CrossFireArabia
OCHA is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort.
CrossFireArabia
Download UNRWA multimedia resources on malnutrition in children here
A constructed and deliberate mass starvation. Today, more children died, their bodies emaciated by hunger.
The flawed distribution system (GHF) is not designed to address the humanitarian crisis.
It’s serving military and political objectives. It’s cruel as it takes more lives than it saves lives.
Israel controls all aspects of humanitarian access, whether outside or within Gaza.
Airdrops are the most expensive and inefficient way to deliver aid. It is a distraction to the inaction.
When bureaucratic and political hurdles are lifted, the humanitarian community has demonstrated it can deliver assistance at scale, in a dignified way, without diversion.
During the ceasefire fire in earlier this year, we succeeded to reverse the deepening hunger.
Today, UNRWA alone has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food and medical assistance stuck in Egypt and Jordan.
The unfolding famine can only be reversed by a political will.
Make “never again” a reality.
If we fail the Palestinians in Gaza, others are likely to be failed too in the future.
Let’s not set a dangerous and irreversible precedent.
CrossFireArabia
This is a story posted on linkedin recently by a young man in north Gaza who went with his friend to try and get a bag of flour for his family. His name is Abdalghani Owda and a founder of the Gaza Tech Club. This is his account of that morning, as he ducked through Israeli machine guns, deadly quadcopters and the man whose brain gushed out of his head! In the end he didn’t get the flour but says he hoped to comeback the next day!
“I want to quickly tell you about one of the worst and most difficult days of my life.
Today, Sunday, July 20.
At 8:00 AM, my phone rang. It was my friend.
He said, “Hurry, I’m waiting for you. We need to go to the Zikim area in northern Gaza because trucks carrying flour will be arriving in an hour.”
Without realizing it, I quickly washed my face, got dressed, and flew to my friend’s house, saying, “Oh God!”
Hurry, hurry, let’s walk so we can arrive early and be among the first to take our pick.
As we reached Al-Bahr Street, I found a human flood, perhaps 5 kilometers long.
Everyone was coming to take their share of flour, just like us.
I said, “Come on, I won’t leave. Everyone gets their share, and if we have something, we’ll take it.”
Of course, I didn’t eat breakfast because there was no breakfast.
There was a man selling falafel. A disc was the size of a pill and cost 1 shekel.
That means if I wanted to eat my fill, I’d need 100 shekels (US$29) to truly break my fast.
I bought for 10 shekels, and we said: “Anything is better than nothing.”
We kept walking northward, hoping my friend and I would have a better chance of getting a bag of flour.
The closer we got, the more dangerous the situation became.
The sound of bullets whistling past my head.
The closer I got, the more intense the bullets became.
There was a robotic arm hanging from a very high crane, and it was clearly operating automatically, firing randomly.
The tank was stationary, directly firing at anyone in its path.
My friend and I were barely 150 meters away from the tank.
We were already in a restricted area, but we had to take the risk to have a higher chance of getting flour.
For half an hour, we were hiding in a high earthen embankment to protect us from bullets and artillery shelling.
A short while later, the trucks arrived.
As soon as people attacked to get flour, the quadcopters came out and activated their machine guns. Blood began to flow.
More than five young men around me were killed instantly, in addition to the large number of injuries.
Honestly, I didn’t see any of them, and nothing mattered to me at all except getting home with a bag of flour.
I got very close to the truck, but it was very crowded and the situation was very dangerous.
A shot from the quadcopter hit right under my feet, and I felt it very strongly.
I told myself I had to step back a little.
I stepped back a little.
There was artillery fire, and the truck driver started to move because the truck was empty.
A man, about 40 years old, was standing in front of the truck.
The truck ran over him and drove over his head.
His brain came out of his skull and onto the ground, and the man died instantly.
Of course, I couldn’t get over this scene or this man.
I went to see him, maybe he was someone I knew personally.
It turned out to be someone I didn’t know, but my friend and I grabbed his body and moved it away from the middle of the road. I had a large empty bag with me just in case.
My friend and I picked up the man’s brain that came out of his skull and put it in the bag I had with us. We tried to find some young men to come with us and carry the body.
We put the body on a donkey-drawn cart, which contained a large number of dead bodies and injured people.
Then, within the 10 minutes we spent collecting the dead man, the trucks ran out of flour, leaving nothing left for us to take.
We returned with nothing.
We are waiting for tomorrow to go again, or for God to provide a way out for us and the people of Gaza.
A story I will never forget in my life.
This is a scene from life in Gaza. I am recounting it to you, and the image of the man who was run over by the truck is still etched in my mind and will never leave.
May God have mercy on this man, on all our martyrs, and on all the people of Gaza, and grant them a way out of this great distress and this intense suffering.
CrossFireArabia
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has again sounded the alarm over the catastrophic and rapidly deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip as Israeli military operations continue to cause death, displacement and destruction.
In an update on Friday, OCHA said that the starvation crisis is deepening across the enclave, with the local health authorities announcing that two more people had died from starvation the previous day.
Hunger and malnutrition increase the risk of illnesses that weaken the immune system, particularly among women, children, older people and persons with disabilities or chronic diseases, with deadly consequences.
Food scarcity also impacts pregnant and breastfeeding women, increasing the risk of their babies being born with health complications and affecting mothers’ ability to breastfeed.
The small trickle of supplies making it into the Strip is nowhere near adequate to address the immense needs as Israeli authorities continue to impose constraints on humanitarians and hamper their response.
Out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza on Thursday, four were outright denied, three were impeded, one was postponed and two others had to be cancelled by the organisers, with only five missions facilitated.
Even though the limited amount of fuel received yesterday was fully allocated to community kitchens, healthcare and water and sanitation facilities, the fuel shortage continues as the quantities entering Gaza remain insufficient to maintain essential facilities.
Despite severe constraints, UN teams are prepared to ramp up aid delivery and address these severe needs as soon as they are allowed to do so.
For the UN to accelerate the delivery of food aid, health services, clean water and waste management, nutrition supplies and shelter materials, Israel must open its crossings, allow fuel and equipment in and permit humanitarian staff to operate safely.
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, said in a social media post on Thursday that “we must save as many lives as we can – and we have a plan.”
The plan he shared with Member States outlines the necessary steps to stop the horror and alleviate constraints on humanitarian operations.
Mr. Fletcher has also written to the head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the aid distribution model backed by Israel and the United States, reiterating that the UN is ready to engage with any partner to provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.
He stressed that any such partnership must adhere to the globally accepted principles of humanity, impartiality neutrality and independence, with aid going where needs are greatest and without discrimination and that humanitarians answer to civilians in need, not the warring parties.
Mr. Fletcher also said that he welcomes dialogue on how to reach as many people as possible to alleviate suffering without causing harm.
CrossFireArabia
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said he will officially announce France’s recognition of the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September.
“Faithful to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine,” Macron said on X.
He underlined the urgency of ending the conflict in Gaza and providing aid to civilians affected by the war.
“The urgent priority today is for the war in Gaza to end and for the civilian population to be rescued,” he stated according to Anadolu.
“Peace is possible,” Macron stressed, calling for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and large-scale humanitarian assistance.
He also highlighted the need to “ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza.”
Macron said the goal must be to “build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it—by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel—to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East.”
“There is no alternative,” Macron stated, stressing that the French people want peace and that achieving it requires a collaborative effort between Israelis, Palestinians, and international partners.
“The French people want peace in the Middle East. It is up to us, the French, together with the Israelis, the Palestinians, and our European and international partners, to prove that it is possible,” he added.
He said he conveyed his determination to move forward in a letter to the President of the Palestinian Authority, citing “the commitments made to me by the President of the Palestinian Authority.”
“Trust, clarity, and commitment. We will achieve peace,” Macron concluded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials expressed outrage after French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize the State of Palestine during a UN General Assembly meeting in September.
In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu condemned Macron’s pledge as “rewarding terror,” referencing the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel.
“I strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October 7 massacre,” the statement said, adding that such a move “rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became.”
“A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it,” he claimed.
“Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel,” he added.
Hamas welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge Thursday to recognize Palestine as a state at the UN General Assembly in September.
The Palestinian group described the declaration as “a positive step in the right direction” toward justice for the Palestinian people and support for their right to self-determination and an independent state on all occupied Palestinian land, with Jerusalem as its capital.
It called the French stance “a political development that reflects growing international conviction in the justice of the Palestinian cause and the failure of the Israeli occupation to distort facts or suppress the will of free nations.”
Hamas added that such international steps “represent political and moral pressure” on Israel.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also welcomed Macron’s decision, describing the move as “historic.”
In a statement, the ministry noted that the decision “reflects a commitment to international law and resolving the conflict through political means to implement the two-state solution under UN resolutions and to achieve peace in the region and the world.”
The ministry urged other countries to recognize Palestine and participate actively in the upcoming UN conference in New York, while also taking practical steps to ensure the preservation of the two-state solution.
It described Macron’s announcement as “a victory for Palestinian diplomacy and Arab efforts, particularly those led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to secure broader international recognition of the State of Palestine.”
Macron said in a post on X that he will officially announce France’s recognition of the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September.
“In line with our historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine,” he said.
