Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have seen a significant increase in war casualties with severe injuries over the past month and are running out of medical supplies, Merlin said today. After a recent attack in Gaza City, 75 per cent of war-wounded patients admitted at one hospital needed amputations, Merlin’s emergency assessment team was told. In the past six weeks, doctors at this hospital have carried out amputations on more than 50 patients and have been forced to cancel 800 routine operations in order to deal with the rising number of emergency cases. Read more about Hospitals in Gaza overwhelmed and running out of supplies 

Since the beginning of Operation Summer Rains - the IDF codename of the military operation which began on 28 June - 184 Palestinians, including 42 children, have been killed; 650 Palestinians injured. One IDF soldier was killed, 25 Israelis injured, including 11 by homemade rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Up to 3,400 Palestinians have sought shelter in UNRWA installations as a result the IDF operation. UNDP initial estimates total $15.5 million in damages to Gaza’s infrastructure from IDF incursions, artillery shellings and air strikes excluding the damage caused to the Gaza power plant. Read more about "Sharp decline" in the humanitarian situation in Gaza after six weeks of siege 

The United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory are deeply alarmed by the impact continuing violence is having on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, which has resulted in a sharp decline in the humanitarian situation facing 1.4 million people, more than half of them children. We are concerned that with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten. We estimate that since 28 June, 175 Palestinians have been killed, including approximately 40 children and eight women, and over 620 injured in the Gaza Strip. Read more about UN Agencies: Deeply alarmed by continuing violence in Gaza 

The humanitarian crisis engulfing Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip is on the verge of being forgotten because of the fighting taking place in Lebanon and northern Israel, and children are suffering more than most, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today. Gaza’s children - estimated at more than 830,000 - “are living in an environment of extraordinary violence, fear and anxiety,” UNICEF Special Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Dan Rohrmann, said today in a statement released in Jerusalem after he visited Gaza. Read more about Gaza crisis must not be forgotten, UNICEF says 

The Economic and Social Council this afternoon adopted a resolution on the economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan. The resolution, adopted by a roll-call vote of 45 in favour to 3 against, with 3 abstentions, called for the lifting of the severe restrictions imposed on the Palestinian people; and demanded that Israel comply with the Protocol on Economic Relations between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed in Paris on 29 April 1994 and that it urgently transfer Palestinian tax revenues. Read more about Economic and Social Council adopts resolutions on repercussions of Israeli occupation on Palestinians 

The crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) is so serious that the UN is again pleading for additional emergency relief for the entire civil population. Essential infrastructure has been bombed and there is an acute shortage of clean water, functional sanitation plants and electricity. Most recently, the incidence of illness among children in Gaza has increased dramatically. Likewise, among adults, the incidence of diarrhoea, for example, has increased by 163 percent compared to last year. The UN now fears a widespread outbreak of deadly diseases. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency – Sida – has resolved to contribute an additional SEK 15 million to UN humanitarian efforts in Gaza and on the West Bank. The contribution will finance food supplies, health, sanitation, and education. Read more about Illness among children in Gaza rising dramatically – Swedish Sida increases humanitarian support 

From the roof of his crumbling house, Mahmoud Kallam has a clear view across the slums of south Beirut where Palestinian children play football in streets lined with rotting bones and discarded clothes. As he looks, columns of brown smoke from Israeli air strikes rise into the sky. “My children are asleep now because they spent all night watching the missile attacks. They have started playing a game of who can spot the drone first,” says Kallam, a Palestinian researcher and life-long resident of the Shatila Camp. Shatila is one of dozens of camps where over half Lebanon’s estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in squalid, cramped conditions. The camps are fully built up with concrete buildings and infrastructure, albeit in a deteriorating state. Read more about Patience and food running low in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon 

The Palestinian death toll now stands at 100 (including 16 children) since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched military operations inside the Gaza Strip on 28 June. The number of Palestinians injured has climbed to 300. Two Israelis in Sderot were injured by Palestinian homemade rockets. Since 28 June, one IDF soldier has been killed and twelve Israelis have been injured. Since 28 June, Palestinians fired 177 homemade rockets towards Israel. The IDF fired over 1,000 artillery shells into Gaza, and the Israeli air force conducted 168 aerial bombings on Gaza. Read more about Gaza Strip Situation Report No. Seven 

On July 14, United Nations (UN) Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, called on the donor community to assit the United Nations and its partners in their efforts to meet the most urgent needs of the Palestinian population and respond promptly and generously to the revised emergency Appeal for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) 2006. Norway, Spain and Sweden convened a meeting in Geneva to encourage the international donor community to increase it response to the deterioration humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory. Read more about UN publishes Revised Emergency Appeal to Meet Most Urgent Needs of Palestinians 

Last Thursday (13 July) was particularly heavy in terms of casualties, as the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death of 26 people within 24 hours. During the reporting period, air, land and sea shelling continued in various areas of the Gaza Strip, causing many casualties, including civilians. On 13 July, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) declared the central part of the Gaza Strip a closed military zone and imposed a curfew on its 1,200 residents till the next day. On 16 July, the IDF heavily shelled Beit Hanun. The exact number of casualties is unknown, but at least three houses were destroyed. Read more about ICRC bulletin - Gaza