Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine
#Occupied Palestinian Territory
Gaza: Relentless hostilities and dwindling supplies put civilians at risk
OCHA warns that Israeli forces continue to bombard areas across the Gaza Strip, with attacks hitting tents and residential buildings. Scores of Palestinians have reportedly been killed or injured in recent days, and civilian infrastructure has been damaged.
As the full blockade on any supplies into Gaza approaches two months, stocks are being steadily depleted or have run out entirely. This leaves more than 2 million people with severe shortages of food, water, shelter, medicine and other essential supplies.
Partners report that this week, more community kitchens have closed and there are no tents left to distribute. The last five dozen emergency shelter kits – which do not include tents – are set to be distributed in the next few days.
People in Gaza have told partners supporting water, sanitation and hygiene services that they are having to live near raw sewage, as close as 10 metres away. This comes as recent hostilities destroyed more than a dozen trucks used to collect, transport and dispose of sewage.
Efforts to distribute water are being hampered by the lack of generators, solar panels and pipes. Fuel is also needed for the response, but the UN’s efforts to retrieve it have been routinely denied by Israeli authorities.
Partners working on the response to gender-based violence say they lack fuel to operate safe spaces or conduct community outreach, which is limiting critical services to emergency case management when possible.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) warns that all of the agency’s protection supplies – which include shelter materials, hygiene items and menstrual hygiene management kits – have been completely depleted.
UNFPA says hundreds of thousands of women and girls of reproductive age no longer have access to basic menstrual supplies, clean water and safe sanitation – heightening the risks of gender-based violence, infection and severe psychological distress.
The agency says only seven hospitals and four field hospitals across Gaza continue to provide obstetric and newborn care, and all are only partially functioning. These facilities are overstretched, understaffed and operating under constant threat and extreme exhaustion, with critical shortages of fuel, electricity, medical supplies and staff. Many lack anesthesia, oxygen, and other essentials needed for infection prevention and life-saving procedures such as caesarean sections.
Hospitals report a sharp rise in the number of malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women, and most newborns are now born underweight.
Over the past two weeks, UNFPA distributed nearly 50 reproductive health kits to support almost 6,500 services, including 700 deliveries in the next three months. The agency also provided 5,000 vials of oxytocin to help manage postpartum hemorrhage.
However, critical items for safe deliveries and newborn care, such as incubators and generators, remain stuck at border crossings due to the ongoing blockade.
West Bank: Settler violence imperils Palestinians
OCHA warns that settler violence continues in the West Bank, with at least 23 incidents resulting in casualties or property damage documented between 15 and 26 April alone.
In one incident, in a herding community of Masafer Yatta, Israeli settlers attacked a boy and his elderly father, who suffered life-changing injuries.
Meanwhile, OCHA notes that the operation by Israeli forces that started in January in northern areas of the West Bank has been ongoing for nearly 100 days.
Partners estimate that tens of thousands of Palestinians remain displaced in Jenin and Tulkarm due to the operation in the north, which continues to drive humanitarian needs, at a time when humanitarian partners face movement restrictions in reaching people who require support.
#Afghanistan
In Kunduz, UN Relief Chief notes devastating impact of funding cuts
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, was in Kunduz today, where he met the de facto provincial governor, Mohammad Khan Dawat, and saw how the UN and its humanitarian partners in Afghanistan continue to deliver to people in need, including to a growing number of returnees.
At a clinic providing vaccinations, maternal care and nutrition support, Mr. Fletcher spoke with women health workers about how access to critical care is shrinking as resources dry up and force other health providers to shut down. Staff told him of pregnant women losing their babies because of the huge distance and expense required to reach health services.
The Under-Secretary-General also heard how funding cuts are crippling life-saving mine action work in Afghanistan, where landmines kill or injure 55 people every month on average – 80 per cent of them children, often while playing or going to school.
#Sudan
UN mobilizes aid for civilians fleeing fighting in North Darfur
OCHA reports that more humanitarian supplies are being dispatched to Tawila, in Sudan’s North Darfur state, where more than 300,000 people fleeing recent attacks in Zamzam displacement camp have sought safety.
Yesterday, an inter-agency aid convoy led by the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Antoine Gerard, crossed into the Darfur region from Chad, via the Adre border crossing, on its way to Tawila.
The convoy is carrying life-saving supplies, including dignity kits, nutrition and medical supplies, and other essential items.
Food and nutrition assistance for some 220,000 people has already reached Tawila. The World Food Programme (WFP) reports that distributions of that aid started there today and are already 20 per cent complete. WFP is also mobilizing additional assistance, as the numbers of displaced continue to climb.
Earlier last week, health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene supplies for more than 340,000 people were dispatched from Chad to Tawila and to some localities in Central Darfur state. Today, another convoy of 19 trucks carrying nutrition supplies is expected to depart Chad for Tawila.
The Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF) – which is managed by OCHA – has disbursed more than US$14 million this year in support of local and international partners responding in Tawila and other areas of North Darfur.* This includes an emergency allocation of $2.5 million released last week to support emergency health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene assistance for displaced people.
*Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Sudan with urgent support.
#Ukraine
Ukrainian cities suffer deadly strikes
OCHA reports that large-scale attacks across urban centres in Ukraine have caused significant civilian casualties and widespread damage to homes and civilian infrastructure.
On the night of 29 to 30 April, Kharkiv and Dnipro – Ukraine’s second- and fourth-largest cities – suffered multiple drone strikes. According to authorities, more than 40 people, including two children, were injured in Kharkiv. In Dnipro, one civilian was killed and another injured.
The attacks also damaged two health facilities and more than a dozen residential buildings in both cities, according to the authorities and partners on the ground.
The UN and its partners provided first aid, psychological support, emergency shelter kits and other vital supplies, complementing the efforts of first responders.
Meanwhile, authorities say hostilities along the front line resulted in dozens more civilian casualties and destruction in the regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia.
Aid organizations facilitated the evacuation of the most vulnerable people – including those with limited mobility and families with children – from high-risk areas in the regions of Donetsk, Dnipro and Kharkiv to safer parts of Ukraine. They are providing transport support and helping secure accommodations in host communities.
Today, two humanitarian convoys facilitated by the UN and its partners delivered 12 metric tons of medical, hygiene and other critical supplies to the residents of two front-line communities in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.