Monthly Overview: January 2015

Worrisome deterioration in the Gaza Situation

This month’s Humanitarian Bulletin focuses again on the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip. The longstanding economic crisis in Gaza was further exacerbated in January by Israel’s decision to freeze the transfer of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in retaliation for the Palestinian accession to the International Criminal Court. As a result, some 70,000 civil servants on the PA payroll only received a proportion of their December 2014 salaries, while the fate of January 2015 salaries is currently unclear. This exacerbates the ongoing problem of another 40,000 civil servants and security personnel recruited by the Hamas authorities who have received no salary since April 2014, except for a one-off humanitarian payment in September 2014.

The ongoing salary crisis, compounded by one of the highest unemployment rates in the world (nearly 45 per cent), has further undermined the food security of the population and had a direct negative impact on the provision of basic services, including health, water and sanitation, and emergency responses.

The frustration of the Gaza population is heightened by the slow disbursement of funds pledged by member states during the October 2014 Cairo Conference for the reconstruction of Gaza, a factor that severely handicaps the ability of humanitarian and development actors to face the enormous recovery and reconstruction workload. The approximately 100,000 people who are still displaced following the July-August hostilities are particularly affected. On 27 January, UNRWA suspended its self-help cash assistance programme for refugee families, and the UNDP’s programme for the non-refugee population in Gaza is similarly compromised due to severe shortcomings in funding.

In his most recent briefing to the Security Council, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs warned that the situation in Gaza is becoming “increasingly worrisome”, and that a “combination of the failure to rectify the persistent governance and security issues and the slow pace of reconstruction has created an increasingly toxic environment.”

To address the most critical humanitarian needs of 1.6 million vulnerable Palestinians, the Humanitarian Country Team, in partnership with the Government of Palestine, launched its Strategic Response Plan for 2015 on 12 February. The Plan requests US$705 million to fund humanitarian interventions across the oPt, 75 per cent of them projects in the Gaza Strip.

Even if fully funded and implemented, these interventions alone cannot stop the ongoing deterioration in Gaza, or prevent a new cycle of violence. That would require more significant measures, including the lifting of the Israeli blockade; consolidation of the GNC and a resolution of the salary crisis; the disbursement of pledges made for the reconstruction of Gaza; reinforcement of the ceasefire; and the re-opening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt.