinking and domestic use in Gaza is shrinking each day, with only one of the three Israeli water supply lines functional.
OCHA also said that in the first two weeks of January, only seven of 29 planned humanitarian missions delivering life-saving aid to areas in northern Gaza were completed, with Israeli authorities denying humanitarian access 76 percent of the time.
