section_path: Humanitarian crisis
section_name: Humanitarian crisis
paragraph_text: Humanitarian crisis
  
  The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian crisis as a result of the war, including a hunger crisis, in which famine-like conditions occurred in some areas of the strip and a high risk of famine persists as of October 2024, as well as a healthcare collapse. At the start of the war, Israel tightened its blockade on the strip, resulting in significant shortages of fuel, food, medication, water, and essential medical supplies. This siege resulted in a 90% drop in electricity availability, impacting hospital power supplies, sewage plants, and shutting down the desalination plants that provide drinking water. In July 2024, available water worked out to 4.74 litres per person per day, just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies. Doctors warned of disease outbreaks spreading due to overcrowded hospitals. A polio epidemic was the target of mostly-successful vaccination campaigns.
  
  Heavy bombardment by Israeli airstrikes caused catastrophic damage to Gaza's infrastructure, further deepening the crisis. Direct attacks on telecommunications infrastructure by Israel, electricity blockades, and fuel shortages caused the near-total collapse of Gaza's largest cell network providers. Lack of internet access has obstructed Gazan citizens from communicating with loved ones, learning of IDF operations, and identifying both the areas most exposed to bombing and possible escape routes. The blackouts impeded emergency services, making it harder to locate and access the time-critical injured, and have impeded humanitarian aid agencies and journalists. By December 2023, 200,000 Gazans (approximately 10% of the population) had received internet access through an eSIM provided by Connecting Humanity.
  
  The Gaza Health Ministry reported over 4,000 children killed in the war's first month. UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that Gaza had "become a graveyard for children." Indirect Palestinian deaths are expected to be much higher due to the intensity of the conflict, destruction of healthcare infrastructure, lack of food, water, shelter, and safe places for civilians to flee to, and reduction in UNRWA funding, with a Lancet study stating that the death toll in Gaza, including future deaths indirectly caused by the war, may exceed 186,000.
  
  In mid-April 2025, 12 CEOs of humanitarian organizations signed a statement that aid systems were in danger of collapsing.
  
  On 16 May, Donald Trump acknowledged starvation in Gaza and promoted a US-Israeli humanitarian aid plan where food would be distributed through a system of hubs run by private contractors and protected by Israeli soldiers. The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was set up to carry out this plan and announced it would be ready to begin operations by the end of May. International aid agencies have rejected US-Israeli aid plans, saying that they weaponize humanitarian aid, violate principles of neutrality, will exacerbate mass displacement and would not be able to meet the scale of aid that is required.
  
  On 25 May, the UN's World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said only about 100 trucks a day were getting through, whereas prior to the blockade it had been upwards of 600 trucks a day.