Occupied Palestinian Territory (FA)

Since 7 October 2023, the situation in Gaza has changed dramatically and is directly affecting the West Bank when Palestinian armed groups in Gaza launched more than 3,500 missiles and rockets towards Israel and breached the perimeter fence of Gaza in multiple locations. Members of armed groups entered Israeli towns, communities, and military facilities near the Gaza Strip, killing and capturing members of Israeli forces and civilians. The Israeli military declared a “state of war alert” and began striking targets in the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities have confirmed that the 7 October attack is the deadliest in Israel in decades, about 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, including women, children, and older people, were killed in Israel by members of Palestinian armed groups.

On 12 October 2023, humanitarian partners launched a Flash Appeal with a financial requirement of $294 million to respond to the most urgent needs of 1.26 million people in Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT, Gaza and West Bank, including East Jerusalem). On 6 November 2023, the first update of the Flash Appeal for OPT with a new financial requirement of US$1.229 billion to meet critical needs for 2.7 million people across the OPT (2.2 million population of the Gaza Strip and 500,000 from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem) from October until end of December 2023 was launched. It outlines the minimum to prevent further loss of life considering the ongoing siege and bombardment of Gaza and the escalating situation in the West Bank. UNRWA’s requirements are included.

The magnitude of this response and operational constraints are beyond what has been seen before in the OPT and other contexts. As a result, the ability of humanitarian community to fully implement this plan was based on the following changes in operational conditions:

• Safe and sustained access for humanitarian actors to all people in need, across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
• Availability of sufficient fuel for humanitarian operations.
• Dramatic increase in flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
• Timely and flexible funding to allow humanitarian actors to adapt programming to a highly dynamic context.

Due to the continuing impediments to an effective and appropriately scaled humanitarian response, the Flash Appeal will be extended through March 2024. Humanitarian actors will continue to meet the urgent humanitarian needs identified in Gaza and the West Bank through the Flash Appeal via this no-cost extension. Decision making on the appropriate planning framework for the remainder of 2024 is currently ongoing.