State of Palestine: Humanitarian Situation Report - UNICEF update

Highlights

Tensions are still high in the State of Palestine. A number of assaults were reported on both Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank and Israel. A number of incidents were reported in Gaza including cross border fire and a Palestinian shot dead by IDF.
Heavy rains over 48 hours caused localized flooding in a number of areas in Gaza. Hundreds of people evacuated their homes and UNRWA declared a state of Emergency. The floods disrupted schooling for numerous children.
Two children died as a result of a fire in an apartment in Gaza city. The lack of electricity in Gaza causes fire hazards for children as people have to resort to other means to light and heat their homes.
The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Collective Shelters has reduced to 19,569.
13 new Family Centres have commenced operation bringing the total number to 23. The Family Centres provide core child protection services, psychosocial assessment, ERW risk education and outreach to vulnerable children and families
UNICEF is supporting CMWU's emergency preparedness for the winter by hiring heavy machinery to minimize the risk of flooding.

21 November – 4 December 2014

539 children killed

(Protection Cluster, 4 December 2014)

2,257 total deaths

(Protection Cluster, 4 December 2014)

14,000 children homeless

(OCHA, 4 September 2014)

2,956 children injured

(Protection Cluster, 4 December 2014)

1,500 children orphaned

(Protection Cluster, 1 September 2014)

89 entire families killed

(OCHA, 25 August 2014)

UNICEF Funding Need $39.9 million

UNICEF Funding Gap $31.4 million

Situation Overview

Tensions are still high in the State of Palestine. A number of assaults were reported on both Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank and Israel. A number of incidents were reported in Gaza including cross border fire and a Palestinian was shot dead by IDF. IDF fired at Palestinians approaching the fence and at Palestinian boats. Test rockets where shot at sea from Gaza.
Heavy rains over 48 hours caused localized flooding in Gaza City, Khan Younis, Jabaliya, and Beit Lahiya, 27 and 28 November. The situation was particularly concerning around the Sheikh Radwan storm water lagoon in Gaza City where the pumps could not keep up with the incoming water and hundreds of people evacuated their homes. UNRWA declared a state of Emergency on 27 November but, as the rain eased, the situation improved and the emergency was cancelled on 30 November. The floods affected school attendance for numerous children. MoEHE announced the opening of one governmental school and was ready to open additional schools to IDPs however, IDPs went to a neighbouring UNRWA shelter in the end. In the morning of 27 November, schools in Eastern Gaza, Western Gaza and North Directorates were closed due to flood risks. The attendance rate of students in public schools that morning were at 60 % in Eastern Gaza and 65% for both North and Western Gaza. The attendance in other directorates was not affected. Attendance rate was back to normal on 29 and 30 November. UNICEF staff was on standby ready to dispatch supplies in case of need. UNICEF provided USD20,000 to CMWU for flood preparedness and response.
Two children died in an apartment fire in Gaza city. Electricity in Gaza continues to be in short supply and the lack of electricity in Gaza causes fire hazards for children as people have to resort to other means to light and heat their homes.
The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in 19 Collective Shelters has reduced to 19,569.
Rafah crossing was opened for Palestinians returning to Gaza between 26 and 27 November as well as 30 November and 2 December,
The Protection Cluster has updated the information on children killed and injured as a direct result of the conflict. The number of child fatalities has risen, as one more child with serious injuries died. The number of children injured has diminished due to cleaning up of the data and identification of duplication. At least 539 Palestinian children were reported killed as a result of the hostilities in Gaza between 8 July and 26 August. The child fatalities include 339 boys and 200 girls. 81% of them, or 440 children, were killed during the period of the IDF ground incursion, in the course of 20 days between 17 July and 5 August, this translates to 22 children killed on average per day. At least 2,956 Palestinian children were reported injured or maimed between 8 July and 26 August 2014. In total, a reported 11,100 Palestinians have been injured or maimed, of which children make up 26 per cent. The children injured include 1,938 boys (66%) and 1,018 girls (34%), aged between two days and 17 years. In the course of the 50 days of conflict, on average more than 59 Palestinian children were injured in Gaza every day. During the period of the IDF ground incursion, at least 2,062 children were injured, equal to 69 % of the child injuries. This comes to an average of 103 children per day. Between 8 July and 26 August, one four-year-old Israeli boy was reported killed by mortar shelling from Gaza and during the same period, at least six Israeli children were reportedly gravely injured due to rocket fire from Gaza, including three boys and three girls aged between 3 months and 17 years old.

Summary Analysis of Programme Response

Education and Adolescents

Repairs of 18 schools are underway. Twenty-six schools have already been rehabilitated.
UNICEF in collaboration with WFP and Oxfam, is providing school uniforms and shoes to children most affected by the conflict through an e-voucher programme. 3,932 children have redeemed their school uniforms through e-vouchers thus far in the ongoing programme.
UNICEF with the support of NGO partners, has reached at least 81,638 children, mostly adolescents (51% females) through various types of activities such as recreational, life skills, and stress relief activities to help them build their resilience and cope with the recurrent crises. The activities were conducted in 119 government schools, 21 community-based organizations, and 19 government shelters located in different Gaza districts. During the reporting period, 5,471 children participated in recreational activities.
At least 15,196 adolescents are provided with continuous non-cognitive skills development training including creative and critical thinking, communication, problem solving, team work and more, with the support of UNICEF's partners, TAMER, MAAN, Al Nayzak, Save Youth Future Society and Injaz. The skills development program enables adolescents to conduct initiatives in their communities and act as agents of positive change.
176 Early Childhood Development (ECD) kits were delivered to MoEHE to be distributed to kindergartens in the areas most affected by the conflict. The ECD kits are composed of 40 items. The kit aims to provide a range of activities to encourage the development and social interaction of children (including playing, story-telling and numeracy). Materials are also provided for caregivers as well as water and sanitation items for the improved health and awareness of children.

Child Protection

UNICEF and Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR) reached 6,176 Children with psychosocial support in the reporting period. In total 19,493 children (9,812 girls and 9,681 boys) have received psychosocial support since 15 September.
13 additional Family Centres have started to function bringing the total number to 23. The Family Centres provide core child protection services, psychosocial assessment, ERW risk education and outreach to vulnerable children and families. Ten family centers are currently providing child protection services to 750 children. The 23 centers will provide services to 64,818 children and 18,040 caregivers over the next four months.
A joint assessment conducted by Tamer and UNICEF of displaced families in Khoza'a caravans site have identified more than 100 children in desperate need of proper shelter, warm clothes, child protection services and access to health services. UNICEF will make available tents and winter clothing for the children.
With technical support from UNICEF, the Mental Health Psychosocial Working Group has established a data base to track psychosocial interventions. According to the data base, 716,819 children have been reached by Psychological First Aid and 66,166 children have been reached through structured group and individual counselling activities since the commencement of the hostilities in July. There is likely to be significant double counting of interventions due to an overlap of data in the CPWG tracking system and this one. This will be resolved over the coming weeks.
The UNICEF-led CPWG has documented programme implementation by 67 implementing partners reaching 238,499 children with awareness raising, capacity building, case management, open days and human resource training as at 26 November 2014. These numbers are smaller than previously reported because psychosocial interventions have been removed from this tracking system as the data tracking system for psychosocial interventions is established.
The UNICEF-led Child Protection Working Group (CPWG) has commenced the rollout of case management for the most vulnerable children with 15 child protection officers from three partners trained in the basic concepts of case management.

Water Sanitation and Hygient.

The latest order of spare parts for water and sewage networks as well as generator consumables was delivered to CMWU this week. With previous supplies, these spare parts will help around 400,000 people who currently have interrupted access to the municipal water, to have access to water for domestic purposes for an increased number of hours. The beneficiaries are mainly in Khan Younis, Rafah and Middle area.
UNICEF is supporting CMWU's emergency preparedness for the winter by hiring heavy machinery and equipment on an 'as required' basis, for flood risk mitigation and response.

Child Health & Nutrition

During the reporting period, breastfeeding awareness-raising sessions were conducted for 2,692 mothers by UNICEF-supported MoH Community Health Workers (CHWs). In total 16,127 mothers in shelters and with host families have benefitted to date.
UNICEF is funding the MoH (CHWs) to conduct outreach activities in collective shelters. In the past two weeks, 2,398 women participated in awareness sessions on communicable diseases in collective shelters and with host families. To date 1,710 men, 15,167 women and 3,701 children have participated in the sessions.
MoH and Near East Council of Churches (NECC) provided 274 women with Post Natal care through home visits in the past two weeks. In total 3,229 women with high risk pregnancies have benefitted from home visits in the conflict affected areas of Shujayeh and Rafah.

Humanitarian leadership and coordination

UNICEF, as part of the UN Country Team, coordinates with the Government of National Consensus to support its role in humanitarian response, early recovery and reconstruction.
UNICEF is co-leading a new nutrition sub group together with Ministry of Health (MoH) in both West Bank and in Gaza.
UNICEF in cooperation with the Government and other UN partners has participated extensively in an on-going Palestinian Detailed Needs Assessment and will continue to support the development of the recovery framework and strategy.
UNICEF leads the Child Protection Working Group and affiliated groups for mental health and psychosocial sevices (MHPSS), and for monitoring and reporting of grave violations against children (MRM) (Children and

Funding

Next SitRep: 18December 2014

SóIrún Maria Olafsdóttir, M&E and Gender Specialist, UNICEF, SoP, Jerusalem, Phone: +972 (0)2 584 0410,
mail: smolafsdottir@unicef.org, http://www.unicef.org/oPt/,
https://www.facebook.com/unicefstateofpalestine

State of Palestine: Humanitarian Situation Report – UNICEF update

Subscribe to our mailing list

State of Palestine: Humanitarian Situation Report – UNICEF update

Share This Page, Choose Your Platform!

Subscribe to our mailing list