Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, Syria

A woman is seated near a bed with a drip, while a man in a World Health Organization looks on.

WHO staff visited the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis earlier this week to assess the needs of the overwhelmed health facility - one of only two key functioning hospitals in Southern Gaza able to provide medical care for wounded and other patients. WHO

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Heavy Israeli bombardments continue, as does fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups, as well as Palestinian rocket fire into Israel.

Over the past few days, further attacks hit residential structures and infrastructure in Gaza, with high numbers of casualties reported. An estimated 1.9 million Palestinians – roughly 85 per cent of the population – remain displaced.

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians since the UN started recording casualties there in 2005 – with 507 Palestinians recorded killed. During the same time period, the UN recorded 36 Israeli fatalities in attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank, which was also the highest figure since 2005.

Over the past year, OCHA has also recorded 1,225 incidents that involved Israeli settlers in the West Bank and resulted in Palestinian casualties, property damage or both. This is the highest number since OCHA started recording this trend in 2006. The increase has caused displacement and deepened humanitarian needs in many areas of the West Bank. The number of incidents resulting in casualties or property damage among Israeli settlers in 2023 is 140, compared with 329 in 2022.

Ukraine

Attacks continued today with vast aerial assaults in several regions causing death – including several children - and destruction of homes and other civilian infrastructure.

The capital Kyiv and the city of Kharkiv, in the east, have been most impacted in today’s attack. In Kyiv, humanitarian workers in the city counted over 30 explosions, and damages have been reported in nine of the capital’s ten districts.

The Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned the attacks in a statement and stressed that civilians in Kyiv and in Donetsk Region were left without electricity or water, while temperatures are forecast to reach -20 degree Celsius this week.

Today’s strikes follow the pattern of the latest wave of attacks on populated areas in the country since 29 December.

We and our partners are on site and have been providing emergency assistance, supporting civilians whose homes were damaged or destroyed in many parts of Ukraine. In Kyiv today, aid organizations are providing construction materials for rapid repairs of homes, first aid and psychological support, complementing efforts from authorities. In Kharkiv, humanitarians provided medical and psychological aid, hot meals and drinks, blankets and materials for emergency repairs.

On the response front, on the last day of 2023, the 105th humanitarian inter-agency humanitarian convoy successfully delivered aid to nearly 1,500 civilians in a front-line town in Kharkiv Region. The convoy brought essential supplies that included food baskets, hygiene supplies, kits for people with special needs, older people, women and girls and emergency shelter, repair materials and sleeping bags. In total, humanitarians reached nearly 11 million people in Ukraine in 2023, with almost 1 million in the Kharkivska Oblast alone.

Syria

OCHA is concerned about the impact on civilians of escalating hostilities in the northwest of the country – as well as the potential for the violence to jeopardize cross-border missions by UN staff.

The UN carried out more than 300 such missions last year to meet with affected people, monitor assistance programmes and conduct needs assessments.

Since 5 October, more than 100 people have been killed – almost 40 per cent of them children – due to shelling and other violence in northwest Syria. More than 400 others have been injured.

Over the weekend, shelling in residential neighborhoods in Idleb and western Aleppo left at least seven people dead, including a teenager and a 100-year-old man, according to local health authorities. Nine of the nearly 30 people reportedly injured were children, including a two-month-old baby. At least two schools in northwest of Aleppo were also damaged.

We and our partners continue to monitor the situation and respond to humanitarian needs, including by providing support to health facilities, which are under additional strain due to an increase in respiratory diseases and other winter-related challenges.