Occupied Palestinian Territory
UN, partners make most of tactical pause to ramp up aid delivery
OCHA warns that deaths linked to hunger and malnutrition continue to be reported, alongside the killing of people, including those trying to secure food for their families. OCHA says this speaks to the sheer desperation of a prolonged human-made catastrophe.
Today, UN agencies warned that key food and nutrition indicators in Gaza have exceeded famine thresholds, reaching their worst levels so far. This is according to data shared in the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Alert, which highlights that two out of the three famine thresholds have now been breached in parts of the Gaza Strip, with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warning that time is running out to mount a full-scale humanitarian response.
This week, OCHA welcomed steps announced by the Israeli authorities to ease the delivery of aid into and across Gaza. The UN and its partners are making the most of this opening – collecting more supplies at the crossings and bringing more in from outside to restock.
Colleagues in the ground say the Israeli-declared tactical pauses have reduced the intensity of hostilities – but not significantly enough – in times and areas where these are meant to apply. On Sunday and Monday – the two first days of the pauses – the UN and its partners have been able to bring into Gaza more food, mainly wheat flour, alongside ready-to-use infant formula, high-energy biscuits, diapers, vaccines and much needed fuel. But OCHA says the volume of goods coming in is still far from enough.
Most aid is still being offloaded by crowds before reaching where it is supposed to go. But market monitoring shows prices for basic goods are starting to drop – which could point to better operating conditions if aid flows further increase and supplies saturate the area.
OCHA reiterates that commercial imports need to resume – and sooner rather than later. No humanitarian operation can fully support 2.1 million people on its own. And for people to feel reassured that aid is flowing regularly, tactical pauses will not cut it. What is desperately needed is a full, permanent ceasefire.
Meanwhile, throughout most of the Gaza Strip, the UN and our partners are still required to coordinate humanitarian movements with the Israeli authorities. We are seeing fewer outright denials by the Israeli authorities, but teams are still facing impediments on the ground.
Yesterday, all attempts were initially approved, but only half of them were fully facilitated – that is five out of ten. This facilitation allowed UN teams to collect cargo from Kerem Shalom and Zikim – the only crossings currently available to us – alongside other critical operations. The remaining five movements faced impediments on the ground; two of them could be accomplished nevertheless and three which were could not be accomplished fully or at all.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it remains committed to staying and delivering in Gaza despite the destruction of their main warehouse and damage to staff residences last week.
WHO said in a social media post that this week, its team reached Gaza city to support the rotation of emergency medical teams from Al Ahli and Public Aid hospitals to southern Gaza. It also assessed a facility for possible use as a new WHO warehouse and has advanced plans for a field inpatient extension at Shifa Hospital through site assessment and coordination on next steps.
WHO calls for the release of their detained colleague and reiterated its call for protection of health care and sustained entry of food, fuel and health aid at scale through all possible routes.
Guatemala
UN releases $4 million ahead of forecasted drought
OCHA reports that $4 million has been allocated from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) ahead of the upcoming drought forecasted during the crops season running from September to November.
This marks the first time funds have been released from the CERF before a disaster in Latin America and the Caribbean region as part of what we call anticipatory action efforts so that communities can be prepared ahead of a drought.
Under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator, Miguel Barreto, the UN, Government and our partners will use the funds to reach more than 50,000 people with cash; assistance in protecting livestock; water, hygiene and sanitation services; food; and medical care.
Families in the Chiquimula department in southern Guatemala are already facing crisis levels of food insecurity due to previous droughts, economic shocks and systemic poverty.
OCHA is also closely monitoring the situation across the so-called “Dry Corridor” in Central America, which also includes Honduras and El Salvador and is susceptible to droughts.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Deadly attack in Ituri province triggers new displacement
OCHA says that a resurgence of violence in Ituri Province, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, adds to the plight of civilians in the region.
According to several sources, including local civil society and authorities, an attack on a church last weekend by alleged elements of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group in the locality of Komanda in Irumu territory killed at least 49 civilians and injured 13 others. Many people are reported missing.
This attack triggered the displacement of an estimated 30,000 people towards the towns of Marabo and Bunia.
The town of Komanda – previously considered an area protected from ADF attacks – already hosted 38,000 displaced persons before the attack.
The security situation has caused the suspension of humanitarian movements along key supply routes in Irumu territory, disrupting life-saving assistance in the area.
Since early July, attacks attributed to the ADF across the territories of Irumu and Beni have claimed over 100 civilian lives and displaced more than 50,000 people to other locations.
