<\/p>\n
8 February 2024<\/p>\n
occupied Palestinian territory, Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Since Ayla was born in early October 2023, her mother\u2019s\u00a0focus has been on keeping her safe and healthy.<\/a>\u00a0But, as the intense bombardment from air, land, and sea continues, it has been difficult to do so.<\/p>\n People are hungry.<\/a>\u00a0Nearly one million people face emergency levels of food insecurity (Phase 4); with a further 378,000 in Phase 5, facing extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities.<\/p>\n People have lost their homes. About 1.7 million people\u00a0\u2013 three-quarters of the population<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 have fled their homes because of the conflict. About 60 per cent of civilian housing has been destroyed as well as other critical infrastructure and essential services like hospitals or clean water supply.<\/p>\n Yasmina had planned to exclusively breastfeed Ayla, but now she herself cannot find enough to eat.<\/p>\n \u201cFinding nutritious food is a daily struggle, and it\u2019s affecting Ayla\u2019s feeding. We can barely find the minimum,\u201d she explained. Yasmina adds that she has to supplement with formula \u2013 which is not always available, and costs over six dollars per box when it is.<\/p>\n The water she and her husband can find isn\u2019t clean, so she boils it \u2013 and Ayla doesn\u2019t like the taste of her formula with this water.<\/p>\n And at night, the sounds of bombing keep her and the baby awake. \u201cIt is terrifying. I hug and shield her with my body, fearing for her safety from breaking glass and collapsing buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n OCHA\u2019s Pooled Funds \u2013 the Central Emergency Response Fund and the oPt Humanitarian Fund \u2013 are helping humanitarian organizations to respond to some of the needs Yasmina and Ayla face, alongside millions like them, while hostilities continue.<\/p>\n Immediate assistance through our local partners<\/em><\/p>\n Since 7 October, the\u00a0occupied Palestinian Territories Humanitarian Fund<\/a>\u00a0has disbursed about $55 million to\u00a0respond to urgent needs in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n The most recent allocation in December allocated some $40 million to urgently help people in Gaza by providing hot meals, water bottles, basic hygiene supplies, and emergency reproductive healthcare.<\/p>\n Non-governmental organization\u00a0Ma\u2019an Development Center<\/a>\u00a0distributed emergency supplies and fresh drinking water. They also delivered winter jackets and blankets, as well as essential supplies like baby wipes and diapers and hygiene supplies for all ages, in parts of Rafah, Khan-Younes, and Middle Areas.<\/p>\n Ma\u2019an also provided affected people sheltering in schools and their homes with drinking water \u2013\u00a0over 2 million liters<\/a>\u00a0in a recent distribution.<\/p>\n Other Humanitarian Fund partners \u2013 Palestinian and international \u2013 continue to provide immediate assistance.<\/p>\n At the same time, the\u00a0Central Emergency Response Fund allocated US $12 million<\/a>\u00a0in October through its Rapid Response mechanism, directing funding for healthcare, food, water, sanitation, and shelter \u2013 aiming to reach about 372,000 people. This funding is helping provide displaced people with ready-to-eat meals, and household supplies. It\u2019s also supporting water service providers with operational and maintenance materials and water trucks, and getting essential medical supplies, fuel, and equipment for Gaza\u2019s battered health system.<\/p>\n For example, with support from CERF and other donors, UNICEF dispatched life-saving medicines and equipment to the Gaza Strip,<\/a>\u00a0including supplies for mothers and newborns, like baby Ayla. And UNICEF is also making sure that children affected by the conflict are getting\u00a0essential routine vaccinations<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Based on\u00a0original stories<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0UNICEF<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 8 February 2024 occupied Palestinian territory, Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0Since Ayla was born in early October 2023, her mother\u2019s\u00a0focus has been on keeping her safe and healthy.\u00a0But, as the intense bombardment from air, land, and sea continues, it has been difficult to do so. People are hungry.\u00a0Nearly one million people face emergency levels of food insecurity (Phase […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[6926],"document-source":[2169,2105],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2033,6650,2005,2533,2029,2273],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-293110","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-stories","document-source-office-for-the-coordination-of-humanitarian-affairs-ocha","document-source-united-nations-childrens-fund-unicef","document-subject-children","document-subject-funding-needs","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-health","document-subject-house-demolitions","document-subject-water","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293122,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293110\/revisions\/293122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=293110"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=293110"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=293110"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=293110"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=293110"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=293110"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=293110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}