Today’s top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Haiti, Syria

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Yesterday’s evacuation orders from the Israeli military have already resulted in the forced displacement of tens of thousands of people from Rafah, in southern Gaza. Many of them have been uprooted multiple times over the past seven months. 

Civilians in Gaza must be protected and have their basic needs met, whether they move or stay. Those who leave must have enough time to do so, as well as a safe route and a safe place to go.

The families being displaced from Rafah are arriving at sites that lack shelter, latrines and water points.

It is impossible to improve the situation at displacement sites if supplies cannot enter Gaza and if aid organizations lack the fuel to transport them inside Gaza to the families who need them. Humanitarian partners working on shelter have fewer than 1,500 tents ready for distribution, at a time when more than 70 per cent of housing in Gaza has been damaged or destroyed.

Both the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings into Gaza are closed. This means the UN cannot bring in critical humanitarian assistance. Aid organizations cannot access the nutrition supplies needed to treat more than 3,000 children with acute malnutrition. And the humanitarian community is unable to access the fuel needed to power response efforts.

Humanitarian operations cannot run without fuel. 

Without fuel, all humanitarian, communications and banking activities in Gaza will cease within days. Without fuel, communications companies in Gaza will be unable to keep their networks running, leaving aid organizations with no cellular service to gather information on people’s needs – and displaced families with no way to connect if they are separated. Without fuel, 16 bakeries supported by humanitarian partners in Gaza will have to cease operations in the coming days. Without fuel, the main source of clean water in northern Gaza and Gaza city will have to suspend operations, leaving nearly half a million people with very limited access to safe supplies. Water production in southern Gaza and the Middle Area will also cease without additional fuel.

Haiti

The Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim in Haiti, Bruno Maes, strongly condemned the profound humanitarian impact of armed groups’ repeated attacks in the Solino neighbourhood and surrounding areas of the capital Port-au-Prince. 

Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, while those who remain trapped find themselves without access to water, food or fuel.

In a statement, Maes urged all armed actors to allow humanitarian organizations to assist those affected, in line with basic humanitarian standards. He also called on them to cease the violence. 

Meanwhile, OCHA reports that the heavy rainfall affecting the northwest of the country since 3 May has triggered landslides and floods, damaging buildings and homes in the region. According to local authorities, 13 people were killed in a landslide in Cap-Haitien. 

More rainfall and flooding are expected in the coming days, including in Port-au-Prince, where sites hosting displaced people are already facing sanitation challenges.

Syria

The UN and our humanitarian partners continue to respond to last week’s windstorm and flash flooding that affected more than 12,600 people in north-west Syria. More than 2,300 tents and 200 shelters were damaged at more than 30 displacement camps, mostly in Idleb.

Yesterday, an OCHA team completed a cross-border mission to Idleb to assess the impact of the floods. They met the managers of two displacement camps, as well as the families living there. In one of those sites, the homes of 115 households were damaged.

As of yesterday, the UN and humanitarian partners had provided support to 20 displacement sites affected by the floods, including emergency food assistance for 7,500 people, as well as tents and other core relief items for more than 5,300 people.

Nearly 11,000 people have received about 1,800 hygiene kits from UNICEF, with cash support distributed at six displacement camps. Meanwhile, mobile health teams are providing outpatient consultations in Idleb, Harim and Afrin, as surveillance teams step up efforts to monitor water-borne diseases in high-risk areas.

Since last year’s devasting earthquakes in February 2023, the UN has completed more than 450 cross-border missions to north-west Syria, including almost 140 this year alone.

However, funding shortfalls are challenging efforts to provide humanitarian assistance. Overall, only 6 per cent of the more than US$4 billion needed for this year’s response in Syria has been received. This includes just 8 per cent of the $1.4 billion required for the cross-border humanitarian response to the north-west of the country.