The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports limited improvements in the flow of critical supplies into the Gaza Strip. However, needs remain immense, and populations continue to depend heavily on aid. Recent data indicate a 33 percent rise in the volume of supplies that aid agencies brought into Gaza in July compared to June.
More than 56,000 pallets of aid—approximately 35,000 metric tons, or 2,300 truckloads—reached Gaza in July, returning supply levels to those recorded before the regional escalation in February. Approximately 60 percent of these supplies were food, followed by smaller volumes of items related to shelter, water, sanitation, hygiene, and health. Additionally, the private sector has brought in more supplies.
Despite these gains, humanitarian organizations warn that restrictions remain on the types of aid allowed into Gaza. Specifically, they say more approvals are needed to bring engine oil and spare parts into the territory because all humanitarian operations depend on vehicles and backup generators that require maintenance.
Repeated Israeli denials of requests to bring in engine oil, combined with insufficient quantities of quality lubricant oil coming in through the private sector, could force critical operations at hospitals, pumping stations, and bakeries to reduce or stop their activities.
On Friday, OCHA highlighted another restriction: durable shelter materials. Most of Gaza’s 2.1 million people remain displaced in harrowing conditions. So far, aid agencies have mostly been allowed to bring in tents that cannot withstand the long term.
A new assessment by the UN Satellite Center (UNOSAT) estimates that the number of destroyed structures in Gaza has increased by 9 percent since the ceasefire was declared in October 2023. Overall, approximately 82 percent of Gaza's structures are damaged — more than 200,000 to some degree — and two-thirds of those are assessed as destroyed.
Despite a nominal ceasefire, the killing of civilians continues
Civilians across the Gaza Strip continue to face intense military strikes, shelling, gunfire, and naval fire. On Thursday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that at least 300 children have been killed in Gaza over the past 300 days—an average of one child per day—and hundreds more have been severely injured.
"A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children," said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder.
"With hundreds more children injured, many severely, children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised."
Gazans are now crowded into about one-third of the territory, sheltering in unsafe conditions among destroyed buildings, rubble, and accumulated solid waste. Across Gaza, children continue to face acute malnutrition, disease, unsafe water, and damaged sanitation systems.
"Announcements made in recent days set out a roadmap for the next phase of the ceasefire, including steps towards ending hostilities and scaling up humanitarian relief. This offers new hope and a chance to finally stop children being killed," said Beigbeder.
"For children in Gaza, the test is simple. Does the killing stop? Does aid reach them at scale? Do hospitals reopen and water flow? Will children return to school safely in September? Children have heard promises before. This time, agreements must translate into action."
Children continue to live under appalling conditions, including in overcrowded shelters with limited access to clean water and healthcare. The UN and its humanitarian partners are doing their utmost to scale up assistance.
UNICEF called on all parties to comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law.
“They must protect children, safeguard their access to essential goods and services, including healthcare, education, safe water and food, and allow and facilitate safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access to children in need,” the UN agency said.
Since the ceasefire took effect ten months ago, Israeli security forces have killed over 1,200 Palestinians in Gaza, bringing the death toll since October 2023 to more than 73,000. Among the confirmed fatalities are over 21,200 children. An estimated 58,000 children have lost one or both parents.
The real death toll is believed to be higher. Verified casualties also include at least 595 aid workers, 401 UN staff members, 1,700 healthcare workers, and 262 journalists. Additionally, Israeli military forces have injured over 174,000 people in Gaza. An estimated 43,000 of those injured have suffered life-changing disabilities.
The mounting death toll is accompanied by a parallel crisis in food security and nutrition, as detailed in the most recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
Released in July, the IPC analysis revealed that food security and child nutrition have improved since December 2025. Currently, an estimated 1.4 million people — 67 percent of Gaza’s population — are experiencing crisis levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) or worse. This represents a reduction from 1.6 million people at the end of last year.
However, the analysis found that an estimated 212,000 people remain in emergency conditions (IPC Phase 4). Many of these individuals live in areas near the Israeli-controlled "yellow line," where access to humanitarian aid and services is limited.
The struggle to deliver food and health care unfolds against a backdrop of shrinking territory and persistent military encroachment, squeezing civilians into ever-tighter spaces.
Israeli military airstrikes and attacks reportedly continue on both sides of the Yellow Line, where Israeli forces withdrew in accordance with the ceasefire agreement. However, Israeli forces continue to advance the Yellow Line further into Gaza. They now control an estimated 70 percent of the territory, up from approximately 53 percent in October 2025 when the ceasefire agreement entered into force.
Ongoing military operations near the Yellow Line, coupled with strikes in other locations in the Strip, increasingly disrupt civilian life. These operations damage shelters, drive renewed displacement, and restrict access to life-saving services.
These actions are forcing Palestinians into ever-smaller pockets of land and raising serious concerns about ethnic cleansing as a crime against humanity targeting the civilian population or even an ongoing genocide against Palestinians as a group.
Systematic atrocity crimes, lack of accountability, and impunity
In June, a United Nations commission of inquiry issued a damning report stating that Israeli authorities and security forces are still committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the Gaza Strip. This follows the commission's conclusion last year that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza.
The updated report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel emphasizes that Israeli military operations have continued on a large scale and systematically. These operations have resulted in an unprecedented number of deaths, injuries, and cases of trauma among Palestinian children.
The Commission reiterated that deliberately targeting children is key to proving the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza, either wholly or in part. According to international law, Israeli authorities are obligated to uphold children's rights in all areas under their jurisdiction or control, including occupied territories.
A previous report found evidence that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed four categories of acts that constitute genocide in the Gaza Strip with the intent to destroy the Palestinian group in whole or in part. These acts include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life on the group that are calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.
These conclusions mirror the findings of several international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights, as well as Israeli organizations such as B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
Independent human rights experts and the world’s leading genocide scholars have also determined that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute not only war crimes and crimes against humanity but also qualify as a genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza.
Against this backdrop, human rights groups and humanitarian organizations around the world are expressing mounting concern about the impunity that Israeli military personnel and government officials enjoy for committing some of the worst international crimes.