Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, Haiti

A woman and a man sit amid ruins in Dnipro, Ukraine.

A mother and son amid the ruins of what was once their home, and other damaged houses in Dnipro, Ukraine. Humanitarians are on-site, offering hot meals and emergency shelter to the affected families. Photo: OCHA/Nelia Zablotska.

Occupied Palestinian Territory

In Gaza, the ongoing hostilities, the destruction of roads, and the prevalence of unexploded ordnance continue to pose significant risks for humanitarian workers. These challenges are preventing aid supplies from physically moving inside Gaza.

This is in addition to fuel supply constraints, delays and insecurity at the checkpoint on the coastal road, restrictions on telecommunications equipment, and an insufficient number of drivers and trucks cleared by Israel to use the fence road.

Since the beginning of the war, most trucks used for transporting aid have been damaged or destroyed. The fleet available within Gaza is extremely limited. Over the past two days, 15 trucks purchased by the UN to increase aid delivery were transferred to Gaza. The purchase and shipment of those trucks is being funded by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Humanitarian Fund, at a cost of about US$3.5 million.

Meanwhile, OCHA has received information that some 270,000 tons of solid waste have accumulated across the Gaza Strip; that is according to the Union of Gaza Strip Municipalities. This is creating an environmental and public health catastrophe. The destruction of waste management facilities and medical waste disposal centres has severely hampered the collection and disposal of solid waste by municipalities.

Ukraine

The Humanitarian Coordinator in the Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned deadly strikes in the city and region of Dnipro earlier today.

Local authorities and aid workers on the ground said the attacks killed and injured civilians – including children – and damaged civilian buildings and infrastructure. The cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih – with a combined population of more than 1.5 million people – and several other locations across the region were reportedly hit.

Aid workers are on site in Dnipro City, complementing the efforts of rescue services and first responders. Humanitarian organizations are providing hot meals for affected people and rescue workers, as well as emergency shelter kits to repair the damage.

Meanwhile, ongoing hostilities today and yesterday in the front-line Donetsk Region, in eastern Ukraine, reportedly killed and injured a dozen civilians and damaged homes and civilian infrastructure, according to local authorities.

Haiti

In Haiti, UN humanitarian efforts continue to reach displaced communities with food, health, and other life-saving assistance.

UNICEF and its partners continue to deploy mobile clinics to provide consultations, medical treatments and other health care to children and families at displacement sites. Haiti’s social services are on the brink of collapse amid persistent violence in the capital Port-au-Prince, and medical supplies are alarmingly scarce.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports that the availability of essential commodities – such as oil, rice and wheat flour – is declining in the capital. This is mainly due to supply difficulties and increased demand, as households anticipate a worsening of the security crisis. Meanwhile, the cost of a food basket in Port-au-Prince has increased by more than 20 per cent since the start of the year – and within just the past two weeks, the price of sugar has shot up by nearly three-quarters.

For its part, WFP continues to support families in need of food assistance, with some 13,000 people reached with hot meals in the capital yesterday. The agency also provided more than 215,000 children with school lunches, and about 6,000 people in Cap-Haitien, in the north, with food rations.