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

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Bombardments and fighting continue in most of Gaza, as well as the firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel.

Yesterday, on 3 January, for the second day in a row, the vicinity of Al Amal hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Khan Younis was bombed multiple times throughout the day. Many displaced families who had been sheltering in the building and in the Red Crescent headquarters attempted to evacuate as a result of the bombing on 2 January.

Our food security partners continue to provide support, but the operating environment and response capacity continue to be hindered by security risks, mobility constraints, delays and denials. Despite these challenges, between 28 and 31 December, the World Food Programme conducted a large-scale distribution of food to some 10,000 households in make-shift camps and an additional 26,000 displaced people through distribution sites in Rafah. Hot meals were also provided to 57,000 people in Rafah, Deir al Balah and Gaza City.

Yesterday, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East or UNRWA announced it will carry out a rapid response plan – together with UNICEF, WHO and other partners – to deliver more than 960,000 doses of key vaccines into the Gaza Strip to protect against diseases such as measles, pneumonia and polio.

Humanitarian workers need safe, sustained and unhindered access now to deliver urgently needed life-saving assistance.

Ukraine

Attacks and hostilities have continued across the country over the past 24 hours. 

This morning, according to our humanitarian partners on the ground, most of the city of Kropyvnytskyi, in the centre of the country, was left temporarily without water and electricity after strikes. Attacks also damaged homes and schools, killing and injuring civilians in the Sumy Region in the north, in the Donetsk Region in the east, and in Kherson and Mykolayiv Regions in the south.

In total, since 29 December, at least ten health facilities and eight schools have been damaged in Ukraine, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization. The UN Human Rights Office in Ukraine verified that 90 civilians, including 2 children, have been killed, and 421 injured across 12 of Ukraine’s 24 regions.

We, along with our humanitarian partners, are helping people impacted by these attacks. In Kharkiv, humanitarian organizations are working with volunteer groups and covered more than 30 per cent of 1,500 windows damaged in the city over the past days. In the Sumy Region, humanitarian workers rapidly responded following an attack in the evening of 1 January, which damaged a two-story apartment building. They provided sheets of tarpaulin for the rapid repair of homes and psychological support to people directly impacted by the attack.

Sudan

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, warns that nearly nine months of war have tipped the country into a downward spiral that only grows more ruinous by the day. 

In a statement issued this morning, Mr. Griffiths said that in 2024, the international community – particularly those with influence on the parties to the conflict in Sudan – must take decisive and immediate action to stop the fighting and safeguard humanitarian operations meant to help millions of civilians. 

Across Sudan, nearly 25 million people will need humanitarian assistance this year – but escalating hostilities are putting most of them beyond our reach. 

Mr. Griffiths called on the parties to the conflict to protect civilians, facilitate humanitarian access and stop the fighting immediately.