Assistance to the Palestinian people – Emergency report on OPT – WFP report (excerpts)

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D) Middle East Region: (1) Palestinian Territories 

1) Palestinian Territories 

(a) On 7 August, Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement, noting that all parties in the Middle East agree that the civilian population of the West Bank and Gaza is facing a severe and mounting humanitarian crisis. The United Nations, United States, European Union and Russian Federation, meeting in New York, agreed that the United Nations should lead a concerted international effort to alleviate the plight of the Palestinian people.

(b) In response, the Secretary-General has appointed Catherine Bertini, former WFP Executive Director, as his Personal Humanitarian Envoy. Ms. Bertini will be travelling to the region this weekend to assess the nature and the scale of the humanitarian crisis. She will consult with UN officials in the area, as well as those of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and the donor and non-governmental community, to review assistance activities already under way, or planned, and identify any new measures that are needed. She will also meet the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to discuss with them what needs to be done to respond to the humanitarian situation and to prevent it from deteriorating further.

(c) On 5 August, CARE International released preliminary findings from two surveys focusing on the health and nutritional status of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A comprehensive report will be available in September. Preliminary results of the first survey, a Nutritional Assessment, indicate an increase in the number of malnourished children with 22.5 percent of children under 5 suffering from acute (9.3 percent) or chronic (13.2 percent) malnutrition. The preliminary rates are particularly high in Gaza with the survey showing 13.2 percent of children suffering from acute malnutrition. Other early findings show that the rate of anemia in Palestinian children under 5 has reached 19.7 percent, while anemia rates of non-pregnant Palestinian women of childbearing age are 10.8 percent.

(d) A market survey reveals shortages of high protein foods in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 52 percent of wholesalers and 48.3 percent of retailers reported a shortage of infant formula. Survey respondents indicated that shortages in Gaza were primarily due to border closures that seal the Gaza Strip off from Egypt, Israel and the West Bank. In the West Bank, survey respondents said food shortages were caused by a combination of road closures, checkpoints, curfews and conflict.

(e) The second survey, a Sentinel Surveillance System, assesses the ability of families to purchase food. More than half the Palestinian population surveyed reported having to decrease food consumption; the primary reasons cited were lack of money (65 percent) and curfews (33 percent). 53 percent of households said they had to borrow money to purchase food and roughly 17 percent of households had to sell assets to buy food. Thirty-two percent of all households reported buying less staple food.

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