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6.1.09
UNRWA’s Chris Gunness reports on UK’s Sky News that aid distribution is becoming increasingly hard as Gaza’s north-south roads are cut.
94,000 cash distributions and 70,000 food aid distributions have been stopped today; although supplies are going, in the possibility of distribution is becoming more complex.
Great video on the UK’s Guardian website about the uphill struggle Egyptian doctors face in trying to treat Palestinian casualties in Gaza.
Bad news:
War in Gaza.
Good news:
Kerem Shalom open yesterday.
49 trucks carried food, medical supplies and medication:
19 from UNRWA
12 from WFP
7 from Jordan
6 from the private sector
3 from ICRC
2 from Egypt
306,000 litres of fuel went into the Nahal Oz silos - of that, 93,000 litres was earmarked for UN efforts
50 tons of cooking gas also went into Nahal Oz fuel silos
As we previously reported, the World Food Programme restarted its convoys after a 2-day lapse…
and the Erez people crossing was opened to allow 2 nurses and 2 doctors in to work for ICRC.
Here’s a video the Israeli authorities have released – 80 trucks delivering aid to Gaza yesterday.
5.1.09
Loads of aid on ReliefWeb, catching up from their Christmas break: here it is in short.
Aid:
Pledges:
Support:
Every little helps...
As part of its commitment to a daily aid transfer, Jordan and UNRWA have coordinated a convoy coming through Kerem Shalom today.
Jordan says this will be a 30-day effort – so far they have sent 30 trucks with 525 tons on board.
Apologies for the tardiness of this report, but we wanted a good rundown of her words: YNet now covers Jordan’s Queen Rania’s speech calling emotionally for a global stepping-up in aid to Gaza.
Major Avital Leibowitz notes that the problem is not now getting food in, but distributing it – echoing WHO’s statement of a few days ago.
She also claims rocket fire on the crossings is keeping agencies from getting convoys in – we’ll look for more sources on this.
Earmarked for use by Palestinian President Abbas (where’s he been this week? Not on the news) Japan has pledged $10m for humanitarian needs in Gaza.
Interesting to see how and when it gets used – and whether Abbas will acknowledge that this money is transferred either to NGOs or Israel with his sanction.
Half a truckload of medical aid came from Turkey on Saturday – should have gone in with the convoy today.
Bahrain sends 80 tons of food and medical aid by air, and has launched a national committee supervised by the Royal Family for the support of the Palestinians.
Xinhua (via UN’s Reliefweb) carries a report that Oman is intending to bring a plane of aid in the next few days, and then start operating regular aid plane deliveries in line with a directive from the Sultan of Oman.
More details as we get them.
ICRC saying the ongoing situation in Gaza is significantly hindering its hospital evacuation efforts. This is a particular cause for concern since 10 new ambulances arrived in the Strip over the weekend. Click here for their full statement.
Looks like the Two Mosques campaign has captured the imagination – a huge amount of support from across Saudi has led to a $32m total after just a few days.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
IMC Worldwide, a Californian charity, has rolled out a corps to Gaza and has launched a drive for cash donations. No more details yet.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Another aid worker, based in Gaza with Oxfam, is blogging about their work - thanks to Ken in comments for highlighting this.
4.1.09
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:
3.1.09
Hatem Shurrab, an aid worker with Islamic Relief (a UK charity), is blogging daily on the BBC website - it makes for powerful reading.
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.
Maxwell Gaylard, UN spokesperson in Gaza, says that despite increased aid there are 'critical gaps'.
2.1.09
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).
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.
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.
1.1.09
Speaking from Sderot on the Gaza border, Tzipi Livni's spokesperson told the New York Times:
Acting Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, pledges AU$5m - £2.5m, US$3.5m - to Gaza today.
"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."
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.
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:
The UNRWA website's front page has been changed to reflect an emergency appeal for donations from the public.
In a COGAT press release today, WHO announced:
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.
Bizarrely although Erez was open, no medical cases went through into Israel. COGAT made this statement:
42 trucks of flour went in on 30 December - 1246 tons.
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
