International Organization for Migration (IOM) Situation Report # 21 on the Regional Response to the Crisis in Occupied Palestinian Territory

21 March 2024

Highlights

• On 18 March, the Israeli military launched an operation against Gaza’s largest hospital facility, Al-Shifa, where thousands of people were sheltering. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that “hospitals should never be battlegrounds” and to be “terribly worried” about the situation.
• “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring horrifying levels of hunger and suffering”, said UN Secretary General António Guterres outside the Security Council in New York, describing the IPC report as an “appalling indictment of conditions on the ground for civilians”. “This is the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded by the Integrated Food Security Classification system – anywhere.”
• Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was denied entry to the Gaza Strip by Israeli authorities who claim that proper procedures had not been followed.
• On 21 March, the United States submitted a UN resolution before the Security Council that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the return of hostages held by Hamas.
• On 20 March, Israeli diplomats released several statements preemptively rejecting the findings of two inquiries on the role of the UNRWA in the 7 October Hamas attacks on the same the day that the interim findings were submitted to the UN SG António Guterres.