Drip-fed aid, a starving population and the most air strikes since October 7: Gaza’s growing crisis in numbers
It has been around 80 days since Israel launched “pre-emptive” strikes on Gaza in March, effectively ending a fragile ceasefire with Hamas and resuming the conflict.
Two months later, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government launched Operation Gideon’s Chariots, an intensification of military action in Gaza with the aim of taking control of the entire strip. It has seen mass evacuation orders and restricted flows of aid with widespread reports of food shortages.
The latest figures from the Hamas-run health ministry say that 54,607 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and a further 125,341 people injured, since around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October, 2023.
Since the ceasefire broke in mid-March, Israel’s attacks on Gaza have ramped up significantly, with around 1,500 strikes recorded. May has been the most intensive month since 7 October, according to conflict specialist non-profit ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data).
At the same time, Gaza has faced looming famine and an ongoing aid crisis. Aid was blocked for over two months from early March, with no food allowed to cross into Gaza; forcing bakeries and organizations like the World Food Kitchen to shutter their operations.
On May 19, Israel announced that aid would finally enter Gaza, but only through the newly-established, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The first aid trucks entered Gaza on May 25, but only lasted a week before GHF paused operations on Tuesday after 58 Palestinians were killed near distribution centers in Southern Gaza. Aid distribution in Gaza was halted on Friday after the US and the GHF said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was again paused on Saturday after the GHF claimed it was facing threats from Hamas.
“In addition to escalating military operations throughout Gaza, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated even further with the opening of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF),” conflict analyst Salma Eissa told The Independent.
“ACLED records at least three fatal incidents connected to GHF aid distribution centers in the final week of May alone, underscoring the rising level of insecurity surrounding aid delivery.”
The GHF has said it is working with other organisations to try and prevent further incidents. In an interview with ABC News, the new chief executive, Reverend Johnnie Moore, said: “I fundamentally disagree with the premise that our operation is somehow disproportionately imperilling people. I’m not doing this for anybody to die.”
Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza for nearly three months, between March 2 and May 20.
Over this period, the entire 2.1 million population of Gaza faced food shortages, with 500,000 people at risk of starvation, according to a report from UN-backed food security experts.
The prices for basic essentials spiked, with a 25kg bag of flour costing between $235 and $520, according to the UN.
In late May, the UN Secretary General António Guterres said that some 160,000 pallets of aid supplies (around 9,000 trucks) were ready and waiting to enter Gaza.
