UN humanitarians estimate 250,000 people in southern Gaza flee under Israeli evacuation order » Capital News
UNITED NATIONS, July 7 (Xinhua) — An estimated 250,000 people in parts of eastern Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza under an Israeli evacuation order are on the move, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revised downward its estimate of the population area affected from one-third to one-quarter of the Gaza Strip, or from 117 to 85 square kilometers.
The displaced moved toward western Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, areas already overcrowded and lacking essential services, critical infrastructure, shelter materials and even sufficient space. OCHA said its assessments on Thursday showed more than 9,000 displaced households are living at a site in Khan Younis and nearly 1,000 more at a site in Deir al Balah with just 650 tents.
“All of these families are in dire need of safe drinking water, with people — especially children — spending long hours queueing to collect water each day,” the humanitarians said.
The office said children have been out of school for months, and a lack of space and materials prevents humanitarian partners from providing education services. At one displacement site, children spend most of their time outside, near informal dumping areas, and parents report a surge in waterborne and skin diseases. Neither site has health points available; the closest medical services are at least three kilometers away. OCHA said the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis is now empty. No equipment remains, and it is not functional. All patients were evacuated, some of them in beds with their intravenous drips.
In southern Gaza, movement to and from the Kerem Shalom crossing continues to be hampered by security risks, most recently following Monday’s evacuation order for areas in eastern Khan Younis that encompass parts of Salah ad-Din Road, a crucial artery for the passage of humanitarian goods and personnel. In northern Gaza, the humanitarian office is concerned about the conditions of up to 80,000 people displaced from Ash Shuja’iyyeh and other parts of eastern Gaza City following a June 27 evacuation order.
Alongside other humanitarian partners, OCHA said it assessed some of the sites hosting the displaced, finding people who had to flee hastily, under shelling and without any of their belongings. “Shelter and sanitary conditions at the displacement sites are poor, and many people are having to sleep amid solid waste and rubble, with no mattresses and lacking enough clothing,” the office said. “Others have found shelter in UN facilities that had been partially destroyed. Some of those displaced report having been separated from family members.” OCHA said hostilities and access constraints severely hinder the delivery of life-saving aid to hundreds of thousands of people across Gaza. Between Monday’s evacuation order and Thursday’s, just one of 13 planned humanitarian assistance missions to northern Gaza was facilitated by Israeli authorities — with the rest denied, impeded or canceled due to logistical, operational or security reasons.
The office said its humanitarian partners report that the lack of fuel in Gaza is increasingly hampering the provision of health care. The director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned of further disruption to health services due to severe fuel shortages. Tedros said only 90,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza on Wednesday when the health sector alone requires 80,000 liters daily. With limited fuel supplies directed to critical hospitals to prevent services from grinding to a halt, the United Nations and its partners are forced to make impossible choices. OCHA said fuel shortages also continue to have an acute impact on water and sanitation infrastructure and living conditions across Gaza. Humanitarian partners report receiving less than 52,000 liters of fuel between June 22 and June 28 to operate critical water and wastewater facilities.
“Though this is more than what was received the previous week, the supplies were sufficient for just 10 percent of daily requirements,” the office said. “As a result, at least half of the remaining functional water wells across Gaza temporarily stopped pumping water, and more than 100 water trucks have ceased operations.” OCHA added that two desalination plants in central and southern Gaza also had to suspend operations on Sunday and Monday due to a lack of fuel.
Zimbabwean president calls for more investment in irrigation development amid drought
HARARE, July 5 (Xinhua) — Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday underscored the need for investments in irrigation development to de-risk the country from the side effects of climate change.
Speaking at an irrigation investment conference in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, Mnangagwa said with further investments in irrigation development, agriculture modernization, and mechanization, Zimbabwe can realize win-win benefits that guarantee food security at both household and national levels. “We welcome investments and partnerships for the development of additional land for irrigation purposes around new dams for cereal production, high-value crops and pastures,” Mnangagwa said. “Prospects exist for sustainable partnerships as we march forward towards the country’s irrigation potential of 2 million hectares.”
Zimbabwe is reeling under the effects of the El Nino-induced drought this year, which has left 60 percent of the country’s population food insecure and in need of food aid. Mnangagwa said scaling up irrigation development around the many high-impact dams dotted across the country has the potential to realize multipronged benefits in terms of total area of irrigable land, food security, and agro-based industries. Under the 2021-2025 Accelerated Irrigation Rehabilitation and Development Plan, the Zimbabwean government aims to develop 350,000 hectares of land under irrigation by 2025.
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