Occupied Palestinian Territories - Humanitarian Update, March 2007

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

KEY ISSUES OVERVIEW

Healthcare workers continue strike action
Palestinian Authority (PA) health care workers began industrial action on 16 February 2007, following the PA's failure to comply with an agreement to pay 25% of overdue staff salaries. An earlier strike lasted between September and December 2006. The current industrial action has seen all primary healthcare services cease and emergency rooms closed to all but life-threatening emergencies. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that immunisation programmes have "all but stopped in most governorates", drug dispensation to chronic patients has been limited, hospitals have ceased elective surgeries and closed outpatient clinics.

Beit Lahia sewage crisis
On 27 March effluent from a wastewater treatment plant in Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, flooded the nearby Bedouin village of Um Al Nasser (5,000 inhabitants), killing five and injuring 25 people. Over 2,000 displaced residents remain sheltered in a temporary camp established by UNRWA.

Medical drugs banned
Israel's Ministry of Health (MoH) has announced a ban, reportedly for reasons of quality control, on medications and supplies manufactured and/or stored in the West Bank from being transported to hospitals in East Jerusalem. Pharmaceutical companies in the West Bank have supplied East Jerusalem hospitals since 1995. The ban will force these hospitals to source supplies from the Israeli market at significantly higher cost.

Olive industry under threat in Salfit
More 10,000 rural families rely on the olive harvest for their incomes and livelihoods in the Salfit area. However, farmers are struggling to access and tend their olive groves due to Israel's restrictive closure policy and construction of the Separation Wall. The Wall's route has cut off almost half of Salfit's agricultural lands from the village.

Palestinian journalists boycott PA
In an effort to pressure the Palestinian authorities to do more to secure the release of abducted BBC reporter, Alan Johnston, Palestinian journalists held strikes and boycotted coverage of government activities. Mr Johnston was kidnapped in Gaza City on 12 March, with no party yet claiming responsibility for the abduction.

REGIONAL OVERVIEW

West Bank & East Jerusalem

Search and arrest campaigns intensify - Search and arrest operations by the Israeli military looking for 'wanted' Palestinians have increased dramatically in the northern West Bank (Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus, Tubas, Qalqilya and Salfit). An average of over 530 search and arrest campaigns have been conducted each month since January 2007. This contrasts sharply with a monthly average of 472 such campaigns conducted in 2006. The operations are conducted mostly at night (in some areas almost nightly), with a heavy military presence and often followed by house-to-house searches.

Demolitions inside the 'closed areas' - The 'closed areas' between the Separation Wall and the Green Line in the northern West Bank are increasingly subject to demolition orders by the Israeli authorities, claiming them to be building without permits. Demolished structures include animal pens and shops.

A new illegal settlement in Hebron - On 19 March more than 200 Israeli religious students from surrounding Israeli settlements occupied a building in the H2 area of Hebron city, calling it the "House of Peace". The new settlement affects at least 70 Palestinian families (420 people) in the Waad Al Hussein valley. Dozens of Israeli soldiers and border police have been assigned to protect the new settlement.

Gaza Strip

Erez crossing closed for one year - Palestinian workers with valid permits have been prohibited from accessing Israel's labour markets via the Erez crossing point for one year. The Israeli authorities imposed a comprehensive closure on the Occupied Palestinian Territories on 12 March 2006 during the Jewish feast of Purim, and have not lifted the closure since. Prior to the closure, an average 2,900 workers and traders (supporting approximately 22,000 family members) were allowed to use the crossing. Erez crossing is the only access point for Palestinian workers and traders.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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