POVERTY and MALNUTRITION : Conflicting views on the situation in Gaza

GAZA CITY, 5 August 2010 (IRIN) - The quality of life, the economy and food security for Palestinians living in Gaza have been severely impaired by Israel's strict four-year blockade, according to the UN. Israel says its closure regime is designed to protect Israeli citizens from attacks by militants in Gaza. Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza, says Israel's blockade is aimed at undermining its rule. IRIN asked three senior officials in the region - from the UN, the Israeli government and Hamas - what they considered to be the top five humanitarian needs of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Strip. UN view Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA) for the occupied Palestinian territory, defines the situation in Gaza as "a protracted human dignity crisis with important humanitarian elements". Lazzarini says Gaza is a man-made crisis. He uses the term "human dignity crisis" because he says the entire Gaza population is subject to collective punishment under the blockade, is unlawfully contained in Gaza, and denied the right to movement and access. The containment of the population was highlighted when people could not move during Israel's 23-day offensive that ended in January 2009, he says. "A humanitarian crisis is a situation where humanitarian intervention is seen as a life-saving operation," says Lazzarini. "The massive intervention in Gaza - by UN agencies and other international partners - is justified by the humanitarian crisis and to address the needs of the population." The facts and figures indicate that if UN operations stopped, food insecurity and malnutrition rates in Gaza would double, he said. His top five Gaza humanitarian needs are: One: food security The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says 70 percent of Gaza's population is food insecure and 30 percent of Gaza's agricultural land is inaccessible due to the Israeli-controlled buffer-zone, which is inside Gaza along its shared border with Israel, and comprises 15 percent of Gaza's total area. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83757 Two: unemployment and poverty About 80 percent of the Gaza population depends on assistance from UN agencies, while unemployment has soared to 40 percent, says Lazzarini. "In the last two years the number of those living in abject poverty in Gaza has risen from 100,000 to 300,000," he says. Three: shelter Some 86,000 new housing units are needed in Gaza as a result of population growth. A small proportion of these are needed to replace those damaged during military operations, according to UN estimates. If the current Israeli approval procedures to bring construction material into Gaza remain in place, it will take years for the UN to implement its US$165 million-worth of stalled projects, says Lazzarini. [http://www.IRINnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90066] Four: water, sanitation and health care The blockade has seriously affected these sectors in Gaza, says Lazzarini. Five: education "The United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the education ministry cannot cover the needs of the number of children entering the education system in Gaza," says Lazzarini, due to a lack of schools and investment. Hamas view Bassem Na'im, health minister under the Hamas-led government in Gaza, says the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is growing. His top five humanitarian needs are: One: freedom of movement Nai'im would like to see the complete freedom of movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza. "The entry of goods and building materials for all sectors - health, shelter, water and sanitation - is the solution to the whole crisis," says Na'im. Two: health services This would require medicine, medical supplies and equipment to enter Gaza freely, as well as spare parts and building materials for the repair of hospitals and healthcare facilities, according to Na'im. "A hundred medications and over 150 disposable supplies, like needles and syringes, are at zero stock in the ministry's central store," he says. More than 10,000 types of medical equipment, like CT scanners, are in need of spare parts in the 12 hospitals and 56 primary healthcare centres run by the ministry, says Na'im. Three: water and sanitation "Thousands of Gazans lack household water supplies," says Na'im. Four: fuel and electricity supplies Most households have power cuts 8-12 hours per day due to the blockade, according to Na'im. Five: education According to Na'im, the education sector has been hit hard by the blockade due to a lack of supplies, but the full impact will take years to materialize. Rising malnutrition indicators [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84018] - such as increased cases of stunting, wasting and underweight children - are also effecting child development, said Na'im. Israeli view Guy Inbar, spokesperson for the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the (Palestinian) Territories (COGAT) says "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and there never has been, even during Operation Cast Lead [2009 Israeli military operation in Gaza]." "The only crisis in Gaza is the crisis of [captured Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit," said Inbar, adding that Hamas has not enabled the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Shalit. [http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/israel-shalit-interview-230610] Israel recently increased the amount of goods allowed to enter Gaza, said Inbar. "Today [29 July] about 150 trucks enter Gaza daily and next week we expect that number to reach 250," said Inbar, adding that no food or hygiene items were prohibited. According to Inbar, almost all medical supplies are allowed to enter. "Parts for equipment - like X-ray machines, which are included on the two lists [of prohibited items] - are allowed to enter but under control," he said. When IRIN asked Inbar if the civilian population of Gaza would survive if UN operations ceased there, he declined to comment. Inbar said Gaza's problems were due to Hamas.

MALNUTRITION: Gaza food supplies strangled by 1,000-day blockade

RAMALLAH, 30 May 2010 (IRIN) - The amount and quality of food available to the estimated 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip has been severely restricted by more than 1,000 days of a near-complete blockade, states a UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) report. [http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/gaza_agriculture_25_05_2010_fact_sheet_english.pdf] "Sixty-one percent of the Gaza population is food insecure," said Sarah Leppert, FAO's communications adviser for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "There is a diverse range of foods available in Gaza; the problem is people do not have the means to purchase the food due to rising poverty and unemployment, now nearly 39 percent." Israel's import and access restrictions continue to suffocate the agriculture sector in Gaza, directly contributing to rising food insecurity, said acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt), Philippe Lazzarini, in a joint statement with humanitarian aid agencies, and the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), representing more than 80 NGOs [http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/gaza_agriculture_25_05_2010_press_release_english.pdf] on 25 May from Gaza. Protein-rich foods such as meat and poultry are especially difficult for Gazans to afford. Families have resorted to coping mechanisms including borrowing money and relying on aid from humanitarian agencies operating in Gaza, said Leppert. The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned by rising malnutrition indicators - increased cases of stunting, wasting and underweight children - and continuing high rates of anaemia among children and pregnant women. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84018]. A poverty survey conducted by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) shows that the number of Palestine refugees unable to access food and lacking the means to purchase even the most basic items, such as soap, school stationery and safe drinking water, has tripled since the imposition of the blockade in June 2007. [http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_the_humanitarian_monitor_2010_04_english.pdf] "Thirty eggs used to cost seven NIS [Israeli shekels, about US$1.83], and now they cost 14 NIS [about $3.65]," said shop-owner Mahmoud Alkhor, 22, in Gaza City. Without a change in policy, aid dependency is only likely to grow, warns UNRWA, which is providing basic sustenance to nearly 80 percent of the Gaza population. Furthermore, the reduction in electricity supplies to Gaza as part of the Israeli blockade causes significant damage to vegetable crops due to the lack of refrigeration, as well as adding to production costs, says the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). [http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_electricity_crisis_2010_05_17.pdf] Health risks Goods coming through the tunnels from Egypt, sold at inflated prices and inaccessible to most Gazans, are not a viable solution, according to aid agencies in Gaza. "FAO is particularly concerned about the possible health risks posed by the unregulated entry of livestock and veterinary medicines to Gaza from Egypt via tunnels," said Leppert, fearing possible animal diseases in Gaza and transboundary disease outbreaks in the region. Since January 2009, Israeli naval forces have restricted the access of Gaza fishing boats to only three nautical miles from shore, often reduced to as much as 2nm in practice. Between 2008 and 2009, the total fishing catch decreased by 47 percent, and is insufficient to meet the demands of Gaza's growing population, according to FAO. However, according to Israel's Gaza District Coordination Office (DCO), there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. "Israel allows the passage of basic goods, building materials [for UN projects], products for agriculture; for example, Israel allowed 15 farmers to leave the strip two months ago for an education programme on farming in the Arava Institute [for Environmental Studies]," the DCO said. "Israel does not ration the amount of goods into Gaza provided they are on the list of permitted items; we also transfer vaccinations and other products for the farming sector. We work in cooperation with merchants and farmers and are attentive to their needs." Head of the DCO, Colonel Moshe Levi, told reporters on 26 May: "We do not know of a shortage in any field, and we enable the entrance of various different goods, and also the export of agricultural products from the Gaza Strip. Anything that would help Hamas to increase its military power is obviously not permitted to enter."

POVERTY: Occupied Palestine Territory, Gaza statistics

In the third quarter of 2008, 51 percent of Palestinians lived below the poverty line (56 percent for Gazans and 48 percent for those in the West Bank), with 19 percent living in extreme poverty.In the second half of 2008, one third of West Bank households and 71 percent of Gaza households received food assistance, with food accounting for roughly half total household expenditures - making families highly vulnerable to food price fluctuations. In May 2008, 56 percent of Gazans and 25 percent of West Bank residents were deemed food insecure by the UN. Chronic malnutrition has risen in Gaza over the past few years to reach 10.2 percent.That comes at a time when UNRWA - responsible for providing assistance, protection and advocacy for some 4.7 million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the oPt - is projecting a 25 percent shortfall in its core budget. “UNRWA is a very massive machine to feed and unfortunately, although our donations increase, in fact they don’t increase fast enough to meet the needs,” Grandi said.HealthHealthcare services have generally improved in the West Bank over the past year because of eased movement restrictions and the efforts of the Palestinian Ministry of Health with the support of donors and other stakeholders. However, the impact of Israel’s “Separation Wall” and the difficulties of access to hospitals in east Jerusalem, where nearly 50 percent of Health Ministry referrals were to in 2009, remain areas of concern.In Gaza, Israel’s blockade is debilitating the healthcare system, limiting medical supplies and the training of medical personnel and preventing serious medical cases from travelling outside the Strip for specialized treatment.Israel’s 2008-2009 military operation damaged 15 of the Strip’s 27 hospitals and damaged or destroyed 43 of its 110 primary health care facilities, none of which have been repaired or rebuilt because of the construction materials ban. Some 15-20 percent of essential medicines are commonly out of stock and there are shortages of essential spare parts for many items of medical equipment, the WHO report said. As a result, the steady decline in the infant mortality rate in recent decades has stalled over the past few years and may have even risen in Gaza, which has a mortality rate around 30 percent higher than in the West Bank. Watery diarrhoea, acute bloody diarrhoea and viral hepatitis are the major causes of morbidity among reportable infectious diseases in the Strip.
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