Today's top news: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Displaced families return to Gaza City and northern Gaza, walking for hours through rubble to reunite with loved ones and what remains of their homes.
Displaced families return to Gaza City and northern Gaza, walking for hours through rubble to reunite with loved ones and what remains of their homes. Photo: UNRWA

#Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Msuya, told the Security Council yesterday that the situation in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, could have a devastating impact on civilians, urging all parties to take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects throughout military operations.

Humanitarian partners continue, despite the challenging circumstances, to carry out life-saving operations.

Msuya warned that while 21 million people already need aid across the country, the escalation in the east threatens to make the humanitarian situation even worse.

Also yesterday, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, allocated US$17 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to help people who have been displaced in North and South Kivu provinces.

The funding will support the delivery of emergency aid, including food, sanitation and hygiene services to prevent disease outbreaks, health services and emergency medical care for injured people, and temporary shelter.

OCHA reiterates that civilians, displacement sites and medical facilities must be protected. We need rapid, unimpeded and safe humanitarian access to those in need.

#Occupied Palestinian Territory

OCHA reports that this morning, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians started returning to their places of origin in northern Gaza, after the Israeli army opened the checkpoint on Al Rashid road, allowing people from southern areas of the Strip to move north.

Humanitarian partners have been monitoring the movement of these displaced families and providing them with hot meals, high-energy biscuits and emergency medical care as needed. They report that more than 200,000 people returned from southern Gaza to the north today.

OCHA says the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to scale up vital aid for those in need across the Strip. Today, 840 trucks entered Gaza, while 915 crossed into the Strip yesterday, according to information obtained by the UN on the ground through interactions with the Israeli authorities and the guarantors for the ceasefire deal.

OCHA says the UN and its partners continue to scale up vital aid for those in need across the Strip. Humanitarian partners and assistance are now reaching areas that were previously impossible to access, including along Al Rashid Road and south of Gaza city.

The World Food Programme reports that during the first four days of the ceasefire, the agency delivered more food to Gaza’s population than the entire month of December. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East brought in enough food for 1 million people during the first three days of the ceasefire alone.

UNICEF says trucks filled with water, hygiene kits, malnutrition treatments, warm clothes, tarpaulins and other critical humanitarian assistance have been entering from crossing points at both the north and south of Gaza and being distributed with partners to families in need. The agency says it aims to deliver 50 trucks a day during the first phase of the ceasefire and has hundreds of pallets of aid prepositioned at Gaza’s borders, with more on the way. On the ground, UNICEF says it is also ramping up critical services, including water, sanitation, nutrition, mental health and psychosocial support.

Yesterday, OCHA carried out a needs assessment in the Al-Fukhari area, east of Khan Younis, where some 10,000 returnees urgently require water and shelter support.

The team also visited returnees in the Abasan area, where some 45,000 people are sheltering in schools and makeshift sites because their homes were destroyed.

In Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, partners tracking the displacement of people in Gaza carried out assessments at eight sites where about 38,000 people are living. Most said they planned to stay, though those displaced from the north expressed a desire to move once the situation stabilizes. 

The team noted that people at these sites urgently need food support, shelter assistance, clean water and hygiene kits.

In the West Bank, OCHA warns that the situation in Jenin and its refugee camp continues to deteriorate as the ongoing operation by Israeli forces entered its seventh day, resulting in further casualties and destruction of roads and infrastructure.

Yesterday, a two-year-old child was reportedly killed by Israeli fire while at her grandparents’ home. Since the operation in Jenin began on 21 January, 16 deaths have been reported.

Meanwhile, today, in the Tulkarm refugee camp, an air strike reportedly killed two Palestinians, raising concerns over the use of force that exceeds law enforcement standards.

Israeli forces have since raided Tulkarm and surrounded the Tulkarm Government Hospital.

OCHA stresses that health facilities, including hospitals, are not a target and should be protected.