The Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin | February 2016

At the end of January, UNRWA completed a comprehensive revision of the contents of its food assistance rations aimed at improving them against three main criteria: (i) health and nutritional values; (ii) public acceptability and local food habits; (iii) availability and logistical practicalities. The new baskets will be launched during the April-June food distribution round for all 960,000 beneficiaries.

In February 2016 a project was completed targeting water needs and supporting the resilience of vulnerable households, including IDPs, in Abassan Al Kabira, a town of about 28,000 people in Khan Younis governorate in the Gaza Strip. The project was implemented by Première Urgence Internationale (PUI), an international NGO, with funding provided by the Humanitarian Pooled Fund (HPF). In February, there were 15 ongoing projects financed by the HPF for a total of US$ 3.7 million, addressing urgent needs throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Compared with the last quarter of 2015, the frequency and intensity of protests and clashes declined in early 2016, alongside a moderate fall in attacks by Palestinian on Israelis civilians and security forces.

In February 2016, the Israeli authorities destroyed or dismantled 235 Palestinian homes and livelihood-related structures across the West Bank – the highest figure in a single month since OCHA began to systematically document the impact of demolitions in 2009. As a result, 440 people, half of them children, were displaced and over 1,600 people were affected in other ways. One third (108) of the structures targeted in the first two months of the year had been provided as humanitarian assistance: this is the same number of humanitarian assistance items destroyed in all of 2015.

There was a sharp increase in Palestinian-owned structures destroyed, dismantled or confiscated by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank during the first two months of 2016: At least 320 structures, including 88 homes, were destroyed.