Humanitarian Needs and Response Update | 26 March - 01 April 2024

Needs

• An intact supply pipeline of both preventative nutrition commodities (high-energy biscuits, lipid-based nutrient supplements, and micronutrient supplements) and ready-to-eat therapeutic food (RUTF), particularly for some 346,000 children under the age of five, who are at greatest risk of malnutrition, and preventable mortality children as well as over 160,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBW). At risk children include about 135,000 children under the age of two who are highly vulnerable to severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
• Immediate humanitarian access to address the accelerating increase in acute malnutrition. Some 50,400 children under the age of five are estimated to be acutely malnourished in the northern areas, with an alarming 31 per cent of children under the age of two suffering from severe wasting.
• Continued active identification of cases to ensure timely detection, referral, and treatment of acutely malnourishment children.
• Expand the Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) targeting children with acute malnutrition, to ensure greater proximity of nutrition treatment services to the affected population.
• Strengthen partners' capacity to provide nutrition-in-emergency services, including community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM), and infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in emergencies.
• Enhance the mapping of service coverage as well as monitoring and reporting systems, to identify gaps and ensure effective coordination and a streamlined nutritional response.

Response

• Since mid-January, a total of 31,629 children aged 6-59 months have undergone Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) screenings, of whom 1,700 have been diagnosed with Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and 437 with SAM. These children are currently receiving treatment.
• UNRWA has extended its MUAC screening at shelters in Deir al Balah, and work continues to expand the screening also to the Al-Mawasi area and at shelters in Khan Younis. Moreover, International Medical Corps (IMC) has deployed 15 community nutrition volunteers to provide screening and referral services.
• The stabilization center established at the IMC field hospital in Rafah is now operational with a six-bed capacity, and one child has already been admitted into the facility. IMC has also trained staff at the hospital to manage SAM cases with complications.
• WFP has distributed a 15-day allocation of lipid-based nutrient supplements (195,825 packs) to 7,353 PBW and children under the age of five in informal public shelters, makeshift shelters, and among host communities in Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah. A total of 6,386 caregivers, including PBW, have also received sensitization sessions on IYCF practices.
• UNICEF is dispatching 1,250 cartons of RUTF that will contribute to the treatment of children diagnosed with acute malnutrition for at least one month. Beyond distribution in the southern governorates, options are being explored to transport supplies also to northern Gaza, where humanitarian access is extremely limited.
• UNICEF has facilitated the procurement of specialized milk for children with various medical conditions.
• Between 26 March and 1 April, eight NGO health workers were trained in the early identification and treatment of acutely malnourished cases, to launch a program for the management of wasting at a new field hospital near Rafah. Thus far, a total of 65 health workers have been trained on simplified approaches to the management of wasting, 18 on the management of SAM with complications, and 32 community volunteers/community engagement workers have been trained on MUAC screening and IYCF practices.

Challenges

• Limited humanitarian access throughout Gaza, particularly in the northern areas, continues to exacerbate the catastrophic levels of food insecurity already faced by the population and to prevent the urgent delivery of life-saving nutrition commodities. This, compounded by deteriorating health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, is resulting in an increasing number of acutely malnourished children.
• Continued displacement undermines the effective provision of nutrition services.
• Extreme fear and stress, malnutrition, and complex living conditions due to the protracted hostilities have resulted in mothers being unable to breastfeed their newborn babies.

Needs

• Provide specialized counselling and psychosocial support for children, to address severe levels of trauma, and scale up case management services. 
• Strengthen life-saving specialized services for survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). 
• Increase the number of Protection and GBV experts in Gaza, support GBV frontline responders affected by the conflict, and provide them with the required logistical support to be able to access GBV survivors.
• Enhance the distribution of menstrual hygiene supplies, clothing and shoes for children, as well as cash and voucher assistance for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in formal and informal shelters and with host families. 
• Provide Victim Assistance (VA) for survivors of shelling and explosive ordnance-related accidents. 
• Urgently undertake large-scale assessments to ascertain the extent of Explosive Ordnance (EO) contamination and increase the deployment of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operators, the conduct of Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) sessions, and the delivery of Conflict Preparedness and Protection (CPP) messages tailored to different population groups and needs. EORE and CPP training for humanitarian workers also needs to be intensified.

Response

• To date, a total of 329,000 children and 56,000 caregivers have been reached through distribution of clothes and shoes, provision of mental health and psychosocial support, and awareness raising messages on EO risks.
• Between 26 March and 1 April, GBV partners provided psychosocial support to 1,713 women, girls and GBV survivors, conducted 45 protection mitigation sessions, and delivered 1,470 dignity and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) kits. GBV partners are currently operating three safe spaces in southern Gaza and establishing an area-based committee to support the management of shelters.
• Mine Action (MA) partners continue to progressively scale-up their activities aimed at addressing EO challenges in Gaza and streamline mine action in the work of other humanitarian clusters.

Challenges

• Fuel shortages limit staff mobility, prevent the implementation of a comprehensive case management response, and endanger the safe operation of temporary shelters for unaccompanied children. Protracted denials of fuel requests have been severely impacting the provision of services.   
• Due to access constraints, partners are facing difficulties in bringing recreational kits into Gaza to implement psychosocial support activities for children.   
• Despite the high caseload of women and girls in critical need of health and psychosocial services and dignity kits, partners continue to face logistical challenges preventing the scaling-up of support. Confidential places where case management activities may take place are also limited. 
• Mine action partners continue to report administrative hurdles, such as registration challenges for organizational entities and delayed provision of visas, interrupting the deployment of some EOD specialists. Restrictions on the entry into Gaza of essential humanitarian mine action supplies also continue to affect mine action response. 
• Alongside limitations to humanitarian access in Gaza, damage to key civilian infrastructure has resulted in widespread communication blackouts and connectivity challenges, hampering coordination of the overall protection response.

Needs

• Establishing Temporary Learning Spaces (TLSs) in shelters and providing emergency supplies and learning kits is necessary to commence non-formal learning for children in light of the large-scale damage to education infrastructure. A new Satellite-derived Damage Assessment conducted by the Education Cluster concludes that at least 67 per cent of schools in Gaza will either need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation work to be functional again. The analysis also provides evidence that complements reports, photos, and videos previously received by the Education Cluster “showing that schools are being used for military operations by Israeli Security Forces (ISF), including use as detention, interrogation centers, and military bases.” In total, about 38 per cent of school buildings (212) have been “Directly Hit” since 7 October, 30 per cent have been “Damaged,” 18 per cent are “Likely or Possibly Damaged,” and 12 per cent have no reported damage. The category ‘directly hit’ excludes 35 incidents where school playgrounds but not structures were hit, which are classified under the “damaged” category. Some 84 per cent (94 out of 212) of directly hit schools are in the Gaza governorate, followed by Khan Younis, North Gaza, and Deir al Balah. Among the 122 directly hit schools, 58 per cent (112) are public schools, 29 per cent (62) are UNRWA schools, and 13 per cent (28) are private schools. The assessment additionally finds that 188 school buildings that have been used as IDP shelters have been either directly hit or damaged. In total, 53 schools are now classified as destroyed and 38 schools have lost at least half of their structures.
• More than 625,000 students have no access to education or safe learning places and are in need of psychosocial support that can be provided through Education in Emergencies (EiE) recreational activities and Social Emotional Learning. Moreover, according to the Ministry of Education, as of 26 March, over 5,826 students and 264 educational staff have been killed, and more than 9,570 students and 960 teachers have been injured in the Gaza Strip since 7 October. 
• Providing assistive devices to, and identifying other needs for, children with disabilities to ensure continuity of learning.

Response

• Since the onset of the hostilities, 26 partners have reached more than 233,254 students and teachers with psychosocial support, emergency learning, recreational supplies and activities, and awareness-raising sessions (source: Education Cluster 5W dashboard). Most cluster response activities are delivered by local partners.
• One local Education Cluster partner has piloted the establishment of TLS in and around IDP shelters and has been delivering learning support sessions for school-aged children at TLS and still accessible schools. This is the first learning continuity intervention by a cluster partner.

Challenges

• The education response remains significantly underfunded, with less than 17 per cent of the required funds received. This is hindering the capacity of partners to establish TLSs and provide necessary support to school-age children. Urgent funding is therefore required to address this gap and meet immediate learning needs.

Needs

• Independent and reliable communication platforms for humanitarian responders in Gaza to coordinate emergency response and deliver lifesaving aid. 
• Restoration and repair of the connectivity infrastructure to enable community engagement activities and ensure access to services by the affected population.

Response

• The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) has been working jointly with cluster coordinators and operating partners to address connectivity issues, ensure access to information and services by the affected communities, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis. 
• Engagement is ongoing with the Israeli authorities to import critical Security Communications Systems and Information Technology equipment, including Very High Frequency (VHF) repeaters, solar-powered solutions, and satellite connectivity devices.
• For more information on ETC activities, please visit: Palestine: Conflict | Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) (etcluster.org).

Challenges

• Limited access to electricity, fuel, and telecommunication services continues to impede the humanitarian response in Gaza.  
• The importation of telecommunication equipment is lengthy and extremely challenging.

Needs

• There is a continuing critical need to increase the storage and transport capacity inside Gaza, particularly in the northern areas, Deir al Balah and Khan Younis.

Response

• To date, the Logistics Cluster has facilitated the storage of 10,906 cubic meters of humanitarian supplies across four warehouses in Rafah. The Cluster is also operating a cargo notification system, allowing humanitarian organizations to be informed once their cargo arrives at the Rafah transshipment point and is ready for pick up. So far, 24 organizations have already benefited from this system. 
• Between 22 and 28 March, the Logistics Cluster dispatched 72 trucks carrying 2,767.8 metric tons of food, shelter, WASH, and protection assistance on behalf of seven partners through the Jordan corridor via the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge. For the first time, three convoys were organized in the same week using this route.
• A convoy from Dubai, in collaboration with UN Humanitarian Response Depot UNHRD, dispatched 24 Mobile Storage Units (MSUs), 14 prefabs and two generators to Jordan’s capital, Amman. Most of this equipment will be dispatched to Gaza through the Jordan corridor to augment the storage capacity of partners and ensure contingency preparedness. 
• In Egypt, the Logistics Cluster is installing two additional MSUs at Al Arish port, which are expected to increase the port’s reception capacity by 640 cubic meters. So far, a total of 14 MSUs have been installed in several locations between Al Arish and Rafah, in Egypt.
• Efforts are ongoing to assess the storage capacity in Deir al Balah, in the attempt to increase the storage space available for the humanitarian community. 
• A total of 280,142 metric tons of humanitarian aid are expected to be distributed over the next three months, of which 251,384 metric tons through the Egypt corridor and 28,758 metric tons through the Jordan corridor. This forecast is based on data provided by 29 organization.

Challenges

• All humanitarian organizations are facing challenges in logistics planning, due to the highly volatile situation and the continuing uncertainty regarding access. This, in turn, is affecting the efficiency of the overall response. 
• Extreme access constraints to northern Gaza hinder the ability of humanitarian actors to organize joint convoys and deliver life-saving assistance to the population in the north. Access limitations to Deir al Balah are also hampering logistical assessments in the governorate.

Response

• Between 26 March and 1 April, 1,081 households received one round of emergency MPCA. Cash out operations remain concentrated in the governorates south of Wadi Gaza, with the majority in Rafah. Overall, as of 1 April, one round of emergency MPCA was delivered to some 171,911 households, a top-up was delivered to 34,000 people, including persons with disabilities (PwD) and nursing mothers, and over 21,267 households have received a second round.  
• Since 7 October, some 123,038 households have cashed out their assistance, and about 5,400 payments have been cancelled after not being cashed out for months mainly due to the lack of connectivity and available agents (especially north of Wadi Gaza).

Challenges

• The inability of banks to transfer money among their branches and across Gaza governorates has resulted in a shortage of liquidity being reported in Rafah. 
• Poor electricity supply and limited connectivity continue to affect the ability of financial service providers to make cash accessible to MPCA recipients, compromising the encashment of received funds.
• The assistance falls well short of needs, given market collapse and price volatility.  
• Informal markets are the primary source of accessing goods, which complicates efforts to track distributions and gather market data.