Gaza: Exodus from Khan Younis increases pressure on scarce resources
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Aid, OCHA, Some 1.9 million people – nine out of 10 in Gaza – have been forcibly displaced. since October 7, including those who have been displaced multiple times.
For UN aid agencies and partners, “Fuel shortages continue to undermine humanitarian operations and endanger the functioning of food, water and health facilities,” according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWAin the latest update.
According to United Nations agency aid access dashboardOnly 24 trucks carrying humanitarian aid processed and recovered by UNRWA – the largest UN agency operating in Gaza – entered the Gaza Strip via Kerem Shalom in the south of the enclave on Sunday, the latest date shown.
No trucks entered the area on Saturday but 46 trucks arrived in northern Gaza on Saturday through the West Erez crossing.
Compared to June, when nearly 1,300 trucks entered the devastated area, the total number of trucks in July was just 674, with just a week left in the month.
Low fuel delivery
Citing OCHA, UNRWA said that from July 1 to 21, just over 2.1 million liters of fuel entered Gaza, including 378,700 liters on July 21 alone. This equates to about 103,000 liters of fuel per day, or a quarter of the 400,000 liters of fuel that humanitarian organizations estimate is needed daily to sustain humanitarian operations in Gaza.
There are a number of ongoing challenges hindering the collection of much-needed humanitarian supplies from the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza, the UN agency said, highlighting insecurity, among other factors.
The West Coast Vortex Continues
In a related development, a leading independent human rights expert said on Wednesday that Israeli authorities “continue to target human rights defenders” in the occupied West Bankincluding East Jerusalem, before calling for the immediate release of two Palestinian human rights defenders being held in “administrative detention”.
According to Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Omar al-Khatib and Diala Ayesh were detained between October 2023 and March 2024.
She said in a statement that Mr al-Khatib campaigned against the forced eviction of Palestinian families from Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, while Ms Ayesh was a human rights lawyer who documented the detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
They and three other activists were “were reportedly slapped, beaten, humiliated, transferred from one prison to another within a day or two, and forced to sign documents in Hebrew that they could not understand.”, Ms. Lawlor, who was appointed and reports to Dong Nhan Quy Association and is not an employee of the United Nations.
“All five human rights defenders were arrested without warrant.. They were not given any reason as to why they were being detained. They were all interrogated without the presence of a lawyer. They were not allowed to contact their families,” said Ms. Lawlor.
Death and destruction
Still in the occupied West Bank, media reported that four Palestinians were killed there on Tuesday.
Israeli armored personnel carriers and troops reportedly entered Qalandiya – a crowded refugee camp north of Jerusalem – and destroyed the home of a Palestinian accused of carrying out an attack on Israel.
Latest humanitarian news on the West Bank from OCHA reported that at least 554 Palestinians were killed between October 7, 2023, and July 15, 2024, while the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) speak that thing 143 children have died in the West Bank including East Jerusalem since October 7On average, one child is killed every two days.
Among the Palestinian victims, 539 were killed by the Israeli army, 10 by Israeli settlers, and 7 by either the Israeli army or Israeli settlers.
During the same period, 14 Israelis (nine Israeli soldiers and five settlers) were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank. In Israel, Palestinian attacks from the West Bank claimed the lives of eight Israelis and four Palestinians.
Between 15 and 21 July, UNRWA reported at least 169 documented search and arrest operations by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) across the occupied West Bank. “More than 110 Palestinians…were arrested by the ISF during this period and three Palestinians were reported killed.
“One person was killed during an ISF operation in Beit Ummar, southern West Bank, on 19 July,” UNRWA said.
Violence after ICJ statement
The UN agency also noted that on July 15, ISF destroyed five houses in Al Walajah village, north of Bethlehem, displacing some 39 Palestinian refugees.
And after release advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) On 19 July, attacks by Israeli settlers were reported against Palestinian communities in Huwwara and Burin, in the northern West Bank, and in Masafer Yatta, in the southern West Bank, UNRWA continued.
The world court’s declaration that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is “illegal” and that “all states have a duty not to recognize” the decades-long occupation, came after a request from the United Nations General Assembly for legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Latest OCHA-compiled data on demolitions and displacement in the West Bank pointed to more than 820 demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures in the territory since the beginning of the year.
At the current rate of demolition, a record 1,400 buildings could be razed by the end of this year, surpassing the previous high of 1,177 in 2023 and 1,094 in 2016.
