Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Gaza has reached another grim milestone, with 40,000 Palestinian lives lost—mostly women and children—since last October, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

OCHA says that grieving families have no time to mourn, as they are themselves facing death, pain, hunger, and thirst on a daily basis.  Each day has been described as being a struggle to simply survive.

Hostilities and recurrent evacuations orders are driving seemingly endless cycle of displacement – and making it increasingly difficult for people to access the humanitarian assistance they need to survive after 10 months of war.

Our teams were able to access two sites in Khan Younis today.

In addition to the difficulties to go to the markets, the lack of food and high prices, families explained to our colleagues that due to the absence of cleaning and hygiene products, they are getting skin infections, particularly affecting their children.

They had to make their own shelter with whatever fabric, pieces of wood, carton they found. Children are attacked by rodents and insects at night due to poor shelter conditions. And yet they might to leave again and start it over again. 

Syria

Syria's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Adam Abdelmoula, and the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, Ramanathan Balakrishnan, issued a statement yesterday voicing deep concern over recent violence in the governorates of Deir-ez-Zor and Al-Hasakeh, in the north-east of the country, and its impact on the already serious humanitarian situation there.

Since 6 August, violence in Deir-ez-Zor has led to at least 25 civilian deaths, with several hundred people having been displaced.

The closure of all crossings along the Euphrates River in Deir-ez-Zor, along with the fighting, have restricted access to healthcare, water and food, driving up already-high prices.

Meanwhile in Al-Hasakeh Governorate, restrictions on movement in some parts of the Governorate have disrupted access to water and food services which benefit over 100,000 people, though there have been recent encouraging reports of renewed access there.

Mr. Abdelmoula and Mr. Balakrishnan called on all parties to take every measure to protect civilians, civilian infrastructure, and humanitarian operations, and to ensure immediate, safe, unimpeded, and sustained humanitarian access must be ensured for all those in need throughout Syria.

This also comes as the humanitarian response in Syria remains severely underfunded. Less than a quarter – or US$983 million - of the $4.1 appeal for 2024 has been received.