oPt (Gaza) Protection Analysis Update

There is no safe space in Gaza. 20 months of intense hostilities have destroyed the protection environment for persons with disabilities and older persons. 134,105 people including over 40,500 children have new war-related injuries. 25 per cent are estimated to have new disabilities requiring acute and ongoing rehabilitation. Over 35,000 people are believed to have significant hearing damage due to explosions. Ten children per day lose one or both of their legs.

As needs rapidly expand, response services continue to be attacked and impeded. Hospitals, ambulances, and medical and humanitarian personnel have been systematically targeted, with over 1,580 health workers and 467 humanitarian staff killed. Health facilities including lifesaving emergency and rehabilitation units are destroyed with only 47% of hospitals partially functional, pushing the medical system to collapse and triggering immediate and long-term harm to the population. Extensive explosive ordnance under 50 million tons of debris puts persons with disabilities at disproportionate risk.

Severe access restrictions, including impeded movement and aid delivery, have drastically limited availability and access to lifesaving devices and care. Militarized non-humanitarian drop points operated by the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” expose people attempting to access food to extreme risk of killing and injury, and fully excludes entire sectors of the population, including persons with disabilities and older persons. Over 83 per cent of persons with disabilities in Gaza have lost their assistive devices, and 80 per cent of older persons in Gaza are in urgent need of medication or medical supplies.

PROTECTION DRIVERS AND RISKS

Amidst the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza in which the entire population is struggling to survive despite deepening scarcity of basic necessities, persons with disabilities, older persons, their families and caregivers are experiencing severe denial of their basic rights to safety, protection, and autonomy, and are confronted with additional and growing barriers and steadily eroding coping capacities to meet their needs.

The ongoing and repeated forced displacement of 90 per cent of the population has a significant impact on persons with disabilities and older persons, compounding existing environmental, communication, attitudinal, and institutional barriers and creating new barriers to all forms of humanitarian assistance. Persons with disabilities and older persons face higher risks and greater challenges before, during, and after fleeing to access critical information, devices, services, and essential goods for their safety, dignity, and survival. Interrupted care and separation from caregivers through displacement is driving expanding mental health concerns and increased exposure to neglect, abuse, and exploitation. Older women and women and girls with disabilities face compounded risks due to overlapping vulnerabilities to exclusion and discrimination.

Despite facing repeated attacks on and displacement of their service points and personnel, Palestinian NGOs and Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) continue to form the backbone of the humanitarian response for all people in Gaza, leading on measures to promote inclusion and localized solutions to continue service delivery.

Five key protection risks for persons with disabilities and older persons in Gaza requiring immediate attention are:

1. Attacks on civilians and civilian objects
2. Discrimination and stigmatization, denial of resources, opportunities, services and/or humanitarian access
3. Gender-based violence (GBV)
4. Psychological/emotional abuse or inflicted distress
5. Presence of explosive ordnance (EO)