Gaza Humanitarian Response Update | 27 October - 9 November 2024

Response

• The findings of a recent UNICEF survey on dietary diversity among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBW) in Gaza highlights the severe impact on nutrition of shrinking humanitarian aid and commercial truck entries into the Strip. The data collected between 18 and 24 October reveals a significant decline in dietary diversity. Ninety-five (95) per cent of parents with children aged 6 to 23 months reported that their children had consumed only two or fewer types of food the day prior to the survey. This is compared with 90 per cent in September, 79 per cent in July, and 94 per cent in May when nearly the entire population in Rafah was displaced to Deir al Balah and Khan Younis.
• Throughout the second round of the polio vaccination campaign, UNICEF facilitated the distribution of Vitamin A supplements to address the growing scarcity of Vitamin A-rich foods in the Gaza Strip. Accordingly, between 10 October and 5 November, 448,425 children aged between two and ten years, 92.4 per cent of the target, received Vitamin A supplements.
• In Gaza city, nutrition services continue to be scaled up in response to increasing displacement from North Gaza. Juzoor for Health and Development, a local NGO, opened a new medical point and plans to open three additional points while UNRWA is in the process of re-opening one health center that had been closed since October 2023.
• WFP and its partners are scaling up the Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme (BSFP), with 102,000 children and 45,000 PBW reached in October 2024 across the Strip. They also successfully resumed the BSFP in the areas of An Nuseirat and Al Maghazi refugee camps in Deir al Balah during the second half of October, following months of restricted access by Israeli authorities.
• During the reporting period, UNICEF’s partners distributed Lipid-based Nutrient Supplements (LNS-SQ) to 24,200 children across the Gaza Strip.
• In October, 4,107 children were admitted for outpatient treatment of acute malnutrition. Between July and October, more than 18,800 children were admitted for outpatient treatment of acute malnutrition, or 65 per cent of the total number of children admitted for treatment since the beginning of 2024 (29,054), reflecting a marked increase in cases in recent months.

Challenges

• In North Gaza, due to the escalation of hostilities, evacuation orders and tightened siege, Nutrition Cluster partners had to stop all their activities, including the treatment of acutely malnourished children and supplementary feeding for children and PBW. The massive displacement of people from North Gaza to Gaza city has caused delays in detecting and initiating treatment for malnutrition cases and compromised required follow ups for children already under treatment. 
• The drastic reduction of commercial trucks entering the Gaza Strip has not only driven commodity prices up and threatened market stability but also worsened the nutritional status of vulnerable children and women, who for months have faced severely limited access to adequate food, water and hygiene products.
• Shrinking humanitarian space and continued supply chain complications, including the inability to reliably pick up supplies from the Kerem Shalom crossing due to insecurity and the risk of looting, have prevented full coverage of the needs, despite the prepositioning of adequate quantities of supplies outside the Gaza Strip.

Response

• As of the end of October, approximately 460,000 cooked meals prepared in 140 kitchens were distributed daily to families across the Strip except in North Gaza. This represents a 25 per cent decrease in meal production compared to late September. As supplies continue to dwindle, more kitchens will be forced to close, and for those that remain operational, partners have had to adjust the meal content or reduce the number of meals prepared to cope with supply shortages.
• On 7 November, following a month of impediments that have thwarted all attempts by humanitarian partners to gain access to and deliver food to the besieged areas of North Gaza, a convoy comprising 10 trucks of food and one truck of bottled water departed from Gaza city to reach Beit Hanoun in the North Gaza governorate. Along the route, some of the food was spontaneously distributed to crowds of people who surrounded the trucks; the mission was then forced to offload the rest of the food before reaching its final destination. Although the food did not reach the intended shelters in Beit Hanoun, this delivery marks the first time in weeks that food has entered North Gaza. There is an urgent need for continued, sustained, and safe access to deliver life-saving food to families facing an imminent risk of famine in North Gaza.
• As of 11 November, 12 out of 19 bakeries supported by WFP remained functional across the Strip – four in Gaza city, seven in Deir al Balah and one in Khan Younis. All the eight bakeries in central Gaza, however, are operating at 70 per cent of their capacity due to supply shortages and remain at risk of shutting down within days if no additional flour is received. 
• In Gaza city, more than 150,000 people received at least one food parcel in October, including some who also received a 25-kilogramme bag of wheat flour. As of 10 November, food parcel distributions by multiple partners continued, with at least 5,000 people assisted daily in Gaza city, prioritizing the needs of those newly displaced from North Gaza. Moreover, every day, partners serve about 100,000 cooked meals prepared in 15 kitchens and 9,800 bread parcels from the subsidized bakeries are also delivered to some of the shelters and community kitchens to be distributed along with cooked meals.

Challenges

• Insecurity and looting, fueled by the breakdown in public order and safety, in the area around the Kerem Shalom crossing, combined with access impediments within the Strip continue to significantly disrupt the supply chain, causing reverberating impacts:
  • More than 100 kitchens producing about 400,000 meals per day in central and southern Gaza are at constant risk of shutdown.
  • Bakeries have had fluctuating production levels since early October, and many community-led baking initiatives have already been forced to suspend operations.
  • Due to very limited distributions of food parcels and fresh produce in the central and southern governorates, monitoring data by partners showed a growing number of households experiencing severe hunger, with people increasingly relying on the most severe coping strategies, such as reducing adults’ food intake in favor of children. Partners have also had to prioritize households that have not received any assistance for over two months.
  • Overall, in October, around 1.7 million people, or 80 per cent of the population, did not receive their monthly food rations across the Strip, compared with 1.4 million people in September and one million in August. People have run out of ways to cope, food systems have collapsed, and the risk of famine persists, necessitating an immediate, at scale resumption of humanitarian supply flows into the Strip.
  • The ongoing lack of food assistance is exposing the most vulnerable groups to heightened protection risks and psychosocial distress. Protection partners report that children are now increasingly searching through piles of solid waste for food scraps, which places them at a higher risk of not only contracting diseases but also encountering explosive ordnance. Unaccompanied or separated children are particularly at risk of being neglected as, with many mouths to feed, caregivers tend to prioritize their own children over extended family members. According to Education Cluster partners, living in a state of persistent food insecurity, alongside ongoing violence and displacement, has had profound psychological effects on school-aged children who are experiencing heightening levels of anxiety, depression, and trauma, making it increasingly difficult for them to focus and engage in learning activities. Hunger also contributes to absenteeism due to fatigue or illness, which in turn disrupts children’s educational progress.
  • Food scarcity is also having a severe impact on pregnant women, with their babies more likely to be born with health complications. Moreover, this is fueling an increasing inability of new mothers to breastfeed, placing infants at higher risk of contracting infectious diseases, particularly as the winter approaches.
• Local markets across the Gaza Strip are facing a severe crisis as many goods are on the brink of running out. Nearly all the trucks that entered Gaza in October were humanitarian, with extremely few commercial trucks crossing into the Strip. It is vital to urgently resume commercial deliveries at scale to complement humanitarian efforts, increase dietary diversity, stimulate the local economy by increasing the affordability and availability of goods, and improve cash liquidity.
• The energy crisis is further worsening, with a growing reliance on burning waste for cooking fuel in northern Gaza, where cooking gas has not been entering for months. This continues to hinder proper food preparation and the intake of nutritious food, exacerbates health and protection risks, and causes environmental hazards. In central and southern Gaza, firewood is increasingly scarce in highly congested areas along the coast, so women and children venture into the eastern parts in search for firewood, being particularly exposed to explosive ordnance risks.

Response

• Between 27 October and 9 November, five direct convoys comprising a total of 80 trucks were dispatched from Amman to Gaza via the Erez West entry point. To date, the Logistics Cluster has successfully facilitated 80 humanitarian inter-agency convoys through the Jordan Corridor, dispatching a total of 1,046 trucks comprising 10,736 metric tonnes of aid into Gaza on behalf of 23 partners. Detailed convoy information is available on the interactive dashboard.
• Logistics Cluster cargo transport operations to collect aid supplies from the Erez West crossing point are ongoing amid significantly deteriorated security and access challenges in northern Gaza. Cargo from the Kerem Shalom crossing point was collected on 2 and 5 November, despite access and security challenges.
• Since December 2023 and as of 9 November, the Logistics Cluster has consolidated 20,236 cubic metres of humanitarian cargo at the common warehouse in Amman, and 48,372 cubic metres at the common storage warehouse in Gaza. As of 7 November, 735 UN and International NGO trucks were awaiting in Al Arish, ready for dispatch into Gaza.

Challenges

• Across Gaza, transport operations face increasingly severe security challenges, including in relation to access to northern Gaza. These constraints are significantly hampering the Cluster’s logistics operations and creating a high risk of violence against truck drivers, vehicle damage, and loss of commodities.

Response

• Between 26 October and 8 November, the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) and Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) reported that, on average, a total of 96,394 cubic metres of water was produced daily across the Gaza Strip. Of this quantity, an average of 38,424 cubic metres of drinking water were produced from the two operational seawater desalination plants and the three Mekerot supply lines. Municipal ground water wells produced an average of 57,970 cubic metres. The total quantity of water produced declined in the first week of November compared to the last week of October due to the drop in water production in the North Gaza governorate and variations in fuel availability.  
• In October, WASH Cluster partners received only 28 per cent of the minimum daily requirement of 70,000 litres to meet critical WASH and public health needs, including water production and distribution, sewage management, repair works and solid waste management.
• During the reporting period, 20 WASH Cluster partners reported the distribution, by trucking, of a total of 9,794 cubic metres of water per day to 503 water collection points. Water distribution in Gaza city has been impacted by the cessation of operations by private sector suppliers due to the lack of suitable and affordable fuel. The repercussions of this critical service gap are even more severe considering the large influx of IDPs from the North Gaza governorate. The remaining water produced is either distributed at the point of production or supplied through the remaining distribution networks with a high percentage of losses due to leaks and damages.  
• Following a preliminary assessment of the scale of support required, WASH Cluster partners are distributing hygiene kits and water through trucking to address the needs of newly displaced people in Gaza city. To date, 5,500 hygiene kits have been distributed and there is a gap of 20,000 kits due to supply shortages and the inability to systematically collect supplies from the Kerem Shalom crossing.
• Winterization preparedness activities, including the clearance of stormwater drains, the unblocking of manholes, and removal of debris and solid waste are taking place in accessible locations throughout the Gaza Strip. Large earthworks at three critical wadis are ongoing to clear drainage channels so that water can flow smoothly. The Hygiene Promotion Group is finalizing a flood risk matrix to help partners prioritize activities with communities.

Challenges

• Lack of fuel supplies is hampering WASH sector activities for which fuel is principally, but not exclusively, required for water production and distribution, sewage management, repair works and solid waste management. Cluster partners continue to advocate for the provision of at least 70,000 litres of fuel per day to ensure minimum WASH operations across the Strip, as well access to spare parts and consumables for generators and vehicles, and a sustained inflow of commercial goods, including hygiene items.
• Amid active military operations in the North Gaza governorate, all regular requests to deliver fuel to water production points and conduct solid waste and sewage management have been consistently denied since the beginning of October. This is having a catastrophic impact on basic WASH services to maintain public health.  
• Supply constraints continue to have an enormous impact on critical WASH service delivery; 20,000 hygiene kits and 20,000 jerry cans are urgently needed as part of the WASH response to the large displacement influx into Gaza city.
• The winterization response is severely constrained both by limited entry of required equipment and materials into Gaza and challenges in moving stocks from southern to northern Gaza. Consequently, the critical dewatering of the Abu Rasheed, Sheikh Radwan and Al Amal lagoons is lagging ahead of the rainy season. Additionally, the relocation of IDPs from flood-prone shelters and the transfer of waste from 10 critical temporary solid waste sites is not progressing.  
• Critical challenges to solid waste management persist although related activities continue to be conducted at the community level in key locations and many areas have mechanisms for primary collection and transfer to temporary collection sites. The absence of spare parts and consumables for the equipment fleet and the lack of access to final safe disposal sites are significant risks to the well-being of the population. Moreover, the lack of a separate medical waste management system means that medical waste, including sharps (a form of biomedical waste) and infectious waste, are being integrated into domestic solid waste, exacerbating the volume of harmful waste.  

Response

• Between 27 October and 9 November, Cluster partners distributed at least 100 family tents, a few sealing off kits (SOKs), as well as other critical NFIs to households in need in the Gaza governorate, particularly important following the new waves of displacement from North Gaza to Gaza governorate.   
• In southern Gaza, about 206 families were provided with tents. These families were affected by the targeting of schools or other sites being used as shelters for displaced people.   
• As part of winterization preparedness, during the reporting period, the Cluster distributed SOKs or tarpaulins to 200 people living in substandard shelters in southern Gaza.

Challenges

• In northern Gaza, Shelter Cluster partners are continuing to face critical shortages due to access impediments and escalating hostilities. While some shelter items entered the Strip during the reporting period, looting of such high value items continues to be a challenge, as does access to people most in need in North Gaza. 
• While shelter items are being prioritized via the Fence Road, the Cluster's target of ensuring the entry of 25 trucks a week for eight weeks since September has not been met. In the eight-week period between 10 September and 4 November, around 90 trucks in total have entered – an average of 11 a week.  
• Between 10 September and 4 November, in southern Gaza, only about 44,300 people have been assisted with shelter materials – around four per cent of those identified as in need of winterization-related shelter assistance. 
• In Khan Younis, some partners are piloting a shelter response in damaged buildings with sealing off materials through both cash and in-kind support. However, they are facing challenges related to the lack of availability of materials in Gaza, access impediments, and the danger of operating in unsafe buildings. 

Response

• During the reporting period, SMWG partners conducted 30 site assessments in the Gaza, Khan Younis and Deir al Balah governorates, with findings highlighting a priority need for winter items, including clothing and shelter materials.
• SMWG partners have started winterization preparedness activities across 75 IDP sites in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah that host approximately 75,000 people, supporting site-level committees with financial, technical, and in-kind support for maintenance and repairs.
• To support scaled-up service delivery in Gaza city, the SMWG produced static maps of IDP site locations, regular updates on displacement figures, as well as a live IDP site list to improve service delivery to the over 100,000 people displaced from North Gaza to Gaza city.
• SMWG partners supported at least 63 households (214 people) moving to southern Gaza via check points on the Al Rasheed and Salah al Din roads with water and referrals.
• SMWG partners have started the pilot test for the Gaza Strip site mapping exercise. The SMWG also trained 54 UNRWA Designated Emergency Shelter managers from Deir al Balah, Khan Younis, Rafah, and Gaza city on the new site assessment platform in preparation for a site baseline assessment initiative.

Challenges

• The skyrocketing prices of common winterization items on the local market have made assistance to communities nearly impossible. The prices of shovels and plastic rope have increased by 300 and 345 per cent, respectively, while the price of a single bag of cement has risen by 1,900 per cent.
• UNRWA collective shelters continue to be impacted by ongoing hostilities, resulting in deaths, injuries, destruction, and further displacement. Partners continue to call for the protection of civilian infrastructures, including IDP shelters.

Response

• During the reporting period, the Protection Cluster (PC) carried out a participatory Protection Assessment exercise, engaging with affected communities across Gaza through key informant interviews (KIIs), focus group discussions (FGDs) and direct observations as part of the Protection Monitoring System (PMS), while conducting parallel consultations with Protection partners, OCHA and other Clusters to discuss protection priorities and protection risks and outcomes. Since the roll-out of the PMS, a total of 960 KIIs and 45 FGDs have been conducted across all five governates of Gaza, providing critical insights into the protection environment and enabling evidence-based adjustment of programmatic steering.
• During the reporting period, UNRWA’s protection teams conducted 181 observations in shelters and IDP sites in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, including Al Mawasi, undertook 15 FGDs, 14 KIIs, and continued to follow up on vulnerable cases. Beyond monitoring learning activities in UNRWA shelters and delivering BBC Lifeline podcast activities to 1,263 children, the teams conducted awareness raising sessions on explosive ordnance, gender-based violence (GBV) and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) in both UNRWA shelters and IDP sites, reaching 193, 68 and 199 people, respectively. A total of 4,300 child identification bracelets provided by UNICEF were also distributed across Gaza, 3,000 of them in Gaza city, and awareness raising sessions were conducted on the purpose of such bracelets and on preventing and dealing with family separation. Furthermore, in coordination with Première Urgence Internationale (PUI), UNRWA’s protection teams supported 304 households with vulnerable individuals, including 299 cancer patients, in obtaining multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA).
• Between 27 October and 1 November, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), UNRWA provided immediate assistance to eight Gaza detainees released at the Kerem Shalom crossing, ensuring the provision of medical support at the European Gaza Hospital, facilitating contact with families, and providing referrals for additional food, shelter, hygiene, NFI and mental health and psychosocial support.
• GBV partners oversaw the distribution of 786 dignity kits in Gaza city, including 250 to forcibly displaced girls living with disabilities. An additional 987 dignity kits were distributed in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, and 65 were delivered to the Bureij Camp. Moreover, a total of 1,592 women received cash assistance across Gaza in October.
• A GBV Risk Mitigation Taskforce (RMTF) has been established to carry out assessments of GBV risks and support mitigation measures across Clusters. With support from UNRWA, the RMTF has been trained to support Women Groups in IDP sites and shelters, to help them identify risks in their environment, take preventive action and safely report any GBV incidence.
• GBV response services continue operating in Gaza city, Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, but there is a need to scale up existing capacities, which are near exhaustion, to provide specialized services.
• During October, Child Protection (CP) partners reached more than 22,000 children and nearly 9,000 caregivers with community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) services in the Gaza Strip.
• The CP Case Management Task Force finalized its trends analysis for the third quarter of 2024. Overall, more than 11,000 cases were reported, with the majority of children aged between 7 and 12 years, and equal gender breakdown. Data indicated that girls are more likely to face psychological trauma and emotional distress, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation, while boys are more frequently involved in cases related to physical abuse, child labour, and legal issues. The number of cases related to deprivation of basic resources, including food, healthcare and shelter, neglect and family separation, have increased significantly since the previous trend analysis carried out in July.
• The joint CP and GBV Task Force on Prevention and Care for Child Survivors, which is led by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), rolled out a six-day training on caring for child survivors, reaching over 30 CP and GBV case managers. There was a high demand to register for this training, indicating that the case management workforce is facing increasingly complex cases for which they need additional capacity building.
• To-date, Mine Action partners have conducted over 209 Explosive Hazard Assessments (EHAs) across 101 sites in Gaza. Between October 2023 and October 2024, partners also reached 790,000 people with in-person Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE), prioritizing displaced communities and children who are most at risk, and over 1.3 million people across the Strip with digital EORE messaging using SMS, radio, and social media.

Challenges

• The protection environment in northern Gaza remains dire, with vulnerable people facing heightened protection risks and often being unable to evacuate due to health conditions and disabilities. Lack of access has left many of those in northern Gaza without support, amid critical shortages of food, water and medications, compounded by the acute lack of NFIs, especially tents, tarpaulins, mattresses and cleaning materials, across UNRWA shelters and IDP sites. Safe access to services remains a critical concern across all Gaza governorates. With scarcity of aid, distribution points are becoming hotspots of violence and pose particular risks for women and girls, especially those with disabilities, female heads of households and elderly women. Women report being forced by men within their households to go out searching for food and water, under the threat of violence if they do not find any.
• Privacy and dignity continue to be one of the greatest concerns of women and girls in Gaza. Tents are improvised and host in most cases two or sometimes even four or six families. Congestion and overcrowding, coupled with the lack of clean water, hygiene items and safe ablutions, seriously hamper women’s ability to access critical resources, including food, and maintain personal hygiene practices. Women report a lack of sanitary pads and soap, including the inability to wash cloth/material used in lieu of sanitary pads, leading to increased infections and other negative health complications.
• North Gaza remains inaccessible for GBV service providers, and populations displaced to Gaza city are particularly vulnerable to GBV, from psychological/emotional abuse to sexual exploitation and physical violence.
• Continued evacuation orders, the ongoing siege on parts of northern Gaza, as well as poor communication networks are exacerbating child protection risks, including family separation and direct conflict-related violence. The difficulty in bringing supplies into Gaza is a critical concern as winter approaches.
• With regard to Mine Action, restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on the entry into Gaza of both specialized personnel and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) equipment continue to curtail efforts to assess the large scale of Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) contamination across the Strip, and to protect the population from ERW, while ensuring safe delivery of humanitarian assistance. Specific regulations imposed by the Israeli authorities preventing the movement, removal, or destruction of unexploded ordnance (UXO) restrict mine action organizations’ activities to marking UXO sites instead of demolishing or removing these hazards.

Response

• During the reporting period, 14 additional Temporary Learning Spaces (TLS) were established in informal IDP sites, primarily in Khan Younis. These spaces have benefited approximately 2,500 students, allowing them to engage in foundational learning, with a focus on literacy and numeracy, and take part in structured recreational and MHPSS activities.
• Communities also continue to endeavor to create learning opportunities for children, with 53 new initiatives led by 554 volunteer teachers mapped by the Cluster between 27 October and 9 November in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis governorates, benefiting over 9,900 children. Cluster partners continue to assess needs and extend support to these initiatives, ensuring that the activities delivered at these sites meet Cluster standards.
• With support from the WASH Cluster, the training of teachers on good hygiene practices continues, including alternative hygiene practices given shortages in water and hygiene supplies, with an additional 70 teachers engaged in learning activities in shelters managed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Khan Younis trained during the reporting period. These trainings are designed to have a cascading effect: trained teachers will directly share their knowledge with children in learning spaces, with over 50,000 students reached with hygiene messaging to-date. Children, in turn, are expected to pass on the hygiene messaging to their families. This initiative is especially critical given the forecasted floods, which heighten the risk of communicable disease outbreaks.

Challenges

• Due to the continuous targeting of schools, parents, children, and teachers are increasingly fearful about enrolling in, or participating in, educational programs. This pervasive fear has severely impeded the scaling up of education-in-emergency responses across the Gaza Strip and led to the suspension of all interventions in the North Gaza governorate. During the reporting period, six new incidents were reported, five in Gaza city and one in North Gaza, three of them affecting UN-run schools. Airstrikes and shelling impacting these facilities sheltering displaced persons have resulted in significant infrastructural damage and tragic losses of lives. As of 5 November, 11,119 students and 441 education personnel had been killed, and 17,115 students and 2,491 education personnel had been injured since the onset of the conflict. Scaling up advocacy on the imperative to ensure the safety of educational spaces, students, and education personnel is now more urgent than ever.
• The ongoing shortage of educational supplies continues to hamper the response in Gaza, with the urgent need for tents to establish TLSs compounded by restrictions on the entry of educational supplies, including stationery.
• A mapping of partner capacities conducted by the Education Cluster in preparation for the winter season reveals that resources are extremely limited. Due to shortages of winter-proof tents, warm clothing for children, and other essential supplies, there are growing concerns that fewer children will be able to access the TLSs during the winter months. Only a small number of partners with limited funding are in a position to procure and distribute the necessary winter supplies and, while efforts are ongoing among the Education and Shelter clusters and the Child Protection Sub-Cluster to coordinate the distribution of winter clothing, realistic targets considering all constraints fall far short of meeting the actual needs. Increased funding is urgently needed to enable partners to implement the Winterization Plan. 

Response

• On 5 November, a second shipment of 78 “Track24” satellite-based devices were delivered to the WFP Palestine Country Office in Jerusalem, ahead of being transported into Gaza. To-date, the Israeli authorities have approved 83 devices, including 25 delivered to Gaza in September to support WFP activities.
• Jointly with the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), the ETC Cluster trained 52 UN personnel from 11 UN agencies, including five staff working in the Gaza Security Operations Centre (SOC), on Security Communications Systems (SCS) and the use of satellite-based devices. Additional training sessions are  scheduled in November.
• The ETC Cluster continues to advocate for the need to import more telecommunications equipment into Gaza to set up common communications services. More information on ETC activities can be accessed here.

Challenges

• Due to increased restrictions on the movement of commodities, damaged infrastructure and lack of fuel and availability of spare parts, local Mobile Network Operators and Internet Service Providers in the Gaza Strip continue to experience network outages and are unable to conduct the necessary repairs. Severely limited availability of telecommunications equipment is hampering the delivery of ETC services. A significant amount of equipment has been damaged or destroyed, and the import of new equipment is lengthy and challenging. Only 20 satellite phones, 25 Track24 devices, 30 VHF digital radios, and four solar power solutions have been imported into Gaza since 7 October 2023, following coordination with the Israeli authorities.  
• Increasing insecurity, displacement, and relocation of staff from Rafah to Deir al Balah have rendered it difficult to deploy shared ETC communications services or provide face-to-face technical support for humanitarian responders.  
• The lack of funding has limited the ETC Cluster’s capacity to address immediate communications needs for humanitarian responders in Gaza. Thus far, only 45.8 per cent of funding requested by the Cluster ($1.8 million) under the updated OPT Flash Appeal has been received.

Protection against sexual abuse and exploitation (PSEA) remains a cross-cutting priority for all clusters. Aid distribution must be delivered with dignity and respect. Any wrongdoing can be reported through SAWA toll-free number 164. SAWA will assist and provide services free of charge and with the utmost confidentiality.