 "Israeli military vehicles near the Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, on Monday")
By Augusta Saraiva
The United Nations is seeking $2.5 billion for humanitarian aid in Gaza through the rest of the year, an exponential increase from six months ago that underscores the deteriorating situation for those caught in the middle of the Israel-Hamas war.
In total, the UN is appealing to donors for $2.8 billion for Gaza and the West Bank — tenfold the amount it said it needed the week after Hamas attacked Israel in October, starting the war. Almost one-third of the funding would go toward food, while about $800 million would go toward meeting shelter and health needs.
The amount sought would be enough to serve about 2.2 million people in Gaza and 400,000 more in the West Bank. But the request still falls short of the $4.1 billion that the UN and its partners say is needed to address the needs of 3.3 million Palestinians.
The appeal reflects “an effort to be realistic about what will be implementable given the current operating context,” the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a release Wednesday. “The magnitude of this response and operational constraints are beyond what has been seen before.”
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The UN also laid out steps that it said need to be taken in order to effectively deliver humanitarian assistance. The world body called for the opening of more land routes into Gaza, improved ability to move within the strip and more visas and permits for UN staff to operate in the Palestinian territories.
The appeal comes as the main UN humanitarian agency operating in Gaza faces a funding drought after Israeli officials accused some of its staff of participating in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union. Leading donors including the US have halted funding for the organization while the UN conducts an investigation into the Israeli claims.
Under the current scenario, the UN estimates UNRWA — the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza — has enough funds to operate only until next month. Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, and displaced thousands more.
