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

#Occupied Palestinian Territory

Israeli military operation in and around Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city has continued for the fifth consecutive day, amid intense exchanges of fire with Palestinian armed groups.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says WHO and partners have lost contact with health personnel at the hospital since the raid began.

In a social media post, Dr. Tedros said accessing Al Shifa is now impossible. A planned mission yesterday had to be cancelled due to lack of security.

With reports of health workers being arrested and detained, he warned that the ongoing situation could impact the hospital’s ability to function, even minimally, and deprive people of critical, lifesaving care.

Once again, Dr. Tedros stressed that hospitals are not battlegrounds and must be protected in line with international humanitarian law.

As the health situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, UNICEF and its partners are providing fuel to produce clean water, as well as water trucking. They are also distributing water tanks, jerrycans and hygiene kits to thousands of people, including children, in different parts of the Gaza Strip. The agency warns that water scarcity, hygiene challenges and inadequate sanitation services are posing serious health risks to children.

Today, as we mark World Water Day, UN Women is highlighting the impact that severe water shortages in Gaza are having on women who are forced into difficult choices to preserve their hygiene. Without water to shower, some are shaving their hair to prevent lice.

Our humanitarian partners report that as of last month, water production in Gaza had dropped to less than 6 per cent of pre-October levels, with very limited supplies available for drinking, domestic use and personal hygiene.

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Haiti

Today, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis was released for Haiti and the figures continue to worsen: nearly 5 million people face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity (IPC phases 3+) - that is almost half the overall population- including more than 1.6 million people facing “emergency” (IPC phase 4) levels.

The most severely affected areas are in the Artibonite valley - the country’s breadbasket - where armed groups have taken over farmland and stolen harvested crops. Also of concern are the West department, rural parts of Grand’Anse in the South, and several poor neighourhoods in Port-au-Prince, including Croix des Bouquets, and Cité Soleil – which saw pockets of catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) in late 2022.

Our humanitarian colleagues continue to do all they can to support Haitians but time is running out – they urgently need unhindered and safe access and additional funding.

Yesterday again, roadblocks and insecurity prevented the World Food Programme  and local partners to distribute the planned number of hot meals.  They only reached 9,300 displaced people out of the more than 17,000 that were planned for that day.

For their part, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its local partners today delivered over 60,000 liters of safe drinking water across five displacement sites in the capital.

Meanwhile, people continue to leave Port-au-Prince, despite the risks of passing through gangs-controlled routes. Since 8 March, IOM reports that more than 33,000 people left, with the majority of them heading towards the southern departments of Grande’Anse, Sud, Nippes and Sud-Est. This region already hosts more than 116,000 people who had fled the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince in recent months.

The $674 million Humanitarian Response Plan is currently 6.5 per cent funded with 43.5 million received.

#Ukraine

 
The Humanitarian Coordinator there, Denise Brown, in a statement today strongly condemned the overnight strikes that disrupted access to electricity and water for civilians across the country.  

The strikes left people in large urban centres such as Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia and other cities without power and water.  

Ms. Brown stressed that the wide impact of these attacks is deepening the already dire humanitarian situation for millions of people in Ukraine, adding that civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected.

We and our humanitarian partners are mobilized and providing assistance, complementing the work of first responders.

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Syria

Heavy flooding over the past two days at several displacement camps in Idleb and northern Aleppo has affected more than 15,700 people.

The Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, David Carden, has called for more support to provide better living conditions for displaced families.

Since the start of this year, that more than 3,300 family tents have been damaged in over 100 flooding incidents in north-west Syria. Some 500 tents have been completely destroyed.

Local responders have drained away the water, and we and our humanitarian partners are assessing the damage. Tents and other critical relief items – as well as road rehabilitation – are urgently needed.

After 13 years of conflict in Syria, some 2 million people – over three-quarters of them women and children – are still living in more than 1,500 displacement sites across the northwest of the country, with limited or no access to basic services. Over 40 per cent of displacement camps are more than five years old and in urgent need of rehabilitation due to storm- and flood-related damaged.

Humanitarian organizations have helped more than 31,000 families move from tents into more durable shelters over the past two years. But additional funding is urgently needed for shelter support: Less than $10 million of the $213 million needed this year for shelter work has been received.

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Democratic Republic of the Congo

OCHA warns that recent fighting on 17 and 18 March in South Kivu Province’s Fizi Territory has emptied 12 villages.

Residents were forced to seek safety in the bush and in nearby locations. Humanitarian partners are now assessing the displaced people’s needs to provide urgent assistance.

Meanwhile in North Kivu, still in the east of the country, fighting in the north-western part of Beni territory has also pushed civilians to flee – and there are reports of casualties, villages destroyed and kidnapping of children. That is according to humanitarian partners on the ground.

And staying in the east, In Ituri province, humanitarian operations are still suspended in Drodro town following inter-community conflict and armed group attacks in early March, depriving nearly 100,000 people of aid.