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UN Sounds the Alarm over Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza

Newborns are seen at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, June 12, 2017 (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
Newborns are seen at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, June 12, 2017 (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
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UN Sounds the Alarm over Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza

Newborns are seen at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, June 12, 2017 (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
Newborns are seen at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, June 12, 2017 (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

The United Nations warned on Tuesday that emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza would become exhausted within the next ten days, calling for urgent donor support to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe driven by the energy crisis.
 
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that the UN, with support from donors, was coordinating “the delivery of emergency fuel to run back-up generators and vehicles in order to ensure that a minimum level of life-saving health, water and sanitation services are maintained in the midst of the dire electricity shortage facing the blockaded Strip.”
 
OCHA noted that around two million Palestinian residents of Gaza, over half of whom are children, received electricity for no more than eight hours per day.
 
It added that in 2018, $6.5 million was required to provide 7.7 million liters of emergency fuel.
 
“This is the bare minimum needed to stave off a collapse of services; for the full functioning of critical facilities, the need is 1.4 million liters per month, or about $10 million per year,” the statement said, adding that the most affected facilities were emergency and diagnostic services, like MRIs, CT and x-rays, intensive care units and operating theaters in 13 public hospitals; some 55 sewage pools; 48 desalination plants; and solid waste collection capacity.
 
Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Roberto Valent said in this regard: “Immediate donor support is urgent to ensure that vulnerable Palestinians in Gaza can access life-saving health, water and sanitation services.”
 
“Hospitals have already begun to close. Without funding, more service providers will be forced to suspend operations over the coming weeks, and the situation will deteriorate dramatically, with potential impacts on the entire population. We cannot allow this to happen,” he added.
 
OCHA’s warning came a day after the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip announced the suspension of generators in three hospitals and 14 health centers, which provide services to thousands of citizens in different parts of the sector.
 
Ashraf Qadra, a spokesman for the ministry in Gaza, warned that more health centers would be forced to shut down if generators stopped working. He pointed out that there were no imminent solutions to the severe crisis because of the depletion of fuel, which will have a serious impact on the health sector.
 
The Gaza Strip suffers unprecedented deterioration in economic and life conditions. According to Palestinian reports, unemployment rate surpassed 50 percent, while 80 percent of factories were closed completely or partially.

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Arab World

Israel Says it Struck Hezbollah Weapons Smuggling Sites in Syria, Testing a Fragile Ceasefire

FILE PHOTO: Israeli soldiers patrol in Adaisseh village, southern Lebanon, on the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, as seen from Israel's side of the border, in northern Israel, November 28, 2024. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Israeli soldiers patrol in Adaisseh village, southern Lebanon, on the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, as seen from Israel's side of the border, in northern Israel, November 28, 2024. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo
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Israel Says it Struck Hezbollah Weapons Smuggling Sites in Syria, Testing a Fragile Ceasefire

FILE PHOTO: Israeli soldiers patrol in Adaisseh village, southern Lebanon, on the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, as seen from Israel's side of the border, in northern Israel, November 28, 2024. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Israeli soldiers patrol in Adaisseh village, southern Lebanon, on the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, as seen from Israel's side of the border, in northern Israel, November 28, 2024. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo

Israeli aircraft struck Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites along Syria's border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said Saturday, testing a fragile, days-old ceasefire that halted months of fighting between the sides but has seen continued sporadic fire.
The military said it struck sites that had been used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect, which the military said was a violation of its terms. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or activists monitoring the conflict in that country. Hezbollah also did not immediately comment, The Associated Press said.
The Israeli strike, the latest of several since the ceasefire began on Wednesday, came as unrest spread to other areas of the Middle East, with Syrian insurgents breaching the country's largest city, Aleppo, in a shock offensive that added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.
The truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, brokered by the United States and France, calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants are to withdraw north of Lebanon's Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.
The repeated bursts of violence — with no reports of serious casualties — reflected the uneasy nature of the ceasefire that otherwise appeared to hold. While Israel has accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire, Lebanon has also accused Israel of the same in the days since it took effect.
Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2 million displaced in the conflict, were streaming south to their homes, despite warnings by the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to stay away from certain areas.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone attacked a car in the southern village of Majdal Zoun. The agency said there had been casualties but gave no further details. Majdal Zoun, near the Mediterranean Sea, is close to where Israeli troops still have a presence.
The military said earlier Saturday that its forces, who remain in southern Lebanon until they withdraw gradually over the 60-day period, had been operating to distance “suspects” in the region, without elaborating, and said troops had located and seized weapons found hidden in a mosque.
Israel says it reserves the right under the ceasefire to strike against any perceived violations. Israel has made returning the tens of thousands of displaced Israelis home the goal of the war with Hezbollah but Israelis, concerned Hezbollah was not deterred and could still attack northern communities, have been apprehensive about returning home.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and its assault on southern Israel the day before. Israel and Hezbollah kept up a low-level conflict of cross-border fire for nearly a year, until Israel escalated its fight with a sophisticated attack that detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah fighters. It followed that up with an intense aerial bombardment campaign against Hezbollah assets, killing many of its top leaders including longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, and it launched a ground invasion in early October.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.