Humanitarian situation remains dire in Gaza despite aid surge: UN

Despite continuing aid deliveries and efforts to expand services, UN humanitarians said Tuesday the situation in Gaza remains dire for hundreds of thousands of families in need.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the United Nations and its partners are providing bread to at least 43 percent of the population across the Gaza Strip every day, which is free or sold at a subsidized price of less than $1 per 2 kg bundle.  

OCHA said the bread plan is in addition to the monthly household-level distribution of wheat flour. So far this month, partners have reached 1.2 million people with flour as part of the standard monthly food assistance package.

The office and its humanitarian partners reached more than 7,500 families with tents, tarpaulins, sealing-off kits, mattresses and blankets, and child protection partners delivered winter clothes to some 1,400 children across the strip, OCHA said.

OCHA said that over the weekend, another child died from hypothermia, bringing the total number of child deaths related to the cold weather to 10.

Sustainable solutions are urgently needed to meet the needs of the more than 1 million people requiring shelter support, including toolkits to repair people's homes, materials to create communal heating spaces and equipment to remove debris and rubble to clear land for housing, OCHA said. 

"Since Wednesday, humanitarian partners leading on protection have reached over 2,300 families with cash vouchers and in-kind winterization support," the office said. "They have also provided mental health and psychosocial support and case management assistance to hundreds of people."  

OCHA said global protection partners warned in a report issued on Friday that excessive use of force by Israeli troops has led to exceptionally high rates of death and injury among Palestinian men and boys in the West Bank. The report highlighted the urgent need for a strong, protection-focused response and called for the release of arbitrarily detained Palestinians.