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

WFP Emergency Report No. 7 of 2004

This report includes:

A) Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe: (1) Afghanistan, (2) Iran, (3) Palestinian Territories

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A) Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe: (1) Afghanistan, (2) Iran, (3) Palestinian Territories

3) Palestinian Territories 

(a) The Israeli Defense Forces carried out extensive and heavy-handed incursions in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip throughout the month of January. A suicide attack in Jerusalem killed 10 bystanders. The incursions in Nablus, Jericho and Rafah have caused a series of house demolitions and land leveling, with the highest level of destruction occurring in Rafah. 72 houses were demolished, rendering 584 people homeless. As a result of ongoing incursions; many Palestinians have become extremely vulnerable. WFP has provided emergency assistance to the victims of house demolitions, despite the tense political climate surrounding the operations.

(b) The works for the West Bank Separation Wall have continued relentlessly in Ramallah, Salfit, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. The total length has now reached 175 km, adversely impacting the livelihoods of thousands of families that are now isolated from their lands and are denied access to employment opportunities and social services. A slight improvement in the closure situation has been registered in the West Bank towards the end of the month.

(c) A total quantity of some 4013 tons of mixed commodities consisting of wheat flour, sugar oil and lentils were distributed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to 236,220 beneficiaries during the month of December.

West Bank 

(a) As a consequence of the incursions into Nablus, WFP started its urban food distribution program with the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs in Nablus city ahead of time. Extensive coordination meetings took place with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to coordinate food distribution in Hebron H2 area, including cross checking of the list of beneficiaries to avoid duplication. These coordination meetings are part of a larger handover process of ICRC's beneficiaries of relief assistance into WFP's caseload.

(b) Coordination meetings with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Palestinian Agriculture Relief Committees (PARC) and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) took place to plan for the second phase of the EMOP 10190.1. A Letter of Understanding (LoU) was signed with PARC to assist 165, 000 beneficiaries from the "New Poor" category. WFP is planning alongside with the Ministry of Social Affairs to cover the food needs of 80,000 Hardship Social Cases in urban and rural areas of the West Bank, and 42,000 New Poor in the nine major urban West Bank centers. The needs of another 102,000 beneficiaries will be covered by CRS. As of February the West Bank programme will reach 390,000 beneficiaries; 42,000 of these will participate in FFW/FFT activities, receiving a regular monthly family ration.

(c) An ECHO delegation from Brussels visited the "Separation Wall" project in Qalqiliya.

Gaza Strip 

(a) Ard El-Insan (AEI) has completed its second round of distribution to malnourished children and their families (4766) through their 5 warehouses in Gaza Strip. The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Directorate of Fisheries (DOF) has completed its second round of distribution to 1470 fishermen.

(b) CRIC (an Italian NGO) has completed the first round of distribution to Bedouins in 4 locations in Gaza Strip through their own warehouses. The second and last round of one month food ration have been distributed to 185 women through Ministry of Agriculture for attending FFT/FFW activities targeting rural poor women in Gaza Strip. FFW and FFT activities by WFP implementing partners; Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Fisheries and CRIC have been implemented as planned and monitored by WFP staff on a regular basis.

(c) On 19 January 2004, WFP organized a field trip south of Gaza for 12 members of the diplomatic corps from European countries, based in Jerusalem, and on 21 January 2004, WFP received a delegation from ECHO.

(d) The Coping Strategy Index Baseline Report was finalized in January. The study includes an overview of WFP's EMOP broken down by socio-economic profile, geographical area and gender. A detailed explanation of the methodology is provided, inclusive of the description of the field operations, formats and indicators in use. A comparison between rural and urban areas, inter and intra governorate, as well as Gaza/West Bank is offered, as well as a qualitative analysis and ranking of the most relevant coping strategies that are used by WFP beneficiary households.

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