The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday launched a Flash Appeal for more than $2.8 billion to allow UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to the urgent needs of 3.1 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Israeli bombardment of much of Gaza continues, resulting in further civilian deaths, displacement and destruction.
The Flash Appeal covers a nine-month period, from April to December 2024, and targets 2.3 million people in Gaza - the entire population - as well as 800,000 people in the West Bank. Despite the ongoing hostilities in Gaza, OCHA reports that the UN and its partners are continuing their efforts to reach people in need throughout Gaza, "wherever they are".
In a statement Wednesday, the UN office said the amount represents only a part of the US$4.1 billion that the UN and partners estimate is required to support 3.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and reflects an effort to be realistic about what is feasible given the current operational context.
The humanitarian response will require significant changes to the operating conditions on the ground so that humanitarian organizations can have safe and sustained access to all people in need throughout Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
“We need more entry and supply routes by land into Gaza, including to the north, as well as the use of Ashdod port. We need fewer constraints on our movements inside Gaza,” the statement said.
“We need to be able to bring in critical humanitarian items, including communications equipment and protective gear for humanitarian staff. We need visas and permits for aid workers. And we need timely and flexible funding.”
Also on Wednesday, Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), told the UN Security Council that six months of relentless bombardment and a merciless siege have transformed Gaza beyond recognition.
“Homes, schools, and hospitals have been reduced to rubble, under which countless bodies lie. Children are bearing the brunt of this war.
More than 17,000 are separated from their families, left to face the horror of Gaza alone,” he said.
“Children are killed, injured, and starved – deprived of any physical or psychological safety.”
He said that as famine takes hold across Gaza, the agency faces an Israeli campaign to drive it out of the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) and prevent it from carrying out its humanitarian mission.
Lazzarini said that in the north, infants and young children have begun to die from malnutrition and dehydration. Across the border, food and clean water wait, he added, but UNRWA has been denied permission to deliver this aid and save lives.
"In Gaza, the government of Israel seeks to end UNRWA's activities," Lazzarini told the Council. "The agency's requests to deliver aid to the north are repeatedly denied. Our staff are barred from coordination meetings between Israel and humanitarian actors."
He also accused Israel of targeting UNRWA staff and premises, saying that 178 staff have been killed, and that more than 160 UNWRA premises, mostly used as shelters, have been damaged or destroyed, killing more than 400 people since the war started in October.
Lazzarini said Israeli security forces have also detained UNRWA staff, who have described mistreatment and torture in detention.
"We demand an independent investigation and accountability for the blatant disregard for the protected status of humanitarian workers, operations and facilities under international law," Lazzarini told the council.
"To do otherwise would set a dangerous precedent and compromise humanitarian work around the world."
Lazzarini said Israeli allegations against UNRWA are politically motivated because Israel wants to end the refugee status of millions of Palestinians.
"Accusations that UNRWA deliberately perpetrates refugee status are false and dishonest," he said. "The agency exists because a political solution does not."
He said dismantling the agency would in the short term deepen the humanitarian crisis and accelerate the onset of famine, and in the long term damage the reconstruction of Gaza. Lazzarini reminded Council members that the agency exists because a political solution does not; it exists in lieu of a state that can provide critical public services.
In January, Israel alleged that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the deadly October 7 attacks by the Palestinian faction Hamas. The workers were immediately fired, and an internal investigation was launched. But in the aftermath, 16 donors, including the United States, suspended contributions totaling some $450 million, despite the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
Since then, several donors have resumed funding, but the US Congress has frozen further contributions until at least March 2025. Lazzarini said the UN agency currently has funds to cover operations through June.
Jordan requested Wednesday's meeting. Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that with 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza facing hunger and famine, UNRWA was needed more than ever.
"The suffering is beyond words," Safadi said. "Only one agency has the knowledge, the ability and the infrastructure to help ease it. It is UNRWA, the backbone of humanitarian efforts in Gaza, and Israel wants to break it. Do not allow it to do so."
The General Assembly established the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in 1949 to assist some 700,000 Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which broke out after Israel became a state in May of that year.
Today, it works not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, where there are large Palestinian refugee communities. Nearly 6 million Palestinians are eligible for UNRWA services, which include education and health care.
Since 1948, UN resolutions have called on Israel to facilitate the return of Palestinian refugees and provide compensation for their loss of land and property.
Two-thirds of Gaza's population, 1.6 million people, are Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA. The Agency employs more than 13,000 staff in Gaza, over 3,500 of whom are engaged in emergency operations. In the West Bank, UNRWA serves 1.1 million Palestine refugees and other registered persons, including 890,000 refugees.
Since October 7, more than 70 percent of Gaza's population, some 1.7 million people, have been forcibly displaced. More than 33,800 Palestinians, including at least 14,500 children, have been killed by Israeli security forces in the past six months. Thousands more are buried under rubble and presumed dead.
Among those killed are at least 244 aid workers, 181 UN staff, 490 health workers and 140 journalists.
More than 76,600 people have been injured, many with life-changing injuries that will leave them permanently disabled, including more than 1,000 children who have lost one or more upper or lower limbs.
Half of Gaza's population - some 1.1 million Palestinians - face catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation, with famine now imminent in northern Gaza. The entire population of the Gaza Strip - some 2.3 million people - faces high levels of acute food insecurity.
UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres said today that six and a half months of Israeli military operations in Gaza have created a "humanitarian hellscape".
“Tens of thousands of people have been killed. Two million Palestinians have endured death, destruction, and the denial of lifesaving humanitarian aid; they are now staring down on starvation. An Israeli operation in Rafah would compound this humanitarian catastrophe,” he said, briefing the Security Council Thursday on the Middle East.
“The casualty figures are overwhelming and unprecedented in speed and scale during my time as Secretary-General. According to UNICEF, more than 13,900 Palestinian children have reportedly been killed in intense, often indiscriminate attacks. “
“All this has happened with severe limitations imposed by the Israeli authorities on the delivery of humanitarian aid to people in Gaza, who are facing widespread starvation.”
During the week of April 6-12, Israel denied more than 40 percent of UN requests that required passing through Israeli checkpoints, Guterres said.
„To avert imminent famine, and further preventable deaths from disease, we need a quantum leap in humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Food is essential; so are clean water, sanitation, and healthcare,” he stressed, adding that UNRWA was the “backbone” of UN operations.
“Humanitarians also need security. Nearly 250 aid workers, including more than 180 of our own staff, have been killed in Gaza; I repeat my call for thorough investigations into these tragic deaths”, he urged, noting that a UNICEF vehicle traveling with a convoy was caught in crossfire last week.
“What is needed is clear: an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza; the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid,” the Secretary-General said.
“The international community has a shared responsibility to do everything possible to make this happen.”
Further information
Full text: Flash Appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory 2024, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, released April 17, 2024
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/flash-appeal-occupied-palestinian-territory-2024
Full text: Statement by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA to the Security Council, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, delivered April 17, 2024
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/statement-commissioner-general-unrwa-security-council
Full text: Secretary-General's remarks to the Security Council on the Middle East, UN Secretary-General, delivered April 18, 2024
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2024-04-18/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east-delivered