In the Gaza Strip, the ICRC continued to closely monitor the humanitarian consequences of the closure of the Gaza Strip, especially the transfer of persons needing medical treatment not available in the Gaza Strip.
In Israel, the Occupied and Autonomous Territories, the ICRC regularly visits detainees to monitor the conditions of their detention and their treatment. Its observations and recommendations are submitted confidentially to the authorities in charge.
On 13 December, shortly before the major donors’ conference in Paris, the ICRC made a public statement of its concern over the dire conditions prevailing in Gaza. The ICRC appealed for immediate political action to improve the humanitarian situation both in Gaza and in the west Bank. It called on Israel to respect its obligations, under IHL, to ease restrictions on movement in the Gaza Strip and in the west Bank, which had exacerbated economic hardship, and to lift the retaliatory measures that are paralyzing life in Gaza. The ICRC also called on the various Palestinian factions to stop targeting civilian areas and endangering the lives of civilians.
Regarding the management of the 2007 olive harvest in the west Bank, the ICRC presented its conclusions and recommendations on the subject to the Israeli authorities.
Protection
Promoting respect for the civilian population
The ICRC continued to make representations to the Israeli authorities and to Palestinian armed groups in order to alleviate the consequences of military operations for civilians living in the Gaza Strip.
The ICRC continued to draw the attention of Israeli authorities to the humanitarian consequences of the illegal routing of the West Bank Barrier within the Occupied Territories. It expressed especial concern over the difficulties of Palestinian farmers who want access to the land between the Green Line and the West Bank Barrier, as well as about the problems faced by some of the isolated communities living there.
Detainees visited in Israeli places of detention
In December, the ICRC visited 20 Israeli places of detention. This included provisional detention centres, police stations and prisons as well as interrogation centres, which are visited on a weekly basis.
Detainees visited in the Palestinian territories
On the Palestinian side, the ICRC’s delegates visited prisons, police stations and other detention facilities managed by the Palestinian authorities in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho, Hebron, Qalqilia, Jenin and Gaza.
Family visits and messages to detainees
The ICRC's family visit programme enables families from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan to visit relatives held in Israeli places of detention. In December, about 12,500 persons travelled to 27 Israeli places of detention and visited some 5,500 relatives in detention.
The Israeli authorities suspended the family visit programme, for families from Gaza, on 6 June. The suspension remains in effect and about 900 detainees from Gaza being held in Israeli prisons are affected.
Besides family visits, exchanging Red Cross messages enables families to remain in touch with relatives in detention: the ICRC passed more than 3,100 messages between detainees and their relatives.
The ICRC made several hundred phone calls to family members to inform them of the whereabouts and welfare of their relatives who had been detained.
Assistance
House destruction relief programme
In the west Bank and in Gaza, the ICRC provided food and other essential items to two families whose houses had been totally or partially destroyed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Hebron H2 assistance programme
In the old city of Hebron (H2), the ICRC distributed about 3,300 food parcels - to more than 1,600 families especially affected by strict closures - and over 11,000 kg of wheat flour.
Emergency assistance
In the west Bank and in Gaza, the ICRC provided emergency assistance - eight food parcels - to four needy families.
Cash-for-work programme and livelihood support
The ICRC also paid for 12,271 days of work on various infrastructural or agricultural projects throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
ICRC livelihood support programmes have enabled 506 households to develop new ways of earning their livelihood despite restrictions on movement caused by closures, settlements or the West Bank Barrier. The ICRC provided greenhouse items, professional kits, livestock and material for repairing boats.
Health
Besides transporting medical goods and giving essential assistance to hospitals in the area, the ICRC, working through the Ministry of Health, provided 18 general hospitals with various medical supplies during the month of December. The hospitals’ supplies of fuel and food were closely monitored.
In Nablus, in the west Bank, ICRC health specialists took part in an informational session on first aid. In Gaza, access for patients needing treatment outside the Strip was closely monitored.
Water and Habitat
in the west Bank, so as to ensure the supply of clean water, the ICRC is constructing one new well, one pumping station, three water main lines and seven reservoirs. These projects will benefit more than 100,000 persons.
In the Gaza Strip, the ICRC finalized the construction and equipment of two boreholes in villages in central and southern Gaza. They will provide water for about 20,000 persons.
Work on the wastewater evacuation project in Khan Younis town, which will benefit 150,000 persons and was funded by the Qatar Red Crescent Society, was completed, as were repairs to the emergency medical services building and the Ministry of Health’s warehouse. In Rafah, a stormwater evacuation project, which will benefit 100,000 people, was completed.
Cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Magen David Adom (MDA)
The ICRC assisted in the organization of a National Disaster Response Team training course in Ashkelon from 16 to 20 December. Thirty MDA volunteers and staff reviewed logistical, shelter and emergency response, as well as other aspects of dealing with a major disaster. The MDA course was monitored partly by the head of the PRCS’s Disaster Unit. Such cooperation between the two National Societies will be critical in the event of a major natural disaster in the future.
Raising awareness of the ICRC and humanitarian law
It is the responsibility of all those involved in armed conflict to respect IHL. The ICRC supports their efforts by raising awareness of IHL and of its own role and activities.
Students from three Israeli academic institutions took part in the first IHL competition held in the country.
Together with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the ICRC organized an Israeli NGO day to focus on ways of "marketing" humanitarian messages to the Israeli public. Representatives from eight prominent Israeli human rights NGOs took part.
Presentations on the ICRC and on the basic principles of IHL were given to senior officers of the Civil Administration, to IDF checkpoint commanders, to the staff at the IDF's provisional detention centres and to commanders of the Israel Prison Service.
On the Palestinian side, dissemination sessions on the ICRC’s activities and on the basic principles of IHL were held for students and for members of women's centres, NGOs and the security forces, as well as for PRCS staff and volunteers in the west Bank and in Gaza.
Hebrew version
