Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan

Palestinians crowd around for food in Gaza. More than 2 million people face dwindling supplies of food, water, medicine and other essentials. Photo: WHO

#Occupied Palestinian Territory

Ongoing blockade, attacks fuel further suffering in Gaza

OCHA warns that no aid or commercial supplies have entered Gaza for more than 70 days. The ongoing, full-scale blockade of the Strip is taking a disastrous toll on the population.

Meanwhile, hospitals continue to come under attack. Today in Khan Younis, Israeli forces hit the surgical department of Nasser Medical Complex, with several casualties reported. The complex is one of only eight public hospitals that are still partially operating across Gaza.

Following the attack, the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, Suzanna Tkalec – together with an OCHA team* – visited the hospital, where she spoke with staff and a team of international doctors there. She said she was appalled by yet another attack on this hospital, the fourth since the beginning of this war. Ms. Tkalec stressed that these attacks are unacceptable and must stop, reminding that healthcare facilities and those serving them must always be protected.

Humanitarian partners on the ground report that only five hospitals across the Strip are still providing maternity care. Midwives lack supplies and equipment, with partners reporting that some 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are suffering from malnutrition and need urgent support.

As hostilities continue across Gaza, the UN and its partners provided information sessions to children in Khan Younis this week, guiding them on how to try and avoid unexploded ordnance.

Meanwhile, the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to visit people in their communities to assess their needs. Last Friday in Deir al Balah, a team visited two schools that were hit by an air strike a couple of days prior. Hundreds of families who are sheltering there need food parcels, water tanks and latrines. Partners are doing their best to distribute whatever emergency shelter supplies are left, as tents are depleted.

OCHA reports that the Israeli authorities continue to deny and impede attempts by humanitarians to carry out critical missions in Gaza. Today, out of 11 UN requests for coordinated humanitarian movements, five were denied outright, including one planned mission to retrieve fuel from Rafah to supply hospitals, ambulances, and water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. The other six missions, which included the rotation of staff, were facilitated.

With both supplies and time running out, OCHA underscores that principled humanitarian assistance and other essential supplies must be allowed into Gaza to save lives – and humanitarians’ work to reach people across the Strip must be facilitated. Israel, as the occupying power, must abide by international humanitarian law and facilitate aid for people in need, wherever they are.

At 3 p.m. EDT this afternoon, the Security Council will hold an open meeting on Gaza. Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, will brief. Mr. Fletcher’s remarks will be livestreamed via UN Web TV.

*OCHA B-roll and soundbites from today’s visit to Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis – following a deadly strike that hit the medical complex – are available in OCHA’s Media Centre.

#Sudan

Fighting, displacement drive needs higher across Sudan

OCHA warns that humanitarian needs continue to rise amid continued conflict and displacement across multiple regions of Sudan.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that more than 36,000 people were displaced from Al Khiwai and An Nuhud in West Kordofan due to heightened insecurity. Many were already internally displaced and are now having to flee for a second time, seeking shelter in locations across West and North Kordofan.

In North Darfur, IOM also reports that more than 2,000 people were newly displaced from Abu Shouk camp and parts of El Fasher last week, also due to insecurity. Most remained within El Fasher locality, while others fled to Tawila, where the UN and its partners have been scaling up support for new arrivals. These movements follow the displacement of nearly 400,000 people from Zamzam camp last month.

OCHA warns that the food insecurity situation in Sudan remains deeply concerning. Prices of key staple foods are alarmingly high. While sorghum prices declined slightly in April, millet prices rose – and both remain more than four times higher than pre-conflict levels in March 2023, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Sorghum and millet are staples for most of the population in central, eastern and western parts of Sudan.

A reminder that more than half of Sudan’s population – 24.6 million people – is facing acute hunger, with approximately 638,000 people experiencing famine, according to the latest update by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which was released late last year and covers a period through this May. OCHA stresses that without urgent assistance and unfettered access to reach people in need wherever they are, the situation could worsen during the upcoming lean season from June to September.

Once again, OCHA calls on all parties to immediately cease hostilities and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and to ensure safe, sustained and unhindered humanitarian access to reach those most in need. It is also urgent that the international community steps up its support for the Sudan humanitarian response* to prevent further loss of life and avert a worsening catastrophe.

*Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Sudan with urgent support.