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In the West Bank, the ICRC is monitoring farmers' access to their land during the olive harvest.

In Israel, the Occupied and Autonomous Territories, the ICRC regularly visits detainees falling under its mandate in order to monitor their conditions of detention and the treatment they receive. The observations and recommendations of the ICRC are submitted confidentially to the authorities in charge.

Promoting respect for the civilian population
The ICRC talked with the Israeli authorities about their restrictive policy with regard to the import of goods and fuel into Gaza and the expected humanitarian consequences among the civilian population of the Strip.

The ICRC continued to intervene with the Israeli authorities about the humanitarian consequences related to the illegal routing of the West Bank Barrier within the Occupied Territories. The ICRC is particularly concerned about problems experienced by Palestinian farmers accessing privately owned land located in the "seam zone" (the land located between the Green Line and the West Bank Barrier), as well as the problems faced by some of the isolated communities living there.

Detainees visited in Israeli places of detention
In November, the ICRC visited 20 Israeli places of detention. This included provisional detention centres, police stations and prisons as well as the interrogation centres, which are visited on a weekly basis.

Detainees visited in the Palestinian territories
On the Palestinian side, ICRC delegates visited prisons, police stations and other detention facilities managed by the Palestinian authorities in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho, Nablus, Hebron, Tulkarem, Qalqilia, Jenin, Salfit, Tubas and the Gaza Strip.

Family visits and messages to detainees
The ICRC's family visit programme allows families from Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Occupied Golan to visit relatives held in Israeli places of detention. In November, more than 12,000 people travelled to 27 Israeli places of detention and visited about 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 some 900 detainees from Gaza being held in Israeli prisons are affected.

More than 2,400 messages containing family news were exchanged through the ICRC 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.

House destruction relief programme
In the West Bank and in Gaza, the ICRC provided food, shelter (tents) and other essential household items to 13 families whose houses were totally or partially destroyed by the Israeli army.

H2 assistance programme
In the old city of Hebron (H2), the ICRC distributed food parcels to more than 1,600 families particularly affected by strict closures as well as over 10 kg of extra wheat flour per family for almost 1,200 vulnerable families.

Emergency assistance
In the West Bank and Gaza, the ICRC has provided emergency assistance to 15 needy families, in the form of 16 food parcels and 5 hygiene kits.

Cash for work programme and livelihood support
The ICRC also paid for 10,635 days of work in various infrastructure or agricultural projects across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

ICRC livelihood support programmes have allowed 54 households to develop new ways of generating income despite restrictions on movement imposed by closures, settlements or the West Bank Barrier. The ICRC assistance includes materials such as greenhouse items, professional kits, livestock and material for the rehabilitation of boats.

In Gaza, the ICRC distributed almost 10,000 olive, citrus and palm tree seedlings and assisted with the rehabilitation of 311 dunums (31.1 hectares) of agricultural land to farmers affected by military incursions damaging their land.

Health
Through the Ministry of Health Central Medical Stores, the ICRC provided the Ministry's 18 general hospitals with medical supplies during the month of November.
The ICRC continued to support the health sector in Gaza by transporting medical goods into the Gaza Strip and providing essential assistance to the hospitals. Food and fuel supplies in the hospitals were closely monitored.

Water and Habitat
In the West Bank, the ICRC is running eight projects consisting of the construction of three water main lines and five reservoirs which will ensure clean water supply to 46,000 people.

In the Gaza Strip, the construction and equipment of two boreholes will ensure water supply to about 20,000 people in two villages in central and southern Gaza. Works on sewage evacuation and a partial treatment project are nearing completion in Khan Younis town (150,000 beneficiaries).

The PRCS began an expanded Emergency Medical Services in East Jerusalem on Thursday 29 November. Five additional ambulances joined the two existing ambulances operating from the PRCS Maternity Hospital in East Jerusalem, according to the terms of an Agreement signed in 2005 between the PRCS and the MDA.

It is the responsibility of all those involved in armed conflict to respect international humanitarian law (IHL). The ICRC supports their efforts by raising awareness about IHL and about its role and activities.

Presentations on the ICRC and the basic principles of IHL were given to senior officers from the Civil Administration including general security services and police, IDF checkpoint commanders and the Israel Prison Service.

Dissemination and training sessions on IHL and First Aid were carried out in Gaza for militant groups from different factions. Other sessions on ICRC activities and the basic principles of IHL were carried out for members of NGOs, village councils, security forces and university and school students as well as PRCS staff and volunteers in the West Bank and Gaza.