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

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Since the military offensive on Rafah began, nearly 640,000 people have been displaced. Many of those who fled have sought safety in Deir al Balah, which is extremely overcrowded. Conditions there are dire.

OCHA says the ongoing influx of displaced people from Rafah into Deir al Balah – as well as Khan Younis – continues to strain an already-overstretched response.

Humanitarian partners working on getting food to people in Gaza report that only five bakeries remain operational in all of Gaza – four in Gaza city and one in Deir al Balah. Nearly a dozen others have ceased operations due to fuel and supply shortages, amid ongoing hostilities.

These conditions have forced partners to conduct small-scale distributions with limited stocks, providing reduced rations and prioritizing Khan Younis and Deir al Balah governorates, where hundreds of thousands people displaced from Rafah have arrived over the past 10 days.

That ongoing displacement from Rafah to Khan Younis has exacerbated the water and sanitation crisis, with sewage overflow and solid waste spreading across roads, displacement camps, and the rubble of destroyed homes – with a catastrophic impact on health.

Humanitarian partners working to ensure that people in Gaza have adequate shelter report that there are no remaining stocks of shelter materials inside Gaza.

Meanwhile, aid organizations working on the health response say the movement of emergency medical teams in Gaza is highly constrained due to growing insecurity and access challenges.

Ukraine

Denise Brown, Ukraine's Humanitarian Coordinator, yesterday condemned new attacks that continue to devastate people’s lives across the country.

Yesterday, in the city of Kherson, in the south of Ukraine, dozens of civilians, including two children, were injured in the strikes.  

Meanwhile, attacks also continued in the east, in Kharkiv region, forcing thousands of people to flee, leaving everything behind. 

The humanitarian community is supporting people in Kharkiv. In coordination with the authorities, aid organizations have provided accommodation and supplies, and are exploring additional options should the number of displaced people continue to increase.

Haiti

Haiti's Humanitarian Coordinator Ulrika Richardson has called for greater protection and assistance for people living in areas affected by the ongoing violence.

Richardson said it is simply unacceptable that people who simply are going about their daily lives and children playing outside and going to school are targeted. Schools and hospitals are being looted and destroyed.

Some 360,000 people are displaced, the majority of them women and children, including more than 160,000 people in Port-au-Prince.

Many families have been displaced multiple times and the recent coordinated attacks on the neighborhoods of Delmas and Gressier on 25 April displaced another 10,000 people.