The massacre in Gaza has passed another shameful milestone, with more than 100,000 Palestinians now killed or wounded since 7 October ¹ – as civilians are attacked at a faster rate than during any conflict this century, in full view of the international community.

Ongoing Israeli attacks together with starvation and disease outbreaks mean this deadly toll could quadruple in the coming months unless there is an immediate ceasefire and a massive increase in humanitarian aid. Yet since last month there has been a 50% reduction in aid getting into Gaza.  

Many of those wounded have suffered injuries that will affect them for the rest of their lives, such as loss of legs or arms or severe trauma. Thousands of children have become orphans and over 1 million children now need mental health support.  

The death toll from Israel’s bombardment continues to mount every day, but there are growing fears that it will be dwarfed by deaths from hunger and disease. One new report by leading academics warns of up to 85,750 excess deaths in Gaza in the next 6 months unless a ceasefire is agreed². There are growing fears of famine, with 1 in 10 young children across the territory malnourished.  

The humanitarian crisis is getting worse and Islamic Relief’s team and partners in Gaza continue to deliver food and other vital aid – but every day it is becoming more difficult and dangerous. The number of aid trucks able to enter Gaza through Rafah or Kerem Shalom / Karem Abu Salem has once again reduced to a tiny trickle over the past couple of weeks, and aid convoys have been attacked. Hundreds of health workers, humanitarian workers and UN staff are among those killed and wounded.  

As this tragic milestone is passed, Islamic Relief continues to call on world leaders to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel’s siege. Every further delay costs more lives.  

Notes 

• ¹ As of 27 February, 29,878 Palestinians are reported killed and 70,215 injured. Figures for those killed and wounded are taken from latest updates from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
• ² A report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health

Two weeks since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, the situation for civilians in Gaza has become even worse, Islamic Relief says.  

Israel is now intensifying its bombing in Rafah – the most crowded part of Gaza, where more than half the population is now sheltering in appalling conditions – and a ground assault there will have catastrophic consequences for civilians.  

On 26 January the ICJ ruled that Israel must end the killing of Palestinians in Gaza and enable an increase in humanitarian aid – yet since then, thousands more people have been killed and injured, and famine is becoming more likely every day as the Israeli siege continues to cut families off from food, healthcare and water.  

In the past few weeks there has been a sharp increase in malnutrition among children under five years old, with malnutrition rates now rising to critical levels.  

An Islamic Relief staff member in Gaza, whose name is withheld given the extreme insecurity, says: “Israel is starving us. We either get killed by bullets or starvation. My children and I haven’t eaten fruit or vegetables for months, and people get killed when they try to meet aid trucks arriving from the UN.  

“I just want to feed my family. We are trying to make bread with dried corn that we previously used as animal feed, as flour is extremely scarce and even if you can find it, it costs a tremendous amount of money. Often all we have for a meal is just some plain rice. My kids are never full, they always want another thing to eat. And we are relatively lucky compared to most people who don’t have anything at all.” 

Many families are going whole days or even several days without eating, and there are reports of children so hungry they are eating leaves or whatever they can find.   

Islamic Relief continues to call on world leaders and international governments to demand an immediate ceasefire and implementation of the ICJ ruling.  

Almost 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza have now been killed or injured after four months of the bombardment, during which violations of international law have become a daily occurrence. The past few days have seen more fierce attacks across Gaza, including in and around hospitals and schools where displaced families have sought refuge, against civilians as they try to get water, and against ambulances and aid convoys providing vital food and medical care.  

Islamic Relief staff and partners on the ground are providing thousands of families with daily hot meals and other vital aid. Yet despite the ICJ ruling, nowhere near enough aid is reaching people in need, due to a combination of the extreme insecurity and Israeli restrictions. Hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza are almost completely inaccessible to humanitarian agencies, with convoys there repeatedly denied permission to enter the area. This week only around 200 aid trucks a day have been able to enter Gaza – compared to the 500 trucks that used to enter daily even before the escalation.   

As hospitals continue to face attacks, not a single hospital in Gaza is now classed as fully functioning. The few that are still partly operational are desperately short of fuel, surgical supplies and essentials such as oxygen, with doctors reporting that civilians have died as a direct result.  

Around 1 in every 25 Palestinians in Gaza are now injured or dead, Islamic Relief says as Israel’s bombardment continues unabated.

The latest figures show around 89,000 casualties with more than 25,000 people killed and over 63,000 people injured – with many suffering life-changing injuries such as loss of limbs. Most of the casualties are civilians, including many young children. The figures may be even higher as many bodies are still unaccounted for under the rubble.

Many of the injured are being denied acceptable healthcare, with fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals now even partially functioning. There are reports of doctors having to amputate children’s arms and legs without anaesthetic because of the critical shortage of drugs and medical supplies. Other people have reportedly bled to death in the streets as they were unable to get treatment.

The combination of heavy bombing, disease and hunger means that the death toll will keep rising unless world leaders act to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel’s siege.

Hundreds of thousands more people are facing starvation, as local means of food production have been destroyed and nowhere near enough food is being allowed into Gaza. Aid workers are reporting desperate children forced to eat leaves or scraps they find in the street.

With 1.7 million people displaced from their homes – most of them now crammed into tiny parts of southern Gaza – the shelters are becoming death traps where disease is quickly spreading. The severely overcrowded conditions and lack of safe water means that cases of diseases such as jaundice, Hepatitis A and diarrhoea have rocketed, especially among young children. The UN has recorded almost a quarter of a million cases of acute respiratory infections, now affecting one in 10 people across Gaza.

Despite this humanitarian catastrophe the amount of aid getting into Gaza has actually decreased again in recent days, with Israel continuing to enforce restrictions on what is and isn’t allowed in. Most supplies to people in northern Gaza are prevented from being delivered. Around 500 trucks every day used to enter Gaza even before the latest destruction – now the needs are vastly greater, but in January only around 100 trucks a day have been entering and the latest daily total fell to just 66 trucks.

Islamic Relief is delivering daily ready-to-eat meals to people in the shelters and has so far distributed more than 1 million meals, as well as other aid such as hygiene kits and psychosocial support for children – but the enormity of the crisis means that much more is needed.

Islamic Relief forced to suspend vital programmes and evacuate staff 

Around 300,000 people have fled the city of Wad Madani in central Sudan as fighting rages in and around the city, and desperate civilians are running out of safe places to go.  

Five days of heavy fighting has forced Islamic Relief and many other aid agencies to temporarily halt humanitarian work there and evacuate some staff out of the city.

Wad Madani has been an oasis of relative calm during the past eight months since war broke out across Sudan, and around half a million people have sought shelter in the city after fleeing violence in other parts of the country. Now they have to flee again.

The city is the capital of Sudan’s Al Jazirah province, a major agricultural region known as the country’s breadbasket. The new fighting there risks worsening Sudan’s already extreme hunger crisis, with more than 20.3 million people across the country already facing acute food insecurity as the war has forced people off their land and stopped farmers from planting. With the capital Khartoum extremely dangerous, Wad Madani has become a hub for aid agencies and the latest fighting will further hamper the aid effort across the country.

Islamic Relief staff remaining in Wad Madani report that intensive fighting has continued throughout today. Other staff fled to the town of Sennar only to find it too was under attack.

Elsadig Elnour, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Sudan, was in Wad Madani when the fighting broke out: “In Wad Madani Islamic Relief has been providing people with emergency aid and supporting local hospitals with food, fuel and medicine. But we’ve had to suspend our programmes and evacuate some of our staff – especially female staff, as we feared for their safety in the city as sexual violence increases.

“Tens of thousands of people previously fled to Wad Madani believing it was safe. They’re now on the move again – many have fled further south to Sennar, where many people are now sleeping on the streets. Others are going to Gedaref in eastern Sudan.

“The area where people feel safe in our country is shrinking smaller by the day. We fear this fighting will now spread east to Gedaref, which is a hub for the humanitarian response across the country.”

Wad Madani has been under the control of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), but the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) now claim to have captured the city. Fighting began last Friday and has intensified since then.

All of Islamic Relief’s staff in Al Jazirah are Sudanese – some of them have now been evacuated to other parts of Sudan, while some of the local staff from Wad Madani have remained in the city. The city’s main bridge and markets are all closed.

Sudan’s conflict, which broke out in April, has so far forced at least 5.4 million people from their homes. 24.8 million people in Sudan are in need of humanitarian aid.

As the official death toll in Gaza passes 20,000, Islamic Relief is warning that the actual toll is likely to be even higher – as thousands of people are still missing and buried under the rubble and young children are increasingly suffering severe hunger and disease.  

To see 20,000 people killed in such a short space of time is a stain on the world’s conscience. The thousands of people killed are not just statistics – they are humanitarian workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, journalists, farmers, shopkeepers, artists, labourers and all sectors of Palestinian society. The vast majority of those killed and injured are civilians, with 40% of them children. Relatives of Islamic Relief staff have also been killed in their homes or as they fled on Israeli orders. 

As a humanitarian organisation Islamic Relief responds to horrific wars and crises all over the world, but we have rarely if ever witnessed killing and destruction at this speed and scale. International law is being wilfully ignored on a daily basis. With the death toll still rising every hour, the UN Security Council must demand an immediate ceasefire. Every further day of delay costs many more lives. Only an immediate and lasting ceasefire can protect civilians and begin to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation.  

More than 10 weeks of relentless Israeli assault has flattened much of Gaza and left civilians desperately searching for food, water, medicine and fuel. Most people are now going whole days without food and most civilians are now suffering severe hunger. Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into makeshift shelters, and heavy rain and falling temperatures are making conditions even worse as tents have been flooded and children are rapidly becoming sick.   

Despite a small number of aid trucks now entering through Kerem Shalom as well as Rafah, the amount of aid being allowed into Gaza is still a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed. With markets now almost empty, Israel continues to ban commercial trucks from entering. Humanitarian aid alone will not be anywhere near enough to address this crisis and it is essential that crossings are reopened to commercial supplies as well.  

As well as the 20,000 or more killed, over 52,000 people have also been wounded – with many suffering life-changing injuries such as loss of limbs.  

Intense Israeli bombardments and ground attacks are continuing despite mounting global pressure for a ceasefire. In the past few days more hospitals have been besieged and homes, refugee camps and school shelters have been bombed. Telecommunications and internet continue to be cut off in much of Gaza for days at a time, restricting information and making aid delivery even more difficult. There are widespread reports of civilians being detained and abused.  

Places of worship have come under unprecedented attack, with at least 112 mosques and three churches now damaged by bombing – including many that are sheltering families who have been forced from their homes.  

The scale of destruction is staggering with at least 60% of homes and 69% of schools now reportedly damaged or destroyed, and almost 80% of hospitals no longer able to function. The need for a permanent humanitarian ceasefire is greater than ever.  

As world leaders meet at COP28, Islamic Relief says the summit must finally deliver an unequivocal agreement to phase out the use of fossil fuels and limit global heating to 1.5 degrees.

This year has been the planet’s hottest year on record and climate change is plunging billions of people all over the world into poverty and increasing disasters that wipe out lives and livelihoods. 

Yet rich nations continue to approve new oil, gas and coal projects and producers seek more deals to increase demand and reliance on fossil fuels – despite previous commitments to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, beyond which the impact will be devastating and irreversible.

The UN Environment Programme warned last week that the world is now headed for a nightmare scenario of an increase of 3 degrees by the end of the century, as the richest and highest-polluting nations have failed to curb emissions. Countries need to cut emissions by at least 42% to meet the 1.5 degrees target.

Jamie Williams, Islamic Relief’s senior advisor on climate change, says:

“A rise in temperature of more than 1.5 degrees will be absolutely catastrophic. It is hard to believe that in the face of such clear scientific evidence, world leaders are repeatedly failing to take action and deliver on their promises, and in some cases continue to approve projects that will make things even worse. The world is fast running out of time – at COP28 we need to see real action not more empty words. The future of humanity is at stake. We must see a clear plan and timeline to phase out the use of fossil fuels.”

Islamic Relief is one of many organisations around the world to sign up to the call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty that halts the expansion of fossil fuels, phases out their use, and manages an equitable and just transition to sustainable energy sources that benefits the poorest in society.

Islamic Relief believes in climate justice – the highest-polluting nations who are most responsible for climate change must pay to protect people from its devastating effects. The world’s poorest and most marginalised people are the ones who are least responsible for climate change and yet are most affected by it.

At COP28 the highest-polluting nations must finally deliver on previous promises to help the poorest countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. At COP26 two years ago, world leaders pledged to double financing for adaptation yet since then funding for the poorest countries has actually decreased. Now even doubling is not enough, as tripling or more is needed to close the adaptation gap. And it must go to the right places – the 14 most affected and poorest countries, which have contributed least to global heating, are currently the 14 most underfunded for adaptation.

We are also calling for rich nations to ensure that the new Loss and Damage Fund is adequately funded, with clear annual targets and transparent and fair allocations. The fund must be comprehensive, addressing both economic and non-economic loss and damage resulting from extreme weather events and slow-onset disasters.

This climate financing must be in the form of grants, not loans that trap the poorest countries in even more debt. We are also calling for world leaders to ensure that adaptation plans are locally led.  

Jamie Williams says: “The COP28 discussions between countries shut out the people who are most affected. Yet adaptation efforts are most effective when they are led by and informed by local communities and their experiences and knowledge. The impact of climate change is exacerbated by structural inequalities and the world must do much more to ensure that women, youth, children, Indigenous people and other marginalised groups are at the heart of adaptation plans.”

Islamic Relief is calling for the Global Goal on Adaptation to be fully operationalised, with clear global targets and a permanent item on the agenda for COP and its subsidiary bodies, as well as a roadmap to at least double adaptation finance and support to help poor countries prepare and implement their National Adaptation Plans.

Shahin Ashraf, Islamic Relief Worldwide’s Head of Advocacy, says: “Justice demands that those with the means and responsibility must lead the way in finding urgent solutions. Funding the new Loss and Damage Fund is not merely an economic calculation but should be a moral obligation to address the deep injustices at the heart of the climate crisis. The cries for justice from the most affected communities across the world must be heard and answered. What meaningful justice can there be for those who have lost their lives in disasters that would not have happened on such a destructive scale if it were not for the actions of a few major polluters. As long as industry and governments continue to invest in oil and coal extraction, they are prioritising profit over people.”

After briefly pressing pause, it is outrageous that the killing and destruction is now just resuming as if nothing has changed.  

Before the truce, a child in Gaza was being killed almost every 10 minutes. It is unconscionable that the international community is now standing by and allowing this bloodshed to continue. More than 15,000 people have already been killed and now the lives of many thousands more innocent people are at imminent risk. 

The aid allowed into Gaza over the last few days has been woefully inadequate to address this humanitarian catastrophe. Now many civilians are at risk of dying from starvation and disease as well as the renewed bombing.

We’ve heard reports this morning that Israel is once again ordering people to leave parts of Khan Younis in the south, but there is nowhere safe for people to go. Civilians have been bombed if they stay and bombed if move. Telling people to move does not absolve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians who cannot or choose not to leave.

We yet again appeal to world leaders to demand a permanent ceasefire and an end to Israel’s siege.