The Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin | July 2015

July marked one year since the outbreak of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel. The hostilities had a devastating impact on civilians in the Gaza Strip, including an unprecedented number of civilian casualties and homes destroyed. A particularly painful aspect of this conflict has been the large number of families that sustained multiple fatalities: information collected by OCHA indicates that a total of 142 Palestinian families had three or more members killed in the same incident for a total of 742 fatalities. One year on, most people in the Gaza Strip are still struggling to cope with the immense losses they experienced and attempting to reconstruct their lives.

In June Israeli forces killed three Palestinian civilians and injured 66 others in clashes and other incidents across the oPt. All the fatalities and 58 of the injuries were recorded in the West Bank. During the same period, Palestinians killed two Israeli civilians and injured nine others, as well as five members of Israeli forces. Despite the relative increase in fatal incidents, June marked the lowest number of Palestinian injuries in the oPt since January 2012.

Since 2009, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and UNRWA have provided regular food assistance to more than 30,000 Bedouin and other herders living in 183 residential areas across Area C of the West Bank. These beneficiaries are amongst the poorest and most vulnerable Palestinians, with some communities seriously under threat of forcible transfer. The programme aims to ensure that their basic food needs are met and also contributes to building community resilience.

For the month of Ramadan, which started on 18 June, the Israeli authorities relaxed some restrictions on the movement of Palestinians within the oPt, including East Jerusalem, and between the oPt and Israel. These measures had a positive impact on the right of Palestinians to freedom of movement, to freedom of worship and to family life. However, in response to a series of Palestinian attacks (see Decline in Casualties section), the Israeli authorities progressively revoked some of these measures, raising concerns about collective penalties.

July marked one year since the outbreak of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel, which resulted in an unprecedented number of civilian casualties and homes destroyed among Palestinians. One year on, most people in Gaza are still struggling to cope with the immense losses they experienced and attempting to reconstruct their lives. This Humanitarian Bulletin highlights the case of 19-year-old Ala’, from Jabaliya refugee camp, who survived an airstrike that killed his entire family of 11 members in the building to which they had relocated. Over the course of hostilities at least 142 Palestinian families had three or more members killed in the same incident for a total of 742 fatalities.

In June, the Humanitarian Pooled Fund (HPF) for the oPt launched its first call for proposals to cover unfunded humanitarian projects included in the 2015 Strategic Response Plan (SRP). Overall, a total of 36 proposals were submitted, of which 26 were recommended by the relevant clusters, and 11 were finally approved by the HPF review board for a total of $2.5 million. The selected projects, to be implemented by four national NGOs and seven international NGOs (four of them in partnership with national NGOs), address critical needs in the areas of education, food security, health and nutrition, protection, shelter and WASH. Three of these projects will be implemented in the Gaza Strip and nine in the West Bank.