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norwegian refugee council
Humanitarian Groups Dread 2025 Aid Shortfall as Trump Term Looms
"At a time when the richest people on Earth can go to space as a tourist," said one advocate, "it is incomprehensible that we as an international community are unable to find the necessary funding to provide displaced families with shelter."
Dec 04, 2024
As the United Nations humanitarian agency and its partner organizations launched the annual Global Humanitarian overview on Wednesday to appeal for aid ahead of 2025, officials shared sobering numbers: 305 million people in dire need of assistance, 190 million people the agencies believe they can help next year if funding demands are met, and $47 billion that's needed to help the people facing the greatest threats.
Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said governments, particularly those in wealthy countries like the United States, face "a choice" as the world bears witness to starvation, increasingly frequent climate disasters, and other suffering in Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
"We can respond to these numbers with generosity, with compassion, with genuine solidarity for those in the most dire need on the planet—or we can carry on," said Fletcher at a news briefing. "We can choose to leave them alone to face these crises. We can choose to let them down."
Fletcher and other humanitarian leaders noted that as of last month, just 43% of the $50 billion funding appeal made for 2024 had been met.
Food assistance in Syria has been cut by 80% as a result of the large funding gap, while protection services in Myanmar and water and sanitation aid in Yemen have also been reduced.
Fletcher said that with another major funding shortfall expected in 2025, OCHA and its partners are expecting to be forced to make "ruthless" decisions to direct aid to those most in need—likely leaving out 115 million people.
Fears that funding needs will be far from met in 2025 are arising partially from the election last month of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who pursued significant cuts during his first term to agencies including the U.N. Population Fund, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
"America is very much on our minds at the moment, we're facing the election of a number of governments who will be more questioning of what the United Nations does and less ideologically supportive of this humanitarian effort that we've laid out in this report," said Fletcher. "But it's our job to frame the arguments in the right way to land and not to give up. And so I'll head to Washington. I'll spend a lot of time in Washington, I imagine, over the next few months, engaging with the new administration, making the case to them, just as I'll spend a lot of time in other capitals where people might be skeptical about the work that we are doing."
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Secretary-General Jan Egeland, who led OCHA for three years, toldAl Jazeera that U.S. funding under the Trump administration is "a tremendous question mark."
"Should the U.S. administration cut its humanitarian funding, it could be more complex to fill the gap of growing needs," said Egeland.
The U.S. is the largest humanitarian donor in the world, contributing $10 billion last year—but its donations pale in comparison to its military spending, which was budgeted at more than $841 billion in 2024, and the earnings of its top corporations.
As NRC noted, Facebook parent company Meta earned $47.4 billion—about the same amount humanitarian agencies are requesting this year—before income taxes in 2023.
Without naming billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk—a Trump ally and megadonor who's expected to have a role in his new administration—Camilla Waszink, director of partnership and policy at NRC, called out the widening gap between the world's richest people and those in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
"At a time when the richest people on Earth can go to space as a tourist and trillions of U.S. dollars are used annually on global military expenditure, it is incomprehensible that we as an international community are unable to find the necessary funding to provide displaced families with shelter and prevent children from dying of hunger," said Waszink. "There is an urgent need for a revamp of global solidarity. Existing donor countries must ensure assistance keeps pace with needs and inflation, and emerging economies should compete to become among the most generous donors in the same way they compete to host expensive international sports events."
"It is devastating to know that millions of people in need will not receive necessary assistance next year because of the growing lack of funding for the humanitarian response. With a record number of conflicts ongoing, donors are cutting aid budgets that displaced and conflict-affected people rely on to survive," she added. "Conflicts and a blatant disregard for protection of civilians are driving massive humanitarian needs. It is essential that donors provide funding, but they must also invest in ending conflicts, bringing violations to a halt and preventing new needs from developing."
Fletcher noted that in addition to conflicts like Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the civil war in Sudan, the climate crisis is a major driver of growing humanitarian needs.
"2024 will be the hottest year on record," said Fletcher. "Presumably 2025 will then be the hottest year on record. Floods, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires affecting millions. We're on the brink of surpassing the 1.5°C in warming, and that will hit hardest in the countries that have actually contributed least to climate change. It wipes out food systems. It wipes out livelihoods, it forces communities to move from their homes and land. Drought has caused 65% of agricultural economic damage over the last 15 years, worsening food insecurity."
In conflict zones and in regions affected by the climate emergency, said Fletcher, "it's our mission to do more."
"My people are desperate to get out there and deliver because they really are on the frontline," he said. "They can see what is needed, but we need these resources. That's our call to action. And we also need the world to do more. Those with power to do more—to challenge this era of impunity and to challenge this era of indifference."
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Report From Gaza Aid Agencies Shows 'Catastrophe on an Entirely New Level'
"In Gaza, we are not witnessing a 'shrinking' humanitarian space; there is barely any space left to operate at all," the report authors said.
Jul 31, 2024
Israeli attacks on relief workers and designated "humanitarian zones" in Gaza, as well its tight control over borders and repeated evacuation orders, have devastated the ability to deliver much-needed aid to residents of the beleaguered strip, 20 non-governmental organizations warned in a report released Tuesday.
Israel has now issued "evacuation orders" that cover 86% of the Gaza Strip's land area, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). This means that Gaza's 2.1 million people are now expected to squeeze into only 14% of Gaza's 141 square miles.
"We are doing everything we can to save children's lives in Gaza, but our job becomes more and more challenging by the day," said Jeremy Stoner, the Middle East regional director of Save the Children, one of the organizations behind the report. "Forcibly displacing civilians into areas that cannot accommodate them is causing a humanitarian catastrophe on an entirely new level."
"What is the international community doing about this humanitarian crisis?"
Between July 22 and 27 alone, Israeli "evacuation orders" forced around 200,000 people from central and eastern Khan Younis, and 12,600 from camps in Deir al Balah.
"There is no space left," Stoner continued, "and barely enough life-saving supplies to keep children alive. Without access to critical assistance, lives will continue to be lost."
Palestinians in Gaza face severe shortages of basic necessities, with half a million subjected to "catastrophic levels" of food insecurity, the report authors said. The amount of water available to Gaza's residents has shrunk by 94% since before Israel's onslaught began in October, and on July 26, Israel bombed the "Tal Sultan Water Reservoir," the leading source of drinking water in Rafah.
"We are talking about at least 34 children who have starved to death," Oxfam policy lead Bushra Khalidi said in the report. "If this estimate doesn't move the world, consider that most U.N. and other reports state that Gaza is on the verge of famine. What is the international community doing about this humanitarian crisis?"
Ola, a 42-year-old from northern Gaza who has been displaced more than fives times since the war began, told aid workers that "things are starting to take a toll and our bodies feel weak and flimsy."
"We can't really walk anymore but have to walk long distances to get water or buy anything," Ola said. "So at the moment, we stopped leaving the place we're in (...) and yesterday we picked and cooked mulberry leaves to block the children's hunger."
"It pains me as an aid worker that I can't do much for others."
At the same time, strict rules and violence at the border—both from direct Israeli attacks and the breakdown of law and order in their wake—make it increasingly difficult to get aid into Gaza, with deliveries dropping by 56% since April, according to U.N. figures. Save the Children reported that it had to wait almost a month at the Kerem Shalom border crossing to get four trucks filled with much-needed medical supplies to the other side. At the same time, Gaza's health facilities, which report authors say have "already collapsed," continue to attempt and treat people with a dwindling supply of U.N. medicines.
Another obstacle to delivering medicine is that Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories will only permit flatbed trucks to enter Gaza, yet temperature-controlled medications can only be transported in closed trucks. Because of this rule, 17 pallets of Save the Children's temperature-controlled medication are currently stranded in Al-Areesh, Egypt.
Oxfam said it had deliveries of water tanks, desalination units, tap stands, generators, and latrines stalled on the other side of the border, while the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) had 864 tents it has so far been unable to bring through.
"This is the first time I find myself unable to offer help to others. It pains me as an aid worker that I can't do much for others. In all past escalations, I would still go out and serve those who needed help," Salma Altaweel, an NRC support manager in Gaza City, said in the report.
When aid workers in Gaza attempt to deliver supplies, they put themselves at risk. On July 13, a drone strike killed two members of a War Child partner organization, while an Israeli airstrike killed four of a War Child and Action Aid partner worker's children and critically injured his wife when it struck his shelter in Nuseirat. Israel fired on a clearly marked U.N. convoy on July 21, and two well-labeled UNICEF convoys were fired upon just two days later. Since October, around 278 aid workers have been killed in Gaza.
Stoner of Save the Children said: "Aid workers are not spared from the violence. One of our staff members was killed alongside his wife and four children by an Israeli airstrike back in December, since then aid workers have continued to be targeted. Humanitarian staff should never be a target and humanitarian operations, including convoys and warehouses, must be protected. We've said it again and again: an immediate and definitive cease-fire is the only way to save lives in Gaza."
The report authors issued a reminder that Israel, as an occupying power in Gaza, is obligated under the Geneva Convention to safeguard the humanitarian needs of Gaza's people by allowing aid to enter and be administered safely.
"Our continued presence should not be mistaken for an indication of unimpeded access," the aid groups wrote. "We operate at great risk, despite significant impediments to our access. The risks our colleagues are exposed to each moment are unacceptable and contrary to their protections under international law. In Gaza, we are not witnessing a 'shrinking' humanitarian space; there is barely any space left to operate at all."
They concluded, "We, the undersigned NGOs, continue to call for an immediate and lasting cease-fire and maintain it is the only way to provide humanitarian assistance and protect and save lives in Gaza."
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'Unlawful and Catastrophic': IDF Begins Forced Evacuation of Rafah
The head of one humanitarian group called the Israeli military's directives "a serious violation of international law."
May 06, 2024
Israel's army on Monday ordered roughly 100,000 people living in eastern Rafah to evacuate ahead of an imminent military assault on the area, terrifying families who have been forcibly displaced to the southern Gaza city in recent months and intensifying warnings of a bloodbath.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dropped leaflets over Rafah ordering some of its 1.4 million residents to move to a strip along Gaza's coast, a signal that a long-feared ground assault on the overcrowded city is set to begin in the face of vocal opposition from the international community and humanitarian organizations.
The U.S., Israel's top arms supplier, has said it would oppose a Rafah assault without a credible plan to evacuate civilians from the city. Humanitarian groups and analysts have said such a plan is impossible because there is no genuinely safe place for Gazans to go. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked so-called "safe zones" and designated routes Palestinians have used to flee in compliance with past IDF orders.
"Israel's military offensive in Rafah could lead to the deadliest phase of this conflict, inflicting horrific suffering on approximately 1.4 million displaced civilians in the area," said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "The relocation orders issued by Israel today to thousands of Gazans, directing them to move to Al-Mawasi, are beyond alarming. The area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services. It lacks the capacity to house the number of people currently seeking refuge in Rafah, with no assurances of safety, proper accommodation, or return once hostilities end for those forced to relocate."
"The absence of these fundamental guarantees of safety and return, as required by international humanitarian law, qualifies Israel's relocation directives as forcible transfer, amounting to a serious violation of international law," Egeland said. "Any Israeli military operation in Rafah—which has become the largest cluster of displacement camps in the world—will cause potential mass atrocities."
"If large-scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already weakened."
Israel
reportedly notified the U.S. of the evacuation orders overnight, and CIA Director William Burns is set to arrive in Israel on Monday to discuss the operation in Rafah, a city along Gaza's border with Egypt that has become a critical point of entry for humanitarian aid. The new evacuation orders, expected to be just the first round of directives, include Rafah's largest medical facility.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main relief agency in Gaza, said in response to the IDF's orders that it would not leave Rafah.
"An Israeli offensive in Rafah would mean more civilian suffering and deaths. The consequences would be devastating for 1.4 million people," the organization wrote in a social media post. "UNRWA is not evacuating: The agency will maintain a presence in Rafah as long as possible and will continue providing lifesaving aid to people."
BREAKING: #Israel drops leaflets over #Rafah southern #Gaza, ordering inhabitants of eastern Rafah to immediately move to Al Mawasi (a desolate strip along the Gaza coast), cautioning them from moving to north Gaza or towards its southern and eastern perimeter fence. pic.twitter.com/tBum9ULewF
— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) May 6, 2024
The far-right Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been threatening a ground invasion of Rafah for months, characterizing the city as Hamas' last major stronghold. Avichay Adraee, an IDF lieutenant colonel, said Monday that the Israeli military would use "extreme force" in the evacuation areas and warned that "anyone who is close to terrorist organizations puts his life and the life of his family at risk."
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), around 600,000 children are currently sheltering in the city, including many who have been displaced multiple times since Israel's assault began in October following a Hamas-led attack.
"More than 200 days of war have taken an unimaginable toll on the lives of children," Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director, said Monday. "Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza. If large-scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already weakened.”
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, called the IDF's evacuation push in Rafah "unlawful and catastrophic."
"There's nowhere safe to go in Gaza," Shakir added. "The international community should act to prevent further atrocities."
The IDF began issuing its evacuation orders in Rafah a day after the Netanyahu government voted to shut downAl Jazeera's operations in the country, a brazen attack on press freedom.
"The fact that Israel banned
Al Jazeera hours before beginning its assault on Rafah is not a coincidence," said author and Middle East analyst Assal Rad. "After everything we’ve seen in the last seven months, imagine what they'll do when they think no one is watching."
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