Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine
#Occupied Palestinian Territory
OCHA confirms that several displaced Palestinians were killed during attacks in the Al Mawasi area in central Gaza today. Hostilities continue across the Strip, including in North Gaza governorate, which is still under an Israeli siege.
Humanitarian partners report that between 65,000 and 75,000 Palestinians remain in North Gaza governorate. OCHA says conditions in besieged areas are inhuman, given the scale of death, destruction and deprivation over the past five weeks.
Once again, OCHA stresses that civilians must be protected whether they move or stay. Civilians must be allowed to leave for safer areas – and they must be allowed to return as soon as circumstances allow. OCHA reiterates that civilians must be able to receive the humanitarian assistance they need, wherever they are. All of this is required by international humanitarian law.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Israeli authorities continue to deny the agency’s requests to access the Kamal Adwan and Al Awda hospitals in North Gaza governorate. Last week, all three attempts to deploy an international emergency medical team – or EMT – to Kamal Adwan were blocked. WHO is planning missions in the coming days to deploy an EMT and to deliver medical supplies and 10,000 litres of fuel. Our health partners are also planning a two-day mission to expand services in Gaza governorate.
Meanwhile, OCHA reports that the ongoing Israeli siege in North Gaza is having a devastating impact on acutely malnourished children there. Our partners working on nutrition say they’ve had to stop all activities in North Gaza governorate, including the treatment of children for acute malnutrition, as well as supplementary feeding for children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
UNICEF has prepositioned supplies for treating acute malnutrition in the north through year’s end. For their part, the World Food Programme has dispatched nearly 200 metric tons of supplementary food supplies in north and south Gaza to meet people’s needs this month.
OCHA says partners are reporting that as many as 375,000 people are sheltering in Gaza governorate, as people continue to flee the hostilities farther north. Conditions in Gaza city are overcrowded, and basic services are stretched to breaking point.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, WHO and partners supported the medical evacuation of eight children and six companions from Gaza to Jordan. They will receive advanced treatment in the United States. Six of those patients have war-related injuries.
WHO says that since October of last year, only about a quarter of the more than 21,000 requests to evacuate patients outside of Gaza have been approved. Once again, we call for the establishment of evacuation corridors and for all possible routes to be used for the safe and timely passage of all patients who need specialized care.
#Lebanon
OCHA is alarmed by the mounting human toll of Israeli airstrikes in densely populated areas across Lebanon.
Strikes continue day and night, with Beirut's densely populated southern suburbs targeted for a fourth consecutive day today, and short-notice displacement orders issued.
Yesterday, the Bekaa and Baalbeck regions, in the east of the country, sustained heavy airstrikes with one hitting a Lebanese Civil Defense center in Douris in Baalbeck-Hermel Governorate. According to the authorities, 13 volunteers and rescuers were killed in the attack and several are still missing.
OCHA reiterates that protection of civilians is a moral and legal obligation binding on all parties to armed conflict.
The parties to the conflict must also take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects under their control against the effects of attacks.
Meanwhile, the response continues, and our humanitarian colleagues tell us that today three convoys managed to deliver emergency supplies: two delivered essential medical supplies, hygiene and dignity kits to two hospital and a Primary Health Care Clinic, in Baalbeck-Hermel Governorate. A third convoy went to Sarafand in South Lebanon Governorate, with supplies to support the rehabilitation of a Primary Health Care Center that suffered significant damage in recent airstrikes.
Yesterday, the Word Health Organization, UNICEF and the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health launched a national vaccination campaign to protect children under 10 years of age from polio, measles, rubella and mumps. The campaign runs till the end of the year.
#Sudan
OCHA warns that armed violence in Aj Jazirah State, Sudan, is putting the lives of tens of thousands of people at risk. OCHA once again calls for the protection of civilians and safe passage for those fleeing. Under international humanitarian law, civilians must also be able to access the support they need to survive, whether they leave or stay.
The International Organization for Migration reports that in less than a month, more than 343,000 people have been displaced across Aj Jazirah, amid escalating clashes and insecurity.
Most have fled to the neighbouring state of Gedaref, as well as Kassala, where the UN and humanitarian partners are working with host communities to provide emergency assistance – that includes food, shelter, health care, dignity kits, psychosocial services, non-food items, and water, sanitation and hygiene support.
Last week, OCHA carried out assessments in Gedaref and Kassala. Many of the displaced had walked for days and arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They are now sheltering in the open, including children, women, older people, and those who are sick or malnourished.
OCHA says people who have fled the fighting in Al Jazirah urgently need tents, plastic sheets, heaters, mattresses, medicines, food, and milk for their young children.
The long journey has exposed displaced people to diseases, including cholera, as people often resort to consuming unsafe water and food along the way. OCHA has observed an increase in cholera cases at the cholera treatment centre in Gedaref following this latest wave of displacement.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme reports that for the first time in months, three WFP convoys carrying essential food and nutrition assistance are on their way to Sudan’s Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, as well as Kadugli in South Kordofan.
The trucks going to South Kordofan will deliver aid for some 10,000 people.
The trucks bound for Zamzam are carrying assistance for nearly 40,000 people, including nutrition supplements for malnourished children. The first convoy heading to the camp crossed into Sudan via the Adre crossing on Saturday, November 9th. The second convoy to Zamzam left Port Sudan on Tuesday, and today, those trucks reached Dabbah, a critical corridor for crossline aid that’s about 850 kilometres west of Port Sudan.
WFP calls for the safe passage of these convoys to areas that have been largely cut off from aid since the start of the conflict, especially to Zamzam – where, as you are aware, famine was confirmed in August.
As we have said repeatedly, it is critical that the UN and our partners are able to deliver life-saving assistance safely and swiftly via all available routes – both cross-border and crossline – to reach people in need wherever they are.
#Ukraine
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, said in a briefing earlier today in Geneva that 12,000 civilians have been killed and 40 per cent of the population need humanitarian assistance since the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of the country nearly 1,000 days ago.
Schmale also pointed out the impact of the war on civilian infrastructure, with over 2,000 attacks on health-care facilities and 2 million homes damaged or destroyed.
With winter setting in, attacks on energy infrastructure will pose additional risk, especially to vulnerable people, with potential power cuts extending more than a few days in subzero temperatures.
The UN and humanitarian partners continue providing life-saving aid. This year alone, we have reached more than 7 million people with at least one type of aid, thanks to the support of our donors.
Schmale said that as temperatures have started to drop, humanitarian actors in Ukraine are implementing the Humanitarian Winter Response Plan and delivering solid fuel, ensuring water systems can continue to work and providing cash, among other activities to ensure people can stay warm.
The Winter Response Plan aims to reach 1.8 million people and requires US$500 million to be fully implemented until March 2025.