Médecins du Monde distributed 400 hygiene kits to meet the most immediate needs of 2,400 people in one of the shelters in the Nuseirat IDP camp in Gaza, run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
“We at Médecins du Monde will continue to work tirelessly to provide assistance to people in need, especially in conflict areas, as part of our mission,” said the Coordinator of the Medecins du Monde Base in Gaza. The organisation’s staff in Gaza, also experiencing difficult conditions, are mobilising tirelessly to respond to the most immediate needs of the most vulnerable population.
The materials distributed include personal hygiene items such as towels, toilet paper, various types of soap and shampoo, as well as sponges, toothbrushes and toothpastes, combs and nail clippers.
More than 1.4 million people have been displaced inside Gaza and UNRWA-run shelters have quadrupled their capacity. Drinking water available for all uses (drinking, cooking, toileting and cleaning) barely reaches 3 litres per day on average per person. Access to sanitation is essential to maintain minimum conditions of hygiene, cleanliness and dignity in today’s overcrowded conditions, and to reduce the risk of disease and infection.
- Médecins du Monde distributed 400 hygiene kits to meet the needs of 2,400 people in a refugee camp in Nuseirat. Maintaining minimum sanitation and hygiene conditions in the current overcrowded situation is essential to reduce the risk of disease and epidemics.
- 67% of the people who have lost their lives are children and women. Médecins du Monde calls for a strong and urgent diplomatic intervention to stop the killing of civilians.
ATTACKS ON JABALIA REFUGEE CAMP
On 31 October, heavy air strikes hit the Jabalia refugee camp, destroying an entire neighbourhood of 30 houses. Fifty people were killed and many are still trapped under the rubble. The overwhelming number of the injured cannot receive medical assistance because hospitals are facing unprecedented destruction, in conditions such that health workers are performing surgery without anaesthesia on hospital floors.
Health workers work in conditions of poor hygiene, fatigue and extreme lack of resources, exacerbated by complete exclusion and largely inadequate humanitarian assistance. This has been the daily reality for the past three weeks in the Gaza Strip, where more than 8,525 people have been killed so far.
Médecins du Monde is appalled by the lack of decisive, urgent and unwavering intervention by the international community, while International Humanitarian Law is constantly being violated. Médecins du Monde urgently calls for the protection of civilians and for States to assume their responsibilities under international law: to exert all pressure on the parties to the conflict to agree to a ceasefire and to ensure full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.