Jerusalem/PNN /

Today, the United Nations and its partners issued a plan that outlines the minimum necessary to scale up humanitarian operations in support of 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip and 500,000 of the most vulnerable in the West Bank. An estimated $1.2 billion is required to deliver existing humanitarian services amid ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.

The magnitude of this response and operational constraints are beyond what has ever been seen before in the occupied Palestinian Territory and other contexts. The required humanitarian responses cover health and nutrition, food security, protection, water and sanitation, shelter and non-food items, education, multi-purpose cash assistance, logistics, emergency telecommunications, and coordination, said an OCHA statement.

This estimation does not cover the cost of early recovery and reconstruction, which will be estimated once the security situation allows for appropriate assessments to be undertaken, it added.

The UN has shared its response plan with potential donors and partners as part of an updated Flash Appeal.

The UN stressed that, for humanitarian actors to implement the plan, they must have safe and sustained access to all people in need across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank; enough fuel for their operations, and critical services including hospitals, wastewater treatment, and desalination plants and water pumps; and a dramatic increase in funding and the flow of aid into Gaza.

UN officials have indicated that they count on strong donor engagement as funding must be timely and flexible to allow humanitarian actors to adapt programming to a highly dynamic context.