Occupied Palestinian Territory
OCHA warns that access constraints continue to hamper aid operations in Gaza – including efforts to scale up nutrition support. UN partners report that limited access in the north is preventing the establishment of new nutrition services there.
Meanwhile in central Gaza, difficulties continue in finding adequate space to set up nutrition sites in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis.
However, humanitarian partners continue their efforts to expand their presence in those areas, as well as in Al Mawasi and Gaza city.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says its operations are being severely impacted by the escalation of fighting in southern and central Gaza, as well as the limited flow of humanitarian assistance and the lack of public order and safety in the south.
Despite these challenges, WFP has reached more than 766,000 people in Gaza with food this month – though these rations have been reduced due to limited aid and dwindling food stocks. So far in June, WFP has also provided some 9.4 million hot meals through a network of more than 90 community kitchens, reaching more than 300,000 people. The vast majority of these meals were distributed in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis.
However, humanitarian partners say a shortage of cooking gas – combined with the absence of a public power supply – is hindering efforts to keep these community kitchens and bakeries running. This leaves people with unsafe alternatives for cooking, such as trash and plastic.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East says people in Gaza are living surrounded by piles of waste and sewage. Health conditions continue to worsen due to crowded shelters; lack of food, water and fuel; minimal access to medical supplies; and the summer heat.
UN partners report that efforts to collect and transfer solid waste to temporary sites continued this month, but at a lower rate due to the lack of fuel.
Fuel shortages could also hinder ongoing maintenance work on the electricity feeder line for the Southern Gaza Seawater Desalination Plant.
Meanwhile, humanitarian partners working to provide shelter for displaced people in Gaza report that repeated waves of displacement are wearing out makeshift shelters, which are having to be disassembled and reinstalled again and again.
Haiti
OCHA says efforts continue to meet the most urgent needs of people in Haiti. Between 22 and 26 June, WFP distributed more than 59,000 meals to nearly 12,000 displaced people in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
Since the beginning of the year, the agency has reached nearly 129,000 displaced people with more than 1.3 million hot meals in the capital. WFP has also distributed US$1 million worth of cash-based transfers to more than 43,000 displaced people in Port-au-Prince who had previously been receiving meals.
WFP has also distributed $1 million worth of cash-based transfers to over 43,000 displaced people in the capital who had previously been receiving meals.
Meanwhile, the UN Population Fund has sounded the alarm on the risks women and girls are grappling with amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis, with armed groups using sexual violence as a tactic to instill fear and seize control of entire neighborhoods.
UNFPA says that although reports of rape and sexual abuse are soaring, they are a vast underrepresentation of the true scale of these crimes.
UNFPA continues to provide medicines and supplies, including for the clinical management of rape survivors, to 12 health facilities in the capital and surrounding region, as well as supporting three hospitals in Port-au-Prince to ensure critical maternal health services. Mobile clinics are also operating at eight displacement sites to support women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health, as are hotlines for survivors of sexual assault and safe spaces providing psychological and medical support.
South Sudan
South Sudan faces a “perfect storm” in the face of ongoing violence, imminent floods, an economic crisis, underfunding of the humanitarian response and an influx of new arrivals due to the conflict in neighboring Sudan.
OCHA reports that the number of people facing catastrophic conditions – IPC 5, the highest level – in parts of Jonglei State in South Sudan is projected to almost double through July – rising to 79,000 people, compared to 35,000 people at the same time last year.
Overall, more than 7 million people in the country face food insecurity – an increase of more than 20 per cent compared to 2023 at mid-year.
South Sudan is also preparing for the worst floods in 60 years. To respond to this, the humanitarian community aims to provide life-saving assistance to some 2.4 million of the 3.3 million people projected to be affected by flooding in northern, northeastern and central parts of the country starting in September.
To do that, some US$264 million dollars will be needed – but underfunding of the humanitarian response in South Sudan is an ongoing challenge: Six months into 2024, this year’s appeal for broader response efforts is less than 20 per cent funded, with just over $353 million received of the nearly $1.8 billion required.
Ukraine
An inter-agency humanitarian convoy delivered aid today to frontline communities in the Donetsk region in the east of Ukraine.
Nearly 4,000 people remaining in the communities of Kurakhove, Marinka and Vuhledar are struggling to access basic services amid fighting in the region.
Today’s convoy delivered 16 tons of medical and hygiene supplies, jerrycans and materials to repair damaged houses that will be distributed by a national NGO partner.
This is the 20th inter-agency convoy this year to the front-line areas and the 6th convoy to the Donetsk Region.
On 26 June, the Donetsk Region, as well as the front-line Kherson and Kharkiv regions in the south and east of Ukraine, sustained new civilian casualties, including children, as well as damages to civilian infrastructure caused by ongoing hostilities. That is according to the authorities and humanitarian partners on the ground.
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