Occupied Palestinian Territories - Humanitarian Update, April 2009

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

APRIL OVERVIEW

The basic right of many Palestinians to human dignity continued to be undermined during April. In the West Bank, over 100 Palestinians, including many children, were displaced when their homes were demolished by the Israeli authorities for lack of permit, an over two-fold increase in displacement compared to March 2009. Hundreds of additional Palestinian homes were raided and searched by the Israeli army in the course of over 350 search operations throughout the West Bank. In addition, there was a 40% increase in the number of Palestinian conflict-related injuries, compared to the 2008 monthly average. Nearly half of these injuries occurred during incidents of Israeli settler violence, which is on the rise in the West Bank.

With the blockade of the Gaza Strip completing its 22nd month and the needs that emerged out of Israel's "Cast Lead" offensive still hardly addressed, the entire population of Gaza remains affected by a severe crisis of human dignity. Access for humanitarian supplies and basic goods was significantly reduced as Israel closed the crossings for the Jewish holiday of Passover. Fewer truckloads entered Gaza in April than in any month in 2009. No benzene or diesel has been allowed into Gaza for five months and cooking gas continued to be rationed. Raw sewage was back-flowing into homes in Khan Younis due to the deterioration in the sewage and waste-water treatment systems; during April, only three truckloads of plastic pipes for water and wastewater projects for the private sector were allowed into Gaza, after being barred entry since late October 2008 - an insignificant contribution in relation to the overall needs.

Other access impediments have further undermined the livelihoods of vulnerable populations throughout the oPt. In Gaza, the Israeli forces prevented farmers and fishermen from reaching cultivated areas in the proximity of the border, as well as sea areas beyond three nautical miles from the shore. This has impacted the harvest season of barley and wheat, and the peak of the sardine season, both of which take place during April. In the West Bank, access of farmers and herders to areas located in the vicinity of certain Israeli settlements or on the "Israeli" side of the Barrier, continues to be severely restricted as a result of recurrent incidents of settler intimidation and a permit and gate regime respectively.

In addition, there were hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza with acute medical problems, seeking specialized medical care outside of Gaza, who were unable to obtain the needed care due to the blockade and the political dispute between the Hamas authorities in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. At the end of the month, the dispute was resolved, allowing 90 patients to cross at the northern Erez border during April, compared to 325 in March 2009. Parallel to this, access of West Bank patients to specialized treatment, while generally less constrained than for Gazans, was also affected by long delays observed at checkpoints controlling access into East Jerusalem, where most specialized hospitals are located.

A UN gender survey released this month identified an overall concern regarding psychological trauma and stress among the Gaza population. With limited access to professional psychological services, the survey found that there is a rising problem of self-medication with unsupervised pharmaceutical therapies. The survey also found that domestic violence against women is mainly concentrated in households displaced by the Israeli offensive. Some 37% of the women surveyed cited domestic violence as the primary safety problem facing women and girls, while over 50% of the surveyed men said that public and political violence is the main safety and security problem facing men and boys.

During April, the protection afforded to the population of Gaza has been affected by incidents of internal Palestinian violence, including a number of so-called "honour" killings and armed inter-factional clashes, which resulted in five fatalities and 16 injuries. In addition, while Gaza and southern Israel witnessed one the lowest levels of violence in past years, sporadic military activities by both sides continued and resulted in the deaths of two armed militants. In the absence of an agreed ceasefire, however, the relative calm felt in April remains fragile.

Human dignity is a basic right and should not be contingent on political progress. As a first step towards reducing the assault on Palestinian human dignity, Israeli house demolitions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, should be frozen and settler violence against Palestinians and their property should be brought to an end. In the Gaza Strip, the type of goods permitted to enter should be broadened and the quantities sharply increased; humanitarian operations should be allowed without inference; unimpeded access into Gaza for essential supplies and staff should be provided regardless of religious or national holidays. Access to medical care and other necessities should not be delayed or denied due to Palestinian factional disputes. In addition, to prevent further deterioration, the international community should increase their funding for humanitarian projects.

ISSUES IN FOCUS

Child Protection Concern: Number of child detainees remains high

There were 391 Palestinian children, including six girls, in the custody of the Israeli authorities at the end of April. This follows a sharp increase in the arrest and detention of minors observed at the beginning of 2009, which resulted in an over 20% increase in the number of child detainees between December 2008 and February 2009.8 While the detention level has since decreased, it remains almost 20% higher than in April 2008.

Various organizations monitoring the situation of child prisoners in Israeli prisons have expressed concern over the lack of respect for many of the rights provided for in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice ("The Beijing Rules"). These concerns are related, inter alia, to consistent allegations of physical and psychological abuse during interrogations; denial of prompt access to lawyers and family visits; substandard conditions of detention, including lack of access to proper health or educational services. In addition, all but one of the five prisons that hold children are located inside Israel in contravention of international humanitarian law, further constraining access to family visits.(1)

Among those children currently imprisoned there are two boys held in administrative detention. In addition, there are five other males who were arrested and placed in administrative detention as children, but who recently turned 18. Administrative detainees are held without charge or trial, on the basis of secret evidence, which neither the accused nor their lawyer have access. According to Defence for Children International / Palestine Section, Israeli Military Order 1591 empowers military commanders to detain Palestinians, including children as young as 12, for up to six months if they have 'reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention'. The initial six month period can be extended by additional six-month periods indefinitely. This procedure denies the detainee the right to a fair trial and the ability to adequately challenge the basis of his or her detention. The UN Committee Against Torture has expressed concern that Israel's use of administrative detention does not conform with Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture.(2) All of the seven males mentioned above have received more than one detention order, including one who has been in detention since December 2007.

(1) Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) provides that an occupying power must detain residents of occupied territory in prisons inside the occupied territory.
(2) See for example the Committee's Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee against Torture, Israel, 23/11/2001.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.

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