The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) says that two additional members of staff have been killed by Israeli air strikes against the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll since October 7 to 101. This is the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations. Meanwhile, intense bombardments and shelling continue across the Gaza Strip, including in central and southern areas, killing hundreds of civilians every day; the majority of them are children and women.
The heads of more than a dozen United Nations agencies and international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have issued a rare joint statement Sunday calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Gaza officials reported today that more than 10,000 Palestinians - including more than 4,100 children - have been killed since October 7 by Israelâs retaliatory attacks against the tiny enclave.
United Nations Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres says the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is horrific, as Israelâs siege on the small enclave and the denial of access to humanitarian aid for its 2.2 million inhabitants continue. Meanwhile, Israeli ground operations in northern Gaza are ongoing, with troops and tanks reportedly surrounding Gaza City from multiple directions. Intense bombardments continue across the Gaza Strip, including in central and southern areas, killing hundreds of civilians every day, the majority of them are children and women.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warn that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hotspots â comprising a total of 22 countries or territories including two regions â during the period from November 2023 to April 2024.
The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Monday that civilians in the Gaza Strip are suffering collective punishment and forced displacement as Israels continues its bombing from air, land and sea, killing hundreds of civilians every day. Today, UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres condemned the killing of civilians in Gaza and expressed his dismay by reports that two-thirds of those who have been killed are women and children.
As the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip further unfolds and hundreds of civilians are killed daily by Israeli airstrikes, the United Nations has urged the Israeli government to cease its collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza, emphasizing that collective punishment is a war crime. A spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) demanded Friday that the âuse of dehumanizing language against Palestinians must also be halted.â
Due to intensifying Israeli airstrikes, the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has surged to more than 5,000, including more than 2,000 children. As the humanitarian disaster in the narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea further unfolds, UN organizations and humanitarian organizations have repeated their urgent calls for a ceasefire and more aid convoys. There is no electricity, no water, no fuel in Gaza, with food supplies running dangerously low.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including food, medicine and water, began entering the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday through the Egypt-controlled Rafah Crossing. Television pictures showed trucks moving into the border crossing area from the Egyptian side. According to local authorities, only about 20 trucks will enter the territory on Saturday, bringing a limited amount of aid. Meanwhile, catastrophic conditions in Gaza continue for its more than 2 million inhabitants as heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, continue almost uninterrupted.
United Nations Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres has called on Wednesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to ease the âepic human sufferingâ in the Gaza Strip. The call comes a day after hundreds of civilians were reported killed in an airstrike on a hospital in Gaza. The Gaza de facto authorities blamed Israel for the attack, while the Israeli military claimed a rocket misfired by a Palestinian armed group was responsible.
While heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted, a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, a part of the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). The calamitous deterioration of the situation follows the complete blockade on electricity, fuel, water, and food supplies from Israel into Gaza, and after the Israeli military requested all people in northern Gaza, to flee to the south within 24 hours.
Leading international humanitarian organizations on Friday have expressed shock and deep concern for civilians in the Gaza Strip after Israel ordered the entire population - more than 1.1 million people - to leave the northern part of Gaza as airstrikes continue and the humanitarian crisis worsens. Fearing catastrophic consequences, they warn that neither the demand to leave nor the total siege of Gaza imposed by Israel is compatible with international humanitarian law (IHL).
United Nations officials have called on Israel and Palestinian armed groups to stop targeting civilians and allow them access to basic services. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĂŒrk on Tuesday issued an urgent plea to all states with influence to take steps to defuse the âpowder kegâ situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). He stressed that international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law must be respected in all circumstances.
The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has released US$125 million from the UNâs Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to boost underfunded humanitarian operations in fourteen countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. Afghanistan and Yemen top the recipient list with $20 million each.
Inflation, insufficient humanitarian assistance and dollarization of food prices are contributing to Lebanonâs food crisis, the international humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has said. New data released by the United Nations (UN) and aid agencies this week reveals that 1.4 million people, including both Lebanese and refugees, are experiencing high levels of food insecurity in the country, while malnutrition and insufficient food consumption are prevalent.
As protracted and new armed conflicts have continued to rage in 2022, the number of children severely affected by hostilities has remained shockingly high at almost 19,000 children in 25 countries and the Lake Chad Basin region, according to a new UN report published Tuesday. While there were 27,180 grave violations verified overall, the conflicts with the highest numbers of children affected last year were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Yemen.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced this week that by June 200,000 people â 60 percent of the people the agency assists in Palestine â will no longer be receiving food assistance due to a severe funding shortage. By August, WFP will be forced to completely suspend operations in the West Bank and Gaza if no funding is received.
The overall humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is marked by a protracted political crisis, characterized by 59 years of Israeli military occupation. In October 2023, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip deteriorated drastically following the start of a war by the Israeli military due to atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups. For more than two years, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is raging in Gaza, where civilians are dying from violence, lack of medical treatment, famine, disease, starvation, dehydration, and hypothermia. On October 10, 2025, a ceasefire between Israel and the armed group Hamas went into effect.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĂŒrk has on Friday urged an end to the âillogic of escalation that has been building up, to the detriment of the human rights of Palestinians and Israelisâ. Record numbers of Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2022, which also saw the highest number of Israeli fatalities inside Israel and the West Bank in years.
The United Nations and its humanitarian partners have launched Thursday a $502 million (âŹ462 million) appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) to help 1.6 million of the most vulnerable people. The 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) estimates that 2.1 million Palestinians across the OPT need some form of humanitarian assistance this year. Among them are more than 1 million children.
