Humanitarian situation in southern Gaza is deteriorating quickly, UN warns

US-built floating pier due to resume aid deliveries on Thursday as war death toll rises

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

The humanitarian situation is rapidly growing worse in southern Gaza, where people displaced by the war have been crammed in a “highly congested area along the beach in the burning summer heat”.

Active conflict and lawlessness in the area have made it “near impossible” for the World Food Programme and its partners to meet the surging demand, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said in its latest situation report issued on Wednesday.

There is also a critical lack of milk and formula for babies and nutritional supplements for children and pregnant and breastfeeding women, Ocha said.

“Many households report having only one meal every day, with some having one meal every two or three days, relying mostly on bread, food sharing with other families and rationing stocks,” it said.

WFP deputy executive director Carl Skau, who spent two days in Gaza this month, said the situation in the was "quickly deteriorating".

"A million people have been pushed out of Rafah and are trapped in a highly congested area along the beach in the burning summer heat. We drove through rivers of sewage.”

Displaced Gazans are living in overcrowded makeshift shelters and tents that are in dire need of repair and do not offer any protection from extreme heat, it said.

Most of Rafah city's estimated population of 1.5 million were forced to leave when Israel's military began a ground operation there on May 7.

Ocha said there are an estimated 60,000 to 75,000 people in Al Mawasi, a coastal area west of Rafah that the military has declared a safe zone.

Mr Skau said that while food deliveries to northern Gaza had improved, humanitarian workers there were finding it more difficult to do their job.

“Staff spend five to eight hours waiting at checkpoints every day. Missiles hit our premises, despite being deconflicted," he said.

Israel's military continues to attack sites across Gaza, including Al Mawasi, in the ninth month of its war against the Hamas militant group.

More 37,400 people have been killed and more than 85,500 have been injured since the war began on October 7, according to the latest toll released by Gaza's health authorities on Thursday.

Israeli forces pounded areas in the central Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least three people and wounding dozens of others, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

At least two women were killed and 12 others injured in Israeli air strikes on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

In Deir Al Balah, one civilian was killed and several others injured when a missile launched from a drone hit a gathering, according to medical sources.

Israeli artillery shelled the Al Bureij and Al Moghazi refugee camps, also in central Gaza, and central and western Rafah and eastern Khan Younis, both in southern Gaza, Wafa said.

The Israeli army said on Thursday that troops were continuing "precise, intelligence-based, operational activity" in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

It said troops killed several militants and located rocket launchers while conducting targeted raids in specific areas.

The army said an air strike killed a Hamas commander, Ahmed Hassan Alsauarka, in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza.

It said Mr Alsauarka was a squad commander in the Nukhba Forces who took part in the deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7.

Israeli authorities said on Sunday that the military would observe a "tactical pause" between 8am and 7pm to allow the delivery of aid arriving through the Karam Abu Salem crossing in southern Gaza.

However, nine Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike as they waited for aid lorries at the crossing, Reuters quoted medical sources as saying on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a floating pier on Gaza's coast is expected to resume operations on Thursday, US officials told Reuters.

They said the pier had been reattached to the shore on Wednesday, after being removed last Friday due to poor sea conditions.

Aid deliveries using the US-built pier began on May 17, with the UN saying it allowed about 100 tonnes of supplies to reach warehouses.

Pier operations have been disrupted by rough seas, as well as poor weather and security concerns.

US President Joe Biden announced the plan to build the structure in March as fears grew of famine in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people.

The US military estimated it would cost more than $200 million to operate for the first 90 days and would involve about 1,000 service members. It is unclear how long the pier will be used for aid deliveries.