Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lebanon, Sudan, Haiti, Ukraine, Cuba
#Occupied Palestinian Territory
OCHA warns that people suffering under the ongoing Israeli siege in North Gaza governorate are rapidly exhausting all available means for their survival.
Once again, OCHA stresses that civilians must be protected whether they move or stay, and they must be able to receive the humanitarian assistance they need. This is what international humanitarian law requires.
Israeli authorities continue to deny OCHA’s requests to help rescue civilians under rubble. OCHA is still waiting for the green light to help dozens of people trapped under their collapsed homes in the Falouja area of Jabalya.
OCHA says requests to bring desperately needed humanitarian assistance to northern Gaza have also been denied. This includes planned missions by UN agencies and our partners to deliver life-saving supplies – including blood, essential medications, food parcels, and fuel to hospitals and water facilities.
The director of Kamal Adwan, one of the last functioning hospitals in North Gaza, reported yesterday that blood units have run out, and medical crews have been working nonstop with no food. The emergency department is seeing a constant influx of casualties. Between Sunday and Monday alone, the hospital received some 200 trauma patients, more than 50 of them already dead. With the hospital beyond capacity, a number of injured patients have died.
Yesterday, OCHA supported a complex mission led by the World Health Organization (WHO) – alongside the UN Mine Action Service and the Palestine Red Crescent Society – to evacuate 14 critical patients from Kamal Adwan southward to Al Shifa Hospital.
That mission, which departed Deir al Balah on Sunday, had to spend the night at Kamal Adwan due to intense fighting in the area. The team was only able to proceed the following day.
Meanwhile, health partners report that communications challenges are hampering efforts to ascertain information on conditions at the other medical facilities in North Gaza, the Indonesian and Al Awda hospitals.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reports that none of the agency’s medical points in North Gaza are operational. UNRWA says its medical teams are ready but urgently need medical supplies to be able to provide care.
As the Israeli siege continues, the UN and humanitarian partners estimate that more than 60,000 people have been displaced from North Gaza to Gaza city. Within North Gaza, about 4,000 people have fled from Jabalya to Beit Hanoun, with others fleeing to Beit Lahya or displaced within Jabalya itself.
Amid the ongoing hostilities, displacement to Deir al Balah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza has been limited, with more than 100 people – mostly women and children – crossing via Al Rashid Road.
OCHA reports that the health situation in central and southern Gaza also remains difficult.
A team of health monitors in Gaza say that as of late last month, more than three quarters of hospitals still functioning across the Strip lack enough water, and 94 per cent have insufficient sanitation facilities. More than 70 per cent are unable to follow proper hand hygiene practices, and 82 per cent lack sufficient personal protective equipment. All of these facilities are experiencing severe shortages of essential supplies.
Once again, OCHA calls on the Israeli authorities to facilitate the rapid, safe, sustained and unimpeded flow of life-saving humanitarian assistance into and across Gaza. Access denials and delays are life-threatening.
#Lebanon
OCHA is alarmed at the toll that escalating hostilities are having on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Lebanon.
Yesterday, an airstrike in the vicinity of Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut killed more than a dozen people – including a child – and injured more than 50 others, according to Lebanese health authorities. The strike also caused significant damage to the facility.
Meanwhile, administrators at the Sahel Hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs reported that the facility was evacuated following warnings issued by Israeli forces, impacting access to the hospital.
OCHA underscores that under international humanitarian law, civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected.
Across Lebanon, the number of people killed and injured – including health workers on duty – continues to rise, amid ongoing strikes in different parts of the country.
In Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, three paramedics with the Lebanese Red Cross were wounded by shrapnel today during an operation to rescue people injured by an airstrike.
Despite ongoing airstrikes in the south, humanitarian partners continue to deliver life-saving supplies.
Today, an inter-agency convoy by the UN Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, OCHA, UNICEF and the UN Population Fund reached Nabatieh Governorate. The team delivered essential supplies to Hasbaya town to support some 31,000 people across 20 villages. This assistance included food, mattresses, blankets, hygiene supplies, and items for the coming winter.
In the southern city of Tyre, UNRWA reopened its health centre in the Burj Shemali camp. The team there is providing primary health-care services for almost 380 patients.
As hostilities continue in areas across the country, more people are fleeing their homes. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than 809,000 people have been displaced inside Lebanon over the past year. Hundreds of thousands more have crossed into neighbouring countries.
#Sudan
OCHA is gravely concerned by the impact that ongoing armed conflict is having on civilians in many parts of Sudan.
Fighting continues to rage in the states of North Darfur, West Darfur, Khartoum, North Kordofan and Aj Jazirah, despite repeated calls for the parties to de-escalate, ensure the protection of civilians and facilitate humanitarian access.
In North Darfur alone, the International Organization for Migration reports that in just six months, between 1 April and 9 October, some 410,000 people have been displaced in the locality of Al Fasher. Many of them had already been displaced at least once before over the course of this conflict.
OCHA continues to receive reports of civilian casualties and indiscriminate attacks impacting public infrastructure and residential areas – both in North Darfur and elsewhere – with many areas effectively cut off from humanitarian assistance.
Once again, OCHA calls on the parties to stop the fighting and allow humanitarian organizations to reach people in need of life-saving assistance wherever they are.
Meanwhile, humanitarian partners and Sudanese health authorities continue to scale up the response to the ongoing cholera outbreak. Late last week, the latest phase of the cholera vaccination campaign got underway, with the goal of reaching some 1.4 million people in the states of Kassala, Gedaref and River Nile.
Since July, Sudan’s cholera outbreak has spread to 11 states, with nearly 26,000 cases reported and 722 related deaths.
#Haiti
OCHA warns that repeated attacks by armed groups on the Solino, Fort National and Delmas 24 neighborhoods in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area of Haiti are having a devastating impact on civilians.
Since 17 October, several people have reportedly been killed in these areas, including a child who was shot. Others have been injured in the attacks, but limited access means that it is extremely difficult to evacuate those who need medical care.
In addition, houses have been looted or set on fire. The violence and destruction has forced more than 4,200 people to flee in search of safety. They are now sheltering at makeshift displacement sites or with host families, according to initial reports from the International Organization for Migration.
Aid organizations are assessing the situation and coordinating efforts to respond once access allows. Humanitarian partners say that in addition to medical care, people affected by the attacks urgently need food, infant formula, water, blankets, clothes and hygiene kits.
OCHA is deeply concerned about the risk of violence spreading to other neighbourhoods in the capital, including the Petionville residential area, which would only deepen the humanitarian crisis in Port-au-Prince. It would also further threaten the humanitarian response, given the potential for armed groups to expand their presence along key roads leading to the international airport.
#Ukraine
OCHA says that attacks across Ukraine continue to kill and injure civilians and damage their homes.
Local authorities say attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine today and yesterday caused 45 civilian casualties, including children and medical workers. Scores of homes were also damaged in the Donetsk, Kherson, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Sumy regions.
In Sumy City, overnight attacks killed three civilians – including a 14-year-old girl – and injured one person, according to local authorities and aid workers. Two residential buildings were also damaged.
Meanwhile in the Kharkiv Region, intense hostilities have displaced nearly 1,000 civilians from Kupiansk over the last four days. The UN and humanitarian partners are assisting residents arriving at the transit centre in Kharkiv, offering food, psychological support, legal assistance, and winter items, such as blankets and warm clothes.
#Cuba
The UN team in Cuba remains in close contact with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment and is prepared to swiftly support national authorities if needed, following Hurricane Oscar, which struck the eastern region over the weekend amid an ongoing power outage.
Hurricane Oscar has brought as much as 300 millimetres of rain and has caused flooding, damaged infrastructure, and blocked roads.
Authorities are working to restore power, monitor reservoir levels, assist affected people, and quantify the damage, in addition to deploying medical teams. Initial reports indicate six deaths, 1,800 damaged homes, and more than 130,000 people seeking shelter with friends and family.
The lack of power has jeopardized water systems and telecommunications, among other critical infrastructure. The flooding caused by the hurricane also could also increase the risk of the spread of vector-borne diseases, as well as the threat of landslides in mountainous areas.