Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lebanon, Sudan and Chad

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Ongoing hostilities across the Gaza Strip continue to put Palestinians at grave risk, particularly civilians trying to survive the Israeli siege in North Gaza governorate.

The ongoing military operation in the north has uprooted 130,000 people over the past seven weeks, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

In northern Gaza, including Gaza city, a critical shortage of cooking gas has forced families to rely on burning waste for fuel, which raises the risk of respiratory infections, at a time when health care services are extremely limited. As the hunger crisis deepens across Gaza, the World Food Programme (WFP) says prices of basic food items have surged by over 1,000 per cent compared to pre-hostility levels.

WFP managed to deliver some wheat flour to bakeries in Gaza this week. Although seven bakeries in central Gaza have been working in recent days, bakeries have been shutting down and re-opening intermittently due to a lack of flour and fuel. Bread is a lifeline for many families in Gaza, as it is often the only food they are able to access. It is critical that bakeries remain open and that the flow of essential supplies to power them – including wheat and fuel is sustained.

Humanitarian partners report that there is also a critical shortage of adequate shelter for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the hostilities across Gaza. Less than a quarter of shelter needs in the Strip have been met, leaving nearly 1 million people at risk of exposure to harsh conditions as winter nears. Some 545,000 people are living in damaged buildings and makeshift shelters, underscoring the urgency of ensuring that thousands of tarpaulins and sealing-off kits to repair living spaces expected to be brought into Gaza can enter the Strip without delay.

In the south, rains that have flooded shelters along the shoreline in Al-Qarara have displaced hundreds of families to Hamad city, in Khan Younis, over the past six days.

Meanwhile, the latest reporting from OCHA points to a deteriorating situation for Palestinians in the West Bank, where Israeli forces continue to use lethal, war-like tactics that appear to go well beyond standard law enforcement measures.

Between 19 and 25 November, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including one child. Of this number, seven were killed during a 48-hour Israeli operation in Jenin.

Settler attacks against Palestinian farmers in the West Bank have sharply increased since the start of the olive harvest season in October of this year. Between 1 October and 25 November, OCHA documented 250 settler-related incidents across 88 West Bank communities that were directly related to the harvest, the majority of which resulted in casualties, property damage or both. This marks at least a threefold increase in such incidents compared to each of the preceding three years.

Lebanon

In Lebanon, while many displaced families are heading back to their communities, some returnees face devastating realities.

Rescue teams continue to recover victims from bombed areas, with the death toll – not final- rising to around 4,000 and over 16,000 people injured according to the authorities.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the first humanitarian convoy, since 14 November, was able to reach Tyre, in the South Governorate. The 15 trucks convoy delivered food, blankets, kitchen sets and plastic tarpaulins, emergency hygiene kits, pillows and mattresses to conflict affected communities.

Sudan and Chad

The Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, traveled to Sudan’s Darfur region today. 

In El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, USG Fletcher met Tigani Eltahir Karshoum. During their discussions, the USG spoke of his conversations in recent days with people who fled Sudan’s conflict into Chad, where they are now living in desperate conditions. 

USG Fletcher recounted that refugees there have arrived from Darfur with tragic and heart-rending stories. They want peace, he stressed, and to return to their land and their lives. 

Yesterday, the USG visited Adre, on the Chadian side of the border with Sudan. USG  Fletcher underscored that the border crossing is a lifeline for desperately needed aid to reach people in Sudan. “With humanitarian funding at critical levels, the international community must redouble its efforts now,” he said in a social media post following the visit.