Occupied Palestinian Territories - Humanitarian Update, December 2006

Summary of monthly Humanitarian Monitor report produced by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

KEY ISSUES OVERVIEW

Internal violence
Inter-factional violence between Hamas and Fatah, which peaked in October and December, claimed 146 Palestinians throughout 2006, with 871 injured. The clashes signalled a serious breakdown of law and order, with fighting intensifying following the PA President's call on 15 December for early elections.

Ceasefire in the Gaza Strip
Despite an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire declaration on 26 November, both sides continued to violate the agreement. Rockets and homemade mortars fired by Palestinian militants into southern Israel injured two Israeli children. Israeli military incursions into the northern Gaza Strip, and firing at Palestinian fishing boats, killed two Palestinians and injured 22.

Drought
Palestinian communities in southern Hebron have suffered from drought in the last two years. Rural communities without access to a mains water supply are particularly vulnerable, as agriculture crops fail, livestock fodder decreases and feed costs rise, forcing many herders into debt and into selling their livestock.

Closures, settlement expansion and the Separation Wall.
The Government of Israel announced an easing of movement through certain checkpoints and removal of some physical obstacles in the West Bank by the end of December; however, a list of those checkpoints and obstacles was not released.

Expansion of Maski'iiot settlement in the northern Jordan Valley has been approved by the Government of Israel in order to settle Israeli families evacuated from Gush Katif near Bethlehem. The International Court of Justice declared in 2004 that Israeli settlements built on land occupied since 1967 are illegal; Israel disputes this opinion.

The 703km-long Separation Wall being built by the State of Israel is 58% complete.

PA strike
Palestinian Authority employees have been on a long-term strike since WHEN?? Due to failure to pay their salaries. Palestinian Ministry of Health employees returned to work in December, following Ministry of Education employees' return in November.

PA fiscal crisis
The International Monetary Fund reports that the PA received US$700m in 2006, via the Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) and Arab donors. PA employees received, on average, 40% of their salaries between March and December 2006.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) estimates an 8% decline in economic output (gross domestic product) in the third quarter of 2006, as compared to the same period in 2005.

REGIONAL OVERVIEW

West Bank & East Jerusalem

Checkpoints and closures - As the occupying power, the State of Israel is responsible for security inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Despite this, the Israeli Ministry of Defense has contracted private security companies to manage five West Bank checkpoints. UN monitoring of these checkpoints has shown that these private companies are often unaware of the procedures, including access right of humanitarian organisations.

Access to agricultural land for Palestinian farmers is seriously hampered by the Separation Wall. Despite the building of seasonal agricultural gates, procedures at the gates vary, with irregular opening hours and many gates requiring permits and prior coordination with the Israeli military. The result has been a drop in agricultural productivity, which provides livelihoods for over 200,000 Palestinians.

Children being killed - Two Palestinian children were killed in the West Bank. In Nablus, a 14-year-old boy died when Israeli soldiers responded to Palestinian stone throwers with live ammunition. A 13-year-old girl died of her wounds when Israeli soldiers fired upon two girls near the Separation Wall outside Tulkarem. These incidents highlight a "continuing pattern throughout 2006 of increased numbers of children being killed and injured by the IDS especially during incidents of stone throwing."

Gaza Strip

Since the Israeli disengagement and withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, a 150 metre exclusion zone has been enforced along the northern and eastern perimeter fences of the Gaza Strip.

Security responsibilities at Karni crossing (for goods import/export) was handed over to the PA President's Guard on 14 December. December saw an improvement in the incoming and outgoing flow of goods at the crossing.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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