More than 1,000 displaced Palestinians taking refuge in those shelters were also injured, the OCHA statement read, adding that UNRWA schools in the strip were also damaged.

“Seventy of the schools damaged are UNRWA schools, with at least 56 serving as shelters for IDPs [internally displaced persons],” the statement read.

“Several schools, including UNRWA schools, have been directly hit by Israeli airstrikes or tank shells.”

Overall, about 1.9 million Palestinians, constituting over 85% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced across the strip since October 7, according to UNRWA. A majority of them, roughly 1.4 million people, are sheltering in UNRWA facilities.

Gaza’s southernmost area has now become the most densely populated area in the enclave, with a density of 12,000 people per square kilometer, following the arrival of tens of thousands of displaced people there in search for safety since December 3, OCHA announced.

At least 19,453 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the Health Ministry announced Monday.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra stated at a press conference that 52,286 other people have also been injured in the offensive.

Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip from the air and land, imposed a siege, and mounted a ground offensive in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

The group accused the Israeli army of “deliberately” blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while “wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance”.

It added that Israeli forces were “apparently” razing agricultural areas and depriving the civilian population of “objects indispensable to their survival”.

“For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” Omar Shakir, HRW’s Israel and Palestine director, stated.

“World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population.”

Israel’s air and ground attacks on Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas have killed nearly 19,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured many more.

The war has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory’s housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.

The HRW called on Tel Aviv to immediately cease using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, and abide by the prohibition on attacks on objects necessary for the survival of the civilian population and lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

“The government should restore water and electricity access, and allow desperately needed food, medical aid, and fuel into Gaza, including via its crossing at Kerem Shalom,” it stressed.

It also called on the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and other countries to “suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel as long as its forces continue to commit widespread and serious abuses amounting to war crimes against civilians with impunity”.

“The water system isn’t working anymore – it has completely collapsed,” Ricardo Martinez, who spent four weeks in Gaza during the war, said in an interview posted on the aid group’s website on Monday.

“People are being pushed to the limit, having to fight for their survival. At most, people have one litre of water per day – that’s for drinking, washing and cooking,” added Martinez, a logistics coordinator for MSF.

In addition to the lack of water, he stated some places in Gaza were without any fuel or electricity, further compounding the challenges faced by residents.

“Without fuel, the grinding mills are not working, so nobody has wheat – no wheat, no food. Trucks coming from Egypt are offloading aid to trucks in Gaza, but without fuel, these trucks are unable to move and distribute the aid,” he noted.

Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival, according to the report.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Tel Aviv has also imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

Since the start of the onslaught on Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has killed over 19,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 51,000 others.

OHCHR confirmed the killing of 50 journalists and media workers, and received information that 30 more may have died, accounting for about 6 percent of all those registered with the Journalists’ Syndicate in Gaza.

According to the International Federation of Journalists, 73 percent of the total number of journalists and media workers killed globally so far in 2023 have been in Gaza.

“Journalists and media workers, utilising a variety of tools, including social media, have kept the world informed in real-time of the horrors that civilians in Gaza are enduring. Their dedication deserves tribute. But one by one, these eyes on the ground are going dark,” the UN office said in a statement.

“Thanks to their work, the world is watching. They must be protected. There must be accountability,” it added.

The Palestinian media office in Gaza announced in a statement on Sunday that at least 92 journalists have been killed in the ongoing Israeli attacks on the coastal territory, adding the latest fatalities were journalists Rami Badir and Assem Kamal Musa, who were killed in Israeli raids during the past two days.

“By assassinating journalists, the Israeli occupation is trying to obscure the Palestinian narrative and attempt to obscure the truth, but it has failed miserably in breaking the will of our great Palestinian people,” the office added.

Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the onslaught on Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has killed nearly 19,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 51,000 others.

Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.