Highlights of the noon briefing by Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General (excerpt on the crisis in Gaza) – 16 July 2024

16 July 2024

(Excerpt)

/…

Occupied Palestinian Territory

From Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) tell us that multiple strikes across Gaza have reportedly killed and injured dozens of people. One of these attacks occurred just a few hundred meters away from the UN’s Joint Humanitarian Operations Centre, which is located in Deir al Balah, and is used by UN agencies and NGOs to coordinate work throughout the Gaza strip.

On the displacement side, our humanitarian colleagues report that families continue to move from Gaza city to Deir al Balah, with more than 1,000 people observed crossing in just the past week. They travel mainly on donkey carts, but also by cars, motorcycles, or on foot, carrying only a few belongings. Many of these people told us that they have been displaced multiple times and cannot afford another displacement financially.

These people are among the most vulnerable, and our teams have been deployed daily along their routes to provide basic assistance, which includes water, hot meals, any sort of food, and health services.

The lack of electricity and fuel continues to hinder the work of basic service providers, including hospitals, ambulances, bakeries, and aid trucks. Over the past two weeks, we have been able to collect about 80,000 liters of fuel per day, on average, up from 45,000 liters per day over the last two weeks of June. While this represents indeed an improvement, the requirement for the most basic humanitarian operations stands at 400,000 liters per day, and the Israeli authorities are still not allowing the allocation of fuel to key local humanitarian responders, preventing them from transferring supplies within Gaza.

/…