UN appeals for $4bn in Gaza, West Bank aid in 2025

GENEVA: The UN on Wednesday appealed for $4.07 billion to provide desperately needed aid in war-ravaged Gaza and the West Bank next year, saying that the actual amount needed was far higher.

The aim will be to provide assistance to “the entire population of Gaza, estimated at 2.1 million people, and 900,000 people in the West Bank,” the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in its appeal.

It said that the actual needs amounted to “at least $6.6 billion”, but suggested that Israeli constraints placed on aid delivery meant it would be difficult to scale up operations to that level.

“To be able to implement the full scale of what is urgently needed, Israel must take immediate and effective measures to ensure the essential needs of civilians are met,” the appeal said.

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“Humanitarian actors anticipate being limited in what they can achieve in 2025 due to severe restrictions… and ever greater challenges to their ability to operate, including intensified and coordinated anti-UN rhetoric strategically aimed at delegitimizing humanitarian efforts,” the appeal said.

If all sides fully complied with international law, OCHA said it would be possible to deliver aid to the tune of $6.6 billion.

But “assuming humanitarian actors will continue to face a constrained operating environment, the 2025 OPT Flash Appeal calls for $4 billion of this amount”, it said.

That, it said, meant that aid would reach three million people, rather than the 3.3 million in dire need.

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Stressing that “the speed and scale of the killing and destruction in the Gaza Strip are unlike anything seen in recent history”, OCHA cautioned that “without sustained solutions to end the violence, humanitarian needs will continue to rise”.

It called among other things for safe and sustained access to all people in need across the occupied Palestinian territories, enabling the entry into Gaza of humanitarian goods at scale.

“Beyond peace, genuine efforts to enable humanitarian assistance will require critical changes in the operating environment,” it said.