The UN has launched an emergency appeal for $294 million (€279 million) for “urgent needs” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where more than 400,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in recent days.
The appeal, launched on Thursday, aims to bring aid to more than 1.2 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement, underlining that humanitarian organizations are no longer They have the necessary resources to “adequately respond to the needs of vulnerable Palestinians.”
“To ensure that partners can respond, it is essential that funds are received on time through this appeal,” the UN office insisted, noting that financing aid to Gaza and the West Bank this year has been “a challenge.”
The UN humanitarian plan for the two territories for this year was set at $502 million (€476 million) to help 2.1 million people, but is currently less than 50% funded. Before the outbreak of new hostilities, around 60% of Gaza households were considered food insecure.
According to OCHA, more than 423,000 Palestinians have been displaced in recent days in the Gaza Strip, which is surrounded and bombed by the Israeli army in response to Hamas’ massive attack on Israel on Saturday.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which manages schools in the Gaza Strip, hosts around 64% of these displaced people in 102 of its establishments.
“The only power plant in the Gaza Strip ran out of fuel and stopped working, cutting off the only source of electricity” in the enclave, and “the majority of inhabitants no longer have access to drinking water,” OCHA added. noting that a dammed water plant and a desalination plant were hit by airstrikes.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) “reported that some people have begun to drink seawater, which is very salty and contaminated by 120,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage every day,” it added in the same note.
“Healthcare facilities are overstretched, medical stocks are low and access to hospitals and medical care is hampered by hostilities and road damage,” he said.
“Although attention is focused on Gaza, the situation in the West Bank remains tense,” highlights OCHA, also referring to population movements.
Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched a surprise attack on Israeli territory on Saturday, called Operation “Al-Aqsa Storm”, with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of armed rebels by land, sea and air. .
In response, Israel bombed several Hamas facilities in that Palestinian territory from the air, in an operation it called “Iron Swords.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the country is “at war” with Hamas, which has been internationally classified as a terrorist movement by Israel, the United States, the EU, among others.
Official data on fatalities point to 1,300 deaths in Israel and 1,354 in the Gaza Strip, according to official sources from both parties.
Source: TSF
