UNRWA
EMERGENCY APPEAL 2005
PROGRESS REPORT
Twenty-sixth progress report – January-March 2005
EMERGENCY APPEAL 2004
Background
On 15th January, Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in as the new President of the Palestinian Authority. The elections went smoothly with Palestinians, Israelis and international observers declaring their satisfaction with the proceedings. Later, on 27 January, Palestinian voters in 10 localities took part in the first-ever municipal elections in the Gaza Strip following a round of municipal elections in West Bank communities in December.
Positive political developments continued in February when President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met at Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt and stated their intentions to try to end the more than four years of violence. That same month, on 20 February, the Israeli Cabinet approved Mr. Sharon’s disengagement plan, which includes the dismantling of all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank and withdrawal of their inhabitants as well as all Israeli security forces. March followed the same pacific trend. There were none of the large-scale military incursions that had characterized the latter half of 2004. Israel handed back security control over Jericho and Tulkarem to the PA, on 16 and 22 March respectively. The two were the first of five West Bank towns (the other being Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Ramallah) that were agreed be handed back to PA control, according to understandings reached at the Sharm al-Sheikh summit.
Overall the trend in violence is downward. Starting from a high point of clashes in October 2004 when 190 Palestinians were killed and over 700 injured, the March total shows a major improvement in the security situation for Palestinians with 3 persons killed and 68 injured. Overall in the first quarter 88 Palestinians were killed and 274 injured representing a marked reduction in armed activity during the quarter. In the same period 15 Israelis were killed and 143 injured.
Amongst those Palestinian killed in Gaza were two UNRWA school children and one teacher. On 31st January, Israeli soldiers in an observation post located at the border fence with Egypt fired shots towards Rafah as pupils in the afternoon shift of UNRWA’s Rafah Elementary Co-ed B. School were lining up in the schoolyard to enter their classrooms. Noran Iyad Dib, 10, a fifth grade pupil, was shot in the head and seriously wounded. She was pronounced dead on arrival at Najjar hospital. Another girl, Aysha Issam El Khatib, eight, from the second grade, was shot and injured in the hand in the same incident. A further four pupils were injured during the reporting period.
Israel stated that it was ending "offensive operations" in those parts of Gaza where Palestinian police were deployed, mainly around military bases, checkpoints opposite roads leading to settlements and along the so-called “Philadelphi Corridor” along the Egyptian border. In practice, there was also a halt to the house demolitions which had been such a marked feature of the previous year, although no official statement came from the Government of Israel of a change in policy. Thus, the total number of refugee shelters demolished or damaged beyond repair since October 2000 remained unchanged: 2,521 shelters, accommodating 4,337 families (24,151 persons).
Throughout the West Bank, increased tension was reported at the beginning and at the end of the quarter, with significant numbers of live-fire incidents, unarmed confrontations and an increase in the number of incidents involving Jewish settlers. A large number of the latter incidents related to the construction of the wall/fence, mainly around the Jerusalem area.
On the same day the Israeli Cabinet approved the disengagement plan, a revised route for the “West Bank Barrier” was also passed by the Government. The new route runs closer to the Green Line in some places and incorporates two percent less West Bank land than the previous ly planned route. Once completed, the new route will be 670 kilometres long, compared to 622 kilometres for the prior route. Including the Ma’ale Adumim and Ari’el/Emmanuel settlements, approximately 35,660 dunums (3,566 hectares) – about 10.1% of West Bank land, including East Jerusalem – will lie between the Barrier and the Green Line,. Approximately, 49,400 West Bank-resident Palestinians and more than 170,000 Israeli settlers will be located between the Barrier and the Green Line , in what is being termed the “seam zone” by Israel. The latter number constitutes 76% of the West Bank Israeli settler population, an increase of 21% compared to the previous plan.
UNRWA’s West Bank Field Office has been monitoring the rapid pace of wall/fence development around Jerusalem. In particular, it has been concerned about the implications for the Palestinian population and for UNRWA operations, including the movement of goods and staff. On present evidence, the Israeli disengagement from Gaza thus seems to indicate that consequently the Government of Israel will focus on consolidating its presence in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank. While contributing to the post disengagement recovery planning, the Field is also of the opinion that humanitarian needs will continue well into the medium term.
As the access regime in the West Bank tightened with the progression of the construction of the wall/fence, restrictions on movement through the Erez Checkpoint eased for Gazans. There was a progressive rise in the number of workers and merchants entering Israel and Erez Industrial zone over the course of March. During the first half of the month, the number of workers entering Israel rarely exceeded 1,100 daily. However, although movement into Israel was closed between 23 and 27 March to coincide with the Jewish Purim holiday, by the end of March the figure had risen to over 3,700. The number of workers allowed to enter the Erez industrial zone also increased during the same period but at a slower rate. Over 600 persons a day were working there at the end of March.
Whilst these positive signs were welcomed by the Agency, they did little to address the cumulative legacy of four years of economic repression. A survey on the impact of Israeli security measures on Palestinian households, published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in February, noted the following:
· the median monthly income in the occupied Palestinian territory decreased from NIS 2,500 before September 2000 to NIS 1,500 at the end of 2004;
· 58.2% of households had reduced their expenditure on basic needs;
· 67.5% of households reported that they needed assistance, in which the need for food was the top priority (while sufficient food was available in markets, it was often out of reach of needy families, either physically because of closures or else in financial terms, due to poverty) ;
· 53.6% of households faced problems of access to essential health services
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By the end of March 2005, UNRWA had received only 53% percent of its total requirements as set out in its Emergency Appeals for 2004 and only 35% of its total requirements set out in the current Emergency Appeal, for this year. Of the $62.4 million pledged against the 2005 Appeal as of 31st March, $32.6 million had been earmarked by donors for housing reconstruction in Gaza; leaving very little to run other essential activities. Due to late pledges in the last weeks of 2004 and special factors such as the knock-on effect of the strike of West Bank area staff, the Agency was buffered against the worst effects of this situation. However, as the first quarter drew to a close, UNRWA was again forced to reprogramme its emergency assistance in both West Bank and Gaza. It appeared as if, without ceasing other core emergency activities, sufficient funds would not be available to pre-position food supplies in advance of Gaza disengagement, when the Agency anticipates a “lock-down” of certain areas for up to two months. |
Emergency Employment Creation
Objective: Contain and mitigate the socio-economic crisis facing the refugee population through temporary job creation using both direct hire (where UNRWA both funds and directs the programme of work) and indirect hire (where UNRWA funds and supervises activities implemented through community organisations). The maintenance of UNRWA's own service levels and infrastructure is a positive by-product of the temporary job creation programme
a. Direct hire
UNRWA offers temporary employment in a wide range of professional, technical, programme support positions in connection with its regular and emergency programmes, including teachers in its schools, medical professionals in its health centres, engineers on project sites, and administrative and clerical workers in its field offices and headquarters. Unskilled workers are also engaged. Between January and March, UNRWA offered 7,850 temporary employment contracts, 1,238 in the West Bank and 6,612 in the Gaza Strip. Participating employees supported 55,605 dependants. Contracts typically run for up to three months, but in the professions, where incumbents are required to be familiar with Agency procedures and where continuity is desirable, contracts are often longer. Together, these temporary employees worked 500,388 days.
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Since UNRWA launched its emergency programme in late 2000, over 5 million work days have been generated under the Direct Hire Programme. Beneficiaries tell UNRWA that this programme enhances their self-esteem, while the wages they earn ensure they can meet the basic needs of their families. Surveys of Palestinian views of the assistance which they would prefer to receive have consistently shown employment to be the most in demand form of assistance. In the latest IUED Palestinian Public Perceptions Report, 47% of those surveys placed employment assistance as the most valuable for their households and a further 13% placed employment as the second highest priority. |
b. Indirect Hire
A total of 14,703 work days were generated through UNRWA’s indirect hire projects under the Emergency Appeal in the first quarter of the year. In total, 1,650 days of labour were generated in the West Bank, and 13,053 days in the Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, indirect hire projects continued to contribute to development of the Agency’s infrastructure through work on priority projects.
Construction projects completed during the period included:
· Camp No. 1 Girls School: six additional classrooms and two specialised rooms;
· Field Office Pharmacy: annex building;
· Microcredit and Microfinance Programme and Relief and Social Services Departments, West Bank Field Office: three additional offices1.
Two projects are still under implementation:
In the Gaza Strip, indirect hire funded the following activities:
In line with the change in the Agency’s policy on employment programming towards smaller scale infrastructural works, no new major construction project was started during the reporting period.
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1 The project is co-funded (Emergency Appeal and General Fund). Out of a total contract amount of US$157,299, US$ 24,000 has been provided by the EA.
2 Works at Ghor El Far’a school were suspended in February 2004 by the Israeli Civil Administration, on the grounds that no construction permit had been obtained. The dispute was successively resolved and project activities were resumed in March 2005.
Emergency Food Aid
Objective: To combat malnutrition and micro-nutrient deficiencies and counteract the problems of physical and economic access to food by providing food security nets comprising a basket of six basic commodities that are either not produced locally or else are not available in local markets at an affordable cost. An important side benefit of the Programme is that it frees up scarce household funds for other essential needs.
UNRWA provides emergency food aid to households in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), supplying staple commodities that contribute to nutritional security, including flour, rice, chick peas, sugar and oil. The provision of these goods does not affect the local market or negatively affect local farm production. While maintaining the same objective, the programme is implemented differently between the two UNRWA Fields of operation in Gaza and the West Bank due to social and demographic differences, as well as the different access regimes being applied by the Israeli army in the two areas.
A total of 203,596 families received food parcels during the reporting period (127,871 in the Gaza Strip and in 75,725 the West Bank) benefiting over 1,000,000 individuals. A total of 25,650 tons of food were distributed. In the West Bank, UNRWA has been working closely with the NGO Children International who provided tinned food itenms which UNRWA distributed through an additional 872 food parcels to families in restricted areas in the North and South.
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The Agency has now distributed more than 4.5 million food parcels since the first Emergency Appeal was launched in late 2000. In consequence, malnutrition, resulting in the stunting of children’s growth and other health problems, has been minimized or kept at bay. |
Emergency Relief and Social Assistance
Objective: To enable the most vulnerable families most affected by the crisis to meet urgent or priority needs
Selective cash assistance on a small scale is provided to households in crisis, as a result, for example, of the death or injury of a principal breadwinner or the destruction of their home. Grants enable families to buy basic items such as food or meet urgent utility or school expenses.
UNRWA's cash assistance programme benefited 11,562 families (3,037 in West Bank and 8,525 families in the Gaza Strip or 82,654 individuals in total) between January and March. Most of these grants were given to households that have not had any regular source of income for many months. Cash assistance was also provided to those families requiring relocation due to home demolition.
UNRWA also provides in-kind assistance to families who have lost their homes or have been forced to relocate as a result of military activity or in the case of accidents or flooding. A total of 634 families benefited from in-kind assistance in the form of essential household goods during the reporting period: 243 in the West Bank and 9 in the Gaza Strip
UNRWA provides physiotherapy and home visits for those refugees injured during the conflict. The Agency also covers the cost of prosthetics and home adaptations for those who have incurred emergency-related injuries.
A total of 735 home visits were made between January and March. During this period, the Agency provided funds for 75 prosthetic devices to patients with injuries resulting from clashes in the West Bank. Fourteen houses were adapted to the needs of disabled people, while occupational therapists worked with 104 disabled persons to teach them how to look after their daily needs unassisted, and learning to adjust to new prosthetic devices. In the Gaza Strip, the Agency assisted 107 cases with post-injury care, of whom 21 received counselling and a further 86 received one-time cash payments. equivalent to US$270 to provide assistance with their care.
Emergency Shelter-Repair and Reconstruction
Objective: Meeting the housing needs of families made homeless and repairing damage caused to shelters, community infrastructure and UNRWA installations.
UNRWA provides assistance to families made homeless by repairing or rebuilding shelters, as required, depending on the scale of damage and the families’ personal situation. In some cases, UNRWA assists the families with cash grants paid in instalments, allowing the families to carry out the work on a self-help basis, with technical advice and supervision provided by the Agency's engineers. In others, work is undertaken by contracting companies under the supervision of Agency engineers.
The first quarter of 2005 saw a halt to Israeli army demolition activity in the Gaza Strip with no homes reported demolished or significantly damaged. By way of comparison, in the same quarter in 2004 the Israeli army destroyed 183 homes of which 117 belonged to refugees. Likewise in the West Bank, 37 buildings demolished.
Re-housing and Repair in Gaza
During the reporting period, UNRWA handed over 122 new homes to 135 Palestinian families from Rafah refugee camp whose homes were destroyed by the Israeli military during the last four years. The 122 buildings will house almost 700 people. They form part of a five-phase project that will eventually provide 431 new homes. The total cost of this part of the project, including the infrastructure work, is approximately US $2.3 million. In the Gaza Strip, so far 903 shelters have either been rebuilt or else are at the planning and tendering stage.
Work progressed during the quarter on four rehousing projects in the Gaza Strip as follows:
· 17 Dwelling Units in Gaza City (project 85% completed).
· 16 Dwelling Units in Jabalia Camp (project 45% completed).
· 19 Dwelling Units in Beit Hanoun (project 55% completed).
· 109 Dwelling Units in Rafah Re-housing Project Phase 5 (project 60% completed).
Donors have pledged over $32 million towards rehousing in Gaza in 2005 for those who have had their homes destroyed. Due to delays the Agency has faced in accessing land for rehousing purposes, a total of 2,607 refugee families whose shelters were demolished or damaged beyond repair have not yet been re-housed. Committing these funds awaits the official hand-over of a land of Rafah by the Palestinian Land Authority to UNRWA and UNDP for re-housing of both refugees and non-refugees, in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the three parties.
Re-Housing and Repair in the West Bank
A total of eight shelters that had suffered major damage were repaired during the reporting period. Earmarked donor funds were received to rebuild homes for a further families, for which work is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2005.
Health
Objective: Meet the additional burden on the healthcare system and facilitate access to health services in locations affected by closures and the wall/fence in the West Bank.
The Israeli military occupation of major West Bank cities has resulted in serious access restrictions for refugees and other Palestinians, and has been the main source of problems in the Agency’s provision of emergency healthcare.
Five mobile health teams3 continued to render services to the refugee and nonrefugee population prevented from reaching UNRWA health care facilities in the West Bank by checkpoints and other movement restrictions. They offered a range of services on communicable and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, anaemia, osteo-arthritis, parasitic infections, infectious diseases as well as providing first aid to traumatised intifada-related patients. The mobile health teams conducted 342 visits to isolated and remote communities where 34,163 patients were treated.
In the Gaza Strip, 105 additional temporary staff posts were maintained in UNRWA’s health facilities during the quarter through UNRWA’s Job Creation Programme and Graduate Training Programme. These included medical officers, dental hygienists, dentists, staff nurses, technical staff and cleaners.
Operational Support
The OSO programme provides a direct support role to maintain UNRWA emergency assistance operations during IDF operations and incursions.
In the Gaza Strip, OSOs routinely provided support for Agency operations inside the so-called “Security Zones”, Palestinian areas located near Israeli settlements, lateral settler roads and other Israeli installations. This includes support to the small number of refugees living inside the three ’closed areas’ of Siafa, Al Mawasi and Muhata. The necessity of coordinating movements of UNRWA vehicles and staff in these areas with the IDF requires the presence of international staff from the OSO programme. Through the presence of international staff, area staff members are provided some degree of passive support and protection. The support is requested for a wide range of operations, mainly repairs of damage caused by gunfire at UNRWA installations located within range of Israeli positions, and support for social workers and technical staff conducting assessments of damage and destruction of Palestinian homes in the immediate vicinity of Israeli installations.
The OSO programme has conducted detailed investigations into incidents where UNRWA installations were damaged as a result of Israeli military operations and gunfire. In addition, OSOs conducted investigations into incidents where UNRWA staff or students attending Agency schools were killed or wounded as a result of gunfire. The OSOs reports are used to determine liabilities for the damages and injuries. Protest letters are regularly addressed by the Fields’ Legal Offices to relevant authorities.
OSOs routinely conduct unannounced inspections and visit UNRWA installations to monitor the neutrality of premises. During the reporting period, OSOs conducted 61 spot inspections, reporting on the status of maintenance, fire/safety issues and security related issues.
In the West Bank, monitoring continued to focus on the humanitarian impact of the West Bank barrier in the Qalqilya, Tulkarem and Jenin districts. Approximately 200,000 people have so far been affected by the first phase of the construction of the barrier, having lost land, water and agricultural resources as a consequence of the erection of the barrier or else have experienced problems in accessing essential resources and services because of highly restrictive gate schedules and permit requirements. Monitoring also focused on the second phase of building of the barrier in the Salfit area and the western villages, as well as around Jerusalem. In the Hebron area OSO teams monitored land confiscations and the bulldozing of agricultural land owned by Palestinians in preparation for its construction.
OSOs update profiles and case studies on priority locations, especially the enclaves isolated between the barrier and the Green Line. The profiles concentrate on key access, health, education and socio-economic issues, as well as highlighting the problems particular to each enclave. The accompanying case studies illustrated the human cost of the impact of the wall/fence. The UNRWA website features reports, profiles and case studies which illustrate the increasing difficulties created by the barrier, for refugees and non-refugees alike: http://www.un.org/unrwa/ emergency/barrier/index.html.
OSOs routinely exchange information and reporting with Field Coordination Units at UN OCHA.
Obstacles Encountered
Karni terminal closed on 13 January after a bomb attack that killed six people. The terminal remained closed until 7 February. A total of 339 empty containers which the IDF had allowed to enter the Gaza Strip through the Sofa crossing were stuck at Rafah awaiting approval from the IDF for them to be taken out. However, on 7 February, Karni re-opened and three weeks later a new agreement was struck with the terminal management and IDF Southern Command – covering the entry of all goods through Sofa and all exits through Karni. The equivalent of 20 twenty-foot containers (TEUs) were to be allowed in through Sofa five days a week, Sunday-Thursday, while 40 TEUs were to be allowed to exit through Karni four days a week, from Monday-Thursday.
March saw great improvement in the throughput of containers entering and exiting Gaza. During the month the turnover of TEUs reached 436 entries and 678 exits – a remarkable increase compared to previous months. Unfortunately, the improved arrangements ended only a month later, on 28 March, when the IDF decided to close Sofa for further container entries. All goods operations reverted to the Karni terminal.
At the end of March, there were still 124 empty TEUs stuck inside Gaza, while some 500 TEUs were waiting on the docks at Ashdod port, to be brought into Gaza. Because of the continuing bottlenecks and delays, in the period from March 2004 to March 2005 the Agency incurred some US$4.5 million in extra storage, demurrage and transport costs. At one point during the quarter these additional costs were accumulating at the rate of US$37,000 a day.
In Gaza access for both local and international staff improved markedly during the quarter compared to the previous. UN international staff without diplomatic passports may now enter and leave the Gaza Strip given prior coordination with the Israeli Army 24 hours in advance and waiting times have also been reduced. "Senior" National Staff who are Gaza residents or East Jerusalem residents have been allowed to cross Erez in vehicles from 20 Feb 05. A permit system is in place whereby staff have to apply for three month permits and then provide 48 hours notice of each intended crossing which must be personally approved by the Brigade Commander of North Gaza
In the West Bank, the number of access problems at checkpoints manned by Israeli Army and Border Police affecting UNRWA staff members remained stable during the first two months before increasing again during March: Thirty five access problems were reported to the Operations Office in January; 31 in February; and 59 in March. The following are examples of the type of routine obstacles which the Agency faces in the delivery of its services:
There was however a significant improvement in permit approvals for West Bank staff to enter Jerusalem. At the end of the reporting period, 397 out of 476 Agency employees working in West Bank Field, 86 percent of those in need, held valid entry permits, compared to 54.9 percent at the end of the previous quarter. The percentage of staff provided with permits increased substantially in March, after reaching 64 percent in January. It is hoped that this positive trend will be maintained and improve still further. Work at the Field Office has been severely hampered recently by the prolonged absence of staff. The number of staff refused permits on “security” grounds likewise declined sharply: from 93 in January; to 91 in February; and 46 in March.
Annexes:
A. UNRWA Emergency Fact Sheet
B. Spreadsheets: pledges and contributions received, all appeals, as of 30 June 2004.
C. Spreadsheets: expenditure report, 2003 Emergency Appeal; Combined expenditure
report, earlier appeals.
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3 This programme does not run in the Gaza Strip due to its smaller geographical size and the higher concentration of camp-based refugees who are thus better able to access services locally.
Document Sources: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
Subject: Assistance, Humanitarian relief, Situation in the OPT including Jerusalem
Publication Date: 31/03/2005