The population of Gaza and the West Bank needs aid worth 1.2 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros) until the end of the year, according to estimates published this Friday by the UN.
“The cost of meeting the needs of 2.7 million people – that is, the entire population of Gaza and 500,000 people in the occupied West Bank – is estimated at $1.2 billion,” the United Nations Coordination Office said. of Humanitarian Affairs (known by its English acronym OCHA) in a statement issued in Geneva, Switzerland.
The appeal for funds initially launched on October 12 was clearly insufficient, acknowledged the organization, whose initial estimate was 294 million dollars (276 million euros), according to the French agency AFP.
OCHA is expected to reveal details of the aid to donors on Monday, namely the “needs for food, water, healthcare, shelter, sanitation and other urgent priorities following the massive bombardment in the Gaza Strip.”
“We ask donors to quickly make resources available for the response,” he said in the statement.
In addition to “adequate funding,” the organization insisted on “safe and sustainable access to all people in need wherever they are, a sufficient flow of humanitarian supplies and, above all, fuel.”
Israel has banned fuel from entering the Gaza Strip, saying it is a high-risk product that could be diverted for purposes other than humanitarian ones.
“The functioning of the private sector and NGOs [organizações não-governamentais] It will also depend on the protection and guarantees given by the parties in conflict,” argued OCHA.
For the UN agency, “the opening of the Israeli border crossings will be fundamental.”
The crossing from Gaza to Egypt, in Rafah, is the only one used for the entry of humanitarian aid since the start of the war.
The situation in the Gaza Strip is considered alarming by the UN, given that the siege imposed by Israel since October 9 has deprived the inhabitants of the supply of water, food and electricity.
The war between Israel and Hamas was triggered by the Islamist movement’s unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7.
According to Israeli authorities, the attack led to the deaths of 1,400 people, mostly civilians, often brutally murdered, and the taking of some 240 hostages in the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas since 2007.
Israel responded with intense and incessant air and artillery bombardments against the Gaza Strip, which caused more than nine thousand deaths, according to Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv this morning, where he intends to pressure Israel to guarantee the protection of Palestinian civilians caught up in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The United States, as well as the European Union and Israel, have classified Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Source: TSF
