Geneva, 3 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The UN's emergency response agency said $1.2 billion is needed to meet the urgent needs of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

This is four times the amount first requested by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in early October, shortly after Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel and Israel's military response.

"The situation has grown increasingly desperate since then," said OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke in Geneva on Friday.

Laerke said the new appeal for donations covers the needs of 2.7 million people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank through the end of the year.

The money will be used to finance food, water, healthcare and accommodation for Palestinians.

Of the $294 million originally requested, only a fraction had been pledged, the spokesman said.

About 1.5 million of the approximately 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced by the war, according to OCHA figures.

Laerke said that rooms measuring 40 to 60 square metre rooms inside some UN shelters in Gaza are housing up to 240 people.

Photo: EPA