Saudi prince donates £1.8m to Gaza

Reliefweb notes that Saudi Arabia's Deputy Premier and Minister for Defence, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has made a donation of SR10m (£1.84m / $2.67m) to the Two Holy Mosques Campaign for Gaza – announced earlier today in support of humanitarian aid for Gazans as well as Palestinians living in Saudi Arabia.

Egypt calls for open humanitarian access

After admitting openly that it won’t open the Rafah crossing until Gaza is under the rule of Fatah, Egypt has called upon the international community to ‘open humanitarian corridors’ and accused the UN of not doing enough to help Gazans.

Lebanon sends medical plane to Jordan

20 tons of medical aid have landed in Jordan ready for transport across the borders into Gaza.

Hopefully they’ll arrive on tomorrow’s convoy (assuming that like today the borders stay open for aid convoys).

 

Islamic Conference encourages more aid

The Islamic Conference has finished its Extraordinary Meeting in Jeddah and, amongst other conclusions (our bold):

8. Expresses its appreciation for the humanitarian assistance provided by Member States since the beginning of the Israeli aggression, urges all Member States to provide assistance, and requests the Secretary General to keep up his work with Member States, the Islamic Development Bank and private financial institutions to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and reemphasize its support to the Palestinian National Authority and its legal institutions to address the consequences of the Israeli aggression and assist its efforts to reconstruct the damage caused by the Israeli aggression and occupation, and decides to sponsor a donors conference for this purpose

and

10. Welcomes the opening of the Rafah crossing by Egypt for humanitarian purposes, and took note of its assurances of readiness to work with concerned parties to allow opening of the crossing continuously in accordance with the agreements of November 2005 to realize the interests of the Palestinian people.

 

Save the Children reporting positively on its efforts

Via Reliefweb: Save the Children has stepped up its relief efforts in Gaza – continuing efforts they have undertaken since at least 2006.

Over the weekend, StC distributed 641 food parcels to 3000 children in 6000 families.

Their $10m fundraising drive continues: click here to donate to Save the Children.

International Medical Corps and Heart-To-Heart ship in medical kits

IMC Worldwide, a Californian charity, has rolled out a corps to Gaza and has launched a drive for cash donations. No more details yet.

European Commission launches €3m drive

Reliefweb carries a European Commission release detailing the use for an expected €3m (£3m / $4.5m) funding campaign: food, shelter and medical support.

This adds to the €73m pledged by the EC in 2008, 56% of which went to Gaza, according to the press release.

Israel opens NGOs special operations room

Livni met with heads of the key NGOs in Tel Aviv to explain what the Israeli government’s going to do to help them coordinate all their efforts in Gaza and remain as informed as possible. According to the press release, the move was welcomed by aid agencies.

 

 

Nine days on: Israel aid update

Here’s a link from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs summarizing all the aid that’s gone into Gaza since 27 December:

10,000 tons of humanitarian aid delivered to Gaza throughout the week

226 dual nationals were evacuated from Gaza

2000 units of blood were donated by Jordan

5 ambulances donated by Turkey                            

5 ambulances transferred from the West Bank on behalf of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society

20 people were evacuated to Israel for medical needs, including two injured children.

 

WFP announces food aid programme

Bizarrely even though the UN’s World Food Programme has been distributing food since at least 2007 – and in practice a lot earlier – they have chosen today to announce the launch of an emergency relief programme to Gaza’s most needy.

First, the good news:

”…on Thursday WFP started an emergency distribution of bread in Beit Hanoun for 3,000 poor families - some 15,000 people who have not previously received WFP food assistance. This area in northern Gaza is one of the poorest and most heavily affected by the recent conflict…”

And then the bad news:

”The recent attacks in the Gaza Strip have prevented WFP and its partners from operating at full capacity and have delayed the normal distribution of food to 265,000 non-refugees and vulnerable individuals.”

WFP is also claiming it is out of food, which is a cause for concern. Perhaps it is time that the aid organisations started working more closely with each other:

“WFP has 3,300 tons of food in warehouses which will be drawn down over the next month as food distributions for 265,000 people resume, security permitting. More food convoys to Gaza are planned to replenish stocks for current and new food needs.”

 

WFP also called for $9m in urgent aid: please click here to donate.

 

UN OCHA OPT and UNRWA appeals for aid on 5 Jan

The Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has made the following requests for what they see as the most urgent requirements for aid:

Fuel: Industrial fuel is needed to power the Gaza Power Plant, which has been shut down since 30 December. Replacement of ten transformers which were completely damaged is also urgently needed to restore electricity supply to 250,000 people in central and northern Gaza. All water, sanitation and other utilities, which provide basic services to the population, as well as hospitals and the general population are affected by the outages; some areas have now experienced power outages more than 48 hours. Nahal Oz crossing is the only crossing which can facilitate the transfer of sufficient amounts of fuel to restart and maintain operations of the power plant, and restock other types of fuel needed in the Strip. This crossing remains closed. Update: Nahal Oz open today, receiving 200k litres of fuel.

Wheat grain: Essential to provide flour for local bakeries and humanitarian food distribution to the population of Gaza. Karni Crossing conveyor belt is the only mechanism which can facilitate the import of the amount of grain required in the Strip at this time. This crossing remains closed. Update: flour being transferred again through Kerem Shalom today.

Cash: Has still not entered the Gaza Strip and is urgently needed, including for the UNRWA cash distribution program to some 94,000 dependent beneficiaries, as well as its "cash for work" program.

Internal movement within the Gaza Strip: It is essential that patients and ambulances are able to reach hospitals, that agencies are able to access warehouses in order to conduct distributions. Currently movement within the Strip is severely challenged.

ReliefWeb wakes up

Finally ReliefWeb have returned from their break and begun reporting UN OCHA news again.

Today: OCHA’s current situation report in full.
From an aid perspective:

·         An Emergency Operational Room was set up by the PA Ministry of Health (Ramallah) in collaboration with WHO to follow up the health situation in Gaza. The operation room will provide assessments of requirements (pharmaceuticals, consumables, equipments and spare parts), follow up on the response of international community, and address referrals of injured and other patients.

·         UNRWA food distribution was cancelled today [4 Jan] due to Israeli military activity, except in southern Gaza where the situation is calmer

·         WFP was able to distribute bread to 13 hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip today. CHF, one of WFP's main implementing partners, distributed food yesterday in North Gaza but have not been able to distribute today in Khan Yunis due to security reasons and movement restrictions

·         UNRWA has donated 75,000 liters of fuel to CMWU, though only 35,000 liters has so far been distributed due to the fear of moving fuel tanks in the current security situation. The situation remains critical: in northern Gaza, for example, the water and sewage networks have enough fuel to continue operations for 2-3 days only

·         The World Health Organization reports that 105 patients have been transported through Rafah for treatment outside of Gaza [in Egypt and Israel] since the beginning of Israel's military operation on 27 December

·         A number of donor partners have pledged contributions to the Humanitarian Emergency Response Fund (HRF) in recent days. Funds are already being disbursed for urgent projects in the Gaza Strip, including $250,000 to WHO for the procurement of surgical kits, $200,000 to Islamic Relief to provide food and blankets to eight hospitals, and $130,000 to a PARC project to provide Gazans with torches, batteries and dry food

 

Current urgent requests by UNRWA and OCHA for aid follow…

Hamas, France and EU meeting in Egypt

Update: Sarkozy’s visit will include tripartite meetings with Egypt and Hamas. This is the first time Hamas have come to the table since before the end of the ceasefire; last time Egypt called them they boycotted talks at the last minute. Fingers very crossed.

France sends Sarkozy

President Sarkozy and a pan-EU team now both en route to meet Middle Eastern leaders to discuss ways forward: possibly the highest form of aid there is?

UNRWA on BBC News: two days supplies left

Christopher Gunness just appeared on BBC News saying that Gaza ‘faced a severe hunger’ in the next few days should supplies to UNRWA’s warehouses not increase.

 

COGAT update: 80 trucks and 200,000 litres of fuel today

Good news:
Kerem Shalom open today after being closed yesterday:
80 trucks of medical supplies and medication including donations from Greece, Jordan and Egypt

More good news:
Nahal Oz (fuel silos) open too:
200,000 litres of fuel going in today for the power station and essential services

Additionally, the remaining ~200 dual nationals are expected to leave voluntarily today. Not sure what happens if they refuse to leave themselves – we assume they’ll be pulled out by the various NGOs for whom most of them are working.

Crossings closed all day

We've heard that in a first since the armed conflict began, all crossings into Israel and Egypt were kept closed today as a result of the ground offensive.

This means no aid went in - although some NGOs are reporting that the problem is now not getting more aid, but distributing it - and no Palestinians came out, either for treatment in hospitals or as part of the exit of foreign nationals. Fingers crossed for better news tomorrow.

Oxfam aid worker blog

Another aid worker, based in Gaza with Oxfam, is blogging about their work - thanks to Ken in comments for highlighting this.

COGAT update: 4 January

Slightly thinner on the ground in terms of statistics than previous days, but as a summary 28 Dec-2 Jan, COGAT are reporting the following as a summary:

10,000 tons of humanitarian aid delivered to Gaza throughout the week

226 Dual nationals were evacuated from Gaza

2000 – Blood units were donated by Jordan.

5 ambulances donated by Turkey

5 ambulances transferred from the West Bank on behalf of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society

20 people evacuated to Israel for medical needs, including two injured children.

More up-to-date figures as we get them.

Diary of an aid worker

Hatem Shurrab, an aid worker with Islamic Relief (a UK charity), is blogging daily on the BBC website - it makes for powerful reading.

Ahead of ground incursion, at least half of all foreign nationals have voluntarily left Gaza

IDF reports in their daily update that about half the foreign and dual
nationals living in Gaza left yesterday, as requested by their
governments:

CIS - 190 citizens
USA - 27
Turkey - 7
Norway - 6
of a total 443 according to border records.

UN: aid not enough

Maxwell Gaylard, UN spokesperson in Gaza, says that despite increased aid there are 'critical gaps'. 

An Oxfam spokesperson says food, water and fuel are in short supply.

We'll look out for more information on these gaps and hopefully provide information on how they're being plugged as soon as possible.

Libya sends aid by truck not sea; Jordan announces daily aid

Amongst the convoys in the last few days, Israeli NGO IICC has noted various news articles on aid (our bold):

 

a. Libya : 7 trucks of medical supplies and 7 power generators entered the Gaza Strip (Wafa Agency, December 30).

 

b. Saudi Arabia : Saudi aid flown in on planes is scheduled to arrive in the Gaza Strip during December 31 (Middle East News Agency, December 30).

 

c. Algeria : 61 tons of food and medical supplies were brought by planes, some of which landed in Al-Arish, Sinai. Some of them are scheduled to land in the coming days. The aid is scheduled to arrive in the Gaza Strip in the coming days (Wafa Agency, December 30).

 

d. Jordan decided to send humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on a daily basis, including food, medical supplies, and blood rations (Jordanian News Agency, December 30).

A bit more info on the USA UNRWA donation

Last week the USA announced an $85m injection into UNRWA’s aid programme: UNRWA announces that $25m of that will go for emergency needs in Gaza.

 

COGAT update 1 January

More aid yesterday, and there’s more on the way today.

60 trucks with 1360 tons of aid on 1 January
72 trucks expected on 2 January

 

Israel is also evacuating those with dual nationalities from Gaza at the request of their governments – this will presumably include a number of aid workers and their partners. Governments of Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Norway, Phillipines, Turkey, Germany and USA are asking 443 people to leave Gaza and they’re bringing their embassies’ staff to Erez to pull them out today.

Let’s hope this doesn’t hinder the continuing evacuation of medical cases. Egypt and Israel both continue to station medical crews on the borders in case any emergencies come through.

Increased aid on its way?

Speaking from Sderot on the Gaza border, Tzipi Livni's spokesperson told the New York Times:

... [Israel] was seeking ways to increase humanitarian aid so that its military endeavor could continue without further pressure to stop. It permitted a dozen wounded and ill Gazans into Israel on Wednesday for treatment at hospitals here and allowed in some 100 trucks of food and medicine.

Fingers crossed...

Australia pledges $5m aid

Acting Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, pledges AU$5m - £2.5m, US$3.5m - to Gaza today.

"As part of its commitment to help support people caught up in the conflict, the Australian Government will make an immediate commitment of $5 million in additional assistance to the people of the Gaza Strip and stands ready to consider further assistance.

"This assistance will go towards helping to ensure that the people of the Gaza Strip have adequate access to much-needed basic goods, such as food and medical supplies."

Public information leaflets over Rafah, from IDF's daily update

Not sure if it counts as aid, but for completeness' sake...

ICRC's planeload arrives in Gaza

International Red Cross Red Crescent landed a planeload of medical and humanitarian supplies in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night and the aid reached Gaza in yesterday's truck convoy.

Among the supplies: adrenaline, anasthetics, dressings, gloves, needles and syringes, drainage tubes, suture kits, IV drip packs and intubation kits. ICRC also repaired a generator at their hospital in Gaza City yesterday, allowing more patient treatments.

Kuwaiti Red Crescent has also reported they've flown a 10-ton aid shipment into Egypt which should arrive over the next few days. 

Behind the headlines, more good news from UNRWA

In a powerful press release yesterday on the launch of UNRWA's flash appeal, Karen Abu Zayd notes the suffering of civilians in Gaza but also has this ray of light:

"Tomorrow, we will resume our food distributions which were suspended on 18th December", said AbuZayd.

UNRWA suspended its daily distribution to 20,000 Gazans in need on 18 December citing a lack of infrastructure and a breakdown in supplies from Israel. The lull in fighting between Hamas and Israel officially ended on 19 December.

UNRWA appeals for online donations

The UNRWA website's front page has been changed to reflect an emergency appeal for donations from the public. 

Click to make a donation to UNRWA's incredible work in Gaza. 

WHO food bank full to capacity

In a COGAT press release today, WHO announced:

The World Food Programme has informed Israel that they will not be resuming shipment of food commodities in to Gaza due to the fact that their warehouses are at full capacity and will last for approximately two weeks. 

Less logistical manouevuring for WHO, more food for Gazans. Good news on New Year's Day.

MoD: More aid on New Year's Eve

Israel's Ministry of Defence announced in a press release yesterday
that a shipment of 93 trucks with around 2500 tons of aid arrived in
Gaza.
In addition, after the breakdown in communications on Tuesday, 12
Palestinians went for treatment in Israel. Two were children injured
in Israeli strikes.

More COGAT details for 30 December

Bizarrely although Erez was open, no medical cases went through into Israel. COGAT made this statement:

The exit of medical and humanitarian cases is maintained according to the security situation at the Erez crossing. In addition, due to an internal Palestinian decision no requests for medical exits from the Gaza Strip were received at the CLA.

CLA is the IDF's Civil Liaison Administration office, based in Israel. It's contacted via ICRC and other NGOs by the Hamas government office responsible for organising exit visas, usually on a daily basis.

An interesting flour related fact

42 trucks of flour went in on 30 December - 1246 tons.

According to OCHA - who have been silent for a while - Gaza needs 450 tons of refined flour or 800 tons of unrefined wheatflour a day. So that's only a day and a half's worth in the worst case.

Previously flour and other raw foods entered Gaza via the conveyor at Karni. Karni is regularly hit by errant mortars from Gaza, but when working at full capacity is about 1000 tons of wheatflour a day. That level hasn't been seen since before the events of June 2007.

COGAT details confirm 30 December aid transfer

98 of the planned 110 trucks we detailed earlier went into Gaza on 30
December.
The overall total was 2366 tons on 98 trucks:
42 trucks, 1246 tons flour and yeast
20 trucks, 628 tons sugar
14 trucks, 90 tons medical supplies
10 trucks, 266 tons rice
4 trucks, 69 tons oil
1 truck each animal feed, legumes and other foodstuffs
And of course 5 ambulances

US pledges $85m to UNRWA

BBC are reporting that the US will fulfil its expected pledge to UNRWA this year so that they work can continue across the Middle East.

No breakdown on how it’s going to be given but a substantial proportion must fall to rebuilding livelihoods in Gaza.

Egypt wants Fatah support...

… before it will open Rafah fully for aid and humanitarian assistance.

YNet reports that Egypt has called for Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah forces to ‘fully control’ the crossing before they will open it. It seems that it’s a problem of army capacity – Egypt isn’t sure it can secure the border itself.

 

ICRC sending a planeload

As we just mentioned, ICRC is landing a plane in Tel Aviv later – here’s their press release.

 

COGAT details: 29 December aid transfer

Erez was open yesterday:
4 patients and chaperones entered Israel for treatment.
10 international aid workers left Gaza for Israel; none went in.

Kerem Shalom was also open and 63 aid trucks went in:

13 trucks of rice, total 336 tons
7 trucks of sugar, total 240 tons
29 trucks of flour and yeast, total 905 tons
8 trucks of medical supplies, total 64 tons

 

That’s a total 1545 tons of aid.

 

In addition

5 ambulances

1000 units of blood from Jordan’s blood banks

Huge aid influx today into Gaza

110 trucks will either be going into or coming out of Gaza today through Kerem Shalom. That’s the first export from Gaza in at least a month.
In the imports:

All the trucks currently in the queue, including:
1 truck of medicine and medical equipment from UNICEF to their centre in Gaza
1 truck of medicine and medical equipment from Medecins Sans Frontieres to their local staff
1 truck of medicine and medical equipment from USAID to their centre
2 trucks of medicine and medical equipment from international charities
2 trucks of medicine and medical equipment from WHO to their centre
6 trucks of medicine and medical equipment, plus animal fodder, from ICRC to their centre

2 trucks of flour from Egypt
10 trucks of animal fodder, barley and rice from international charities
13 trucks of medical equipment from Jordan (that’s a total 29 trucks in the last two days)
15 trucks of wheat, flour and energy bars (no joke) from WFP
23 trucks of milk, rice, sugar and oil from UNRWA to their distribution centres
34 trucks of flour, sugar, rice and oil from international charities

That’s a total 110 trucks through Kerem Shalom
On average we see 24.5 tons per truck so that’s 2695 tons.

Plus
The contents of the aborted Qatari ship voyage are also arriving by truck today
And a planeload of ICRC aid is arriving at Tel Aviv later today from Geneva and will probably go in tomorrow.

In the exports:
There will be a Gazan export convoy later today. No details on what’s in it yet, more soon.

 

COGAT details: 29 December aid transfer

Erez was open yesterday:

4 patients and chaperones entered Israel for treatment.

10 international aid workers left Gaza for Israel; none went in.

Kerem Shalom was also open and 63 aid trucks went in:

13 trucks of rice, total 336 tons

7 trucks of sugar, total 240 tons

29 trucks of flour and yeast, total 905 tons

8 trucks of medical supplies, total 64 tons

That’s a total 1545 tons of aid.

In addition:

10 ambulances

1000 units of blood from Jordan’s blood banks

Donate now: Muslim Aid launches £2m aid drive

Click to add your aid now: Muslim Aid (a UK charity, along with IR) needs to raise £2m to take a convoy to Gaza.

Islamic Relief aid arrives at Al-Shifa hospital

5 trucks of medical supplies (that’s 5 weeks by Spanish standards!) have arrived at Al-Shifa. IR are also calling for international donors to supply extra beds, 50 more ambulances and significant medical upgrades – no word on whether they can be sources quickly.

 

UAE joins the truck convoy

$2.2m of aid on its way from UAE – no word what or when, but it’s coming.

Spain sends two trucks

ICRC has received two trucks with 50 palettes of aid from Spain: they claim that’s enough medical supplies for 2 weeks. The convoy is in Ramallah awaiting transfer (today, we hope).

But is 2 trucks really enough for 2 weeks?

 

EU to call for increased aid to Gaza later today

France has added its voice to the calls – an announcement expected shortly.

 

Jordanian aid arrives in Gaza

16 trucks from Jordan’s Hashemite Charity Organisation have arrived in Gaza (this might be the same as the 13 trucks reported earlier).

 

They contain food, medical supplies and urgently-needed blood units (Hamas made public appeals to Gazan citizens for blood on 27 December.)

 

CARE International requests international support

CARE, working alongside other NGOs and hospitals in Gaza, has warned that its existing stock of $20,000 of medical supplies is diminishing and is seeking new donations from international partners.

Medical evacuees allowed into Egypt

Reliefweb reports that Egypt opened Rafah for medical emergencies yesterday – that makes both borders now open.