Gunfire hit and damaged multiple tents at a displacement site in Gaza’s northern Rafah region on Tuesday, the United Nations aid coordination office said. The office, known as OCHA, said the shooting was reported to have caused injuries and forced a humanitarian partner to leave the area.
The group had been working on flood control ahead of the rainy season, OCHA said in a Wednesday update. The United Nations said the incidents came as aid teams prepare for winter storms and as reports continued of strikes hitting populated areas and causing civilian casualties across the Gaza Strip.
On the same day, small arms fire was reported near a UN-contracted facility in Deir al Balah and close to a UN-organized convoy in Rafah. No injuries to UN staff or damage were reported.
“Civilians, including humanitarian workers, must always be protected, and civilian objects, including humanitarian facilities and vehicles, must always be spared,” the Secretary-General’s Spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, told journalists.
Relief work continued despite the insecurity. In the last week of October, the United Nations and its partners supported more than 70 households that lost shelters and other belongings in incidents ranging from airstrikes to domestic fires.
During that same week, child protection partners reached nearly 4,500 boys and girls and more than 2,000 caregivers with mental health and psychosocial support. They identified almost 200 children in need of individually tailored support, including 20 who are unaccompanied or separated from their families and 17 who are injured.
Follow-up support continues for more than 2,000 children identified earlier as needing such help. Partners also provided vouchers to buy autumn clothes for more than 1,000 children without parental care.
In the West Bank, the olive harvest continues to be disrupted by Israeli settler violence and restrictions on Palestinians’ access to their groves, according to OCHA. Food security partners have provided harvesting tools and machinery across nearly 80 per cent of all identified hotspots, while protection partners have supported volunteer harvesting campaigns and a protective presence for Palestinian farmers.
In most locations, however, assistance can reach only a limited number of olive pickers because of funding shortfalls, violence and Israeli restrictions, OCHA said.