UNRWA Situation Report #154 on Crisis in Gaza, West Bank

Gazans are living in temporary shelters in Khan Yunis.

Highlights

• In less than three weeks, eight newborns reportedly died in the Gaza Strip from hypothermia because of the cold winter weather,  lack of shelter and winter supplies.  

• According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at least 74 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the first seven days of 2025.

• In December 2024, UNRWA planned 190 coordinated missions to deliver humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip. The denial rate has reached 70 per cent, marking the highest denial rate in the past six months.

• The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a report on attacks on hospitals in the  Gaza Strip. Between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024, OHCHR documented a total of 136 strikes impacting hospitals and other health facilities.

• According to OCHA, in 2024, the UN and partners planned 5,321 humanitarian movements across the Gaza Strip, including 3,707 in the south and 1,614 in the north. Of those, 24 per cent were denied, 19 per cent faced impediments, 48 per cent were facilitated, and 9 per cent were cancelled.

Key points

The Gaza Strip

• Strikes by the Israeli Forces continued, with aerial, land and maritime bombardments across the Gaza Strip, resulting in civilian casualties and the destruction of residential buildings and public infrastructure. Rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups towards Israel has taken place.  

• In northern Gaza, since 6 October 2024, the Israeli Forces have been carrying out a ground offensive and continue to impose a tight siege. Intense military operations are ongoing amid a near total lack of humanitarian aid entering the area, in addition to severe communications and internet disruptions. Some parts of the North Gaza governorate have been under a tightened siege for more than three months. Access remains extremely challenging and humanitarian actors’ ongoing attempts to deliver aid to the area continues to be largely prevented by the Israeli Forces. This is leaving thousands of people without access to food, on the brink of famine, water, electricity or healthcare, as mass casualty incidents continue.

• Babies in the Gaza Strip continue to die from hypothermia due to cold weather and lack of lwinter supplies, as a result of humanitarian access restrictions. UNICEF reported that eight newborns died of the cold in less than three weeks.  

• On 3 January, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated that it is “deeply alarmed” by the impact of rains and cold weather affecting the Gaza Strip, where the vast majority of peple have been  displaced and families are left exposed .

• On 8 January,  UNICEF published a press release according to which  at least 74 children had been killed in the Gaza Strip only in the first seven days of 2025. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell stated that “for the children of Gaza, the new year has brought more death and suffering from attacks, deprivation and increasing exposure to the cold.”

• The World Food Programme (WFP) reported that, in the second half of November and the first half of December 2024, people in the Gaza Strip have heavily relied on bread and pulses for the third consecutive month. Access to other food items including fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy products and meat is almost non-existent. Overall, the cost of many basic food products increased by more than 1,000 per cent compared to pre-war prices. Market access across the Gaza Strip continues to be a major challenge, with market activity concentrated in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and Khan Younis – and none in North Gaza and Rafah.  

• On 31 December, OHCHR published a report on attacks on hospitals . According to the report, the impact of Israeli military’s operations in and around hospitals has extended beyond physical structures, resulting in the loss of access to critical medical  treatment, safe-space and shelters, and care for chronic illnesses. Overall, during the reporting period, OHCHR documented a total of 136 strikes impacting at least 27 of the 38 hospitals in the Gaza Strip and 12 other medical facilities.

• OCHA reported that the lack of fuel to operate electricity generators continues to severely affect the already decimated health system across the Gaza Strip. 

• In December 2024, UNRWA planned a total of 190 coordinated missions, which accounted for 33 per cent of all humanitarian movements in Gaza. Seventy per cent of the Agency’s missions were denied by the Israeli authorities,  marking the highest denial rate in the past six months.  

• On 31 December, the Israeli Forces issued an evacuation order impacting the Al Bureij area (Middle Areas), where seven UNRWA installations are located. Another evacuation order in the same area was issued on 3 January which impacted seven UNRWA instalations.  

• On 1 January, the Israeli Forces issued an evacuation order impacting an area of Gaza City, where two UNRWA installations are located. 

• According to OCHA, as of 8 January, around 80.5 per cent of the Gaza Strip is under active evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities.

• According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people – or about 90 per cent of the population – across the Gaza Strip are displaced. Many have been displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more.  

• Between 7 October 2023 and 8 January 2025, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, as stated by OCHA, at least 45,936 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Gaza and 109,274 have been injured.

• OCHA reports that, the MoH in Gaza published the breakdown of 40,717 out of 42,010 fatalities as of 7 October 2024. These reportedly include 13,319 children, 7,216 women, 3,447 elderly, and 16,735 men. Among the child fatalities, 786 children are under one year of age, representing about 6 per cent of killed children whose full identification details have been documented, the MoH further reported. Additionally, as of 7 October 2024, the MoH noted that 35,055 children had lost one or both parents over the past year.

• As of 8 January, the total number of UNRWA team members killed since 7 October 2023 is 265.

• Several challenges continue to stand in the way of collecting much needed humanitarian supplies from the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing point in southern Gaza. These include deteriorating public order, war and insecurity, damaged infrastructure, fuel shortages and access restrictions.  

• According to OCHA, between 1 and 5 January, UN agencies monitored the collection of 255 humanitarian trucks from Gaza Strip crossings, excluding fuel. This represents a daily average of only 51 humanitarian trucks, well below the pre-war average of 500 trucks (all types of supplies), per working day.  

• According to OCHA, in 2024, the UN and partners planned 5,321 humanitarian movements across the Gaza Strip, including 3,707 in the south and 1,614 in the north. Of those, 24 per cent were denied, 19 per cent faced impediments, 48 per cent were facilitated, and 9 per cent were cancelled.

• OCHA reported that, of the 569 humanitarian movements coordinated with Israeli authorities across Gaza from 1 to 30 December 2024, 224 were denied access, 103 faced impediments, 53 cancelled due to logistical and security challenges and only 189 facilitated.  

• Out of the 127 aid movements which needed to pass through the Israeli military-controlled Al Rashid or Salah Ad Din checkpoints to reach areas north of Wadi Gaza, between 1 and 30 December, 43 were denied, 31 faced impediments, 17 had to be cancelled and 36 were facilitated.  

• Aid missions to the North Gaza governorate were particularly disrupted, especially those seeking to reach Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. Between 1 and 30 December, the UN attempted to reach besieged areas in North Gaza 60 times, 55 of which were denied, and five were allowed to proceed but faced impediments.  

• OCHA reported that coordinated aid missions to areas in Rafah governorate, which has been under an ongoing Israeli military operation since May 2024, have faced similar challenges, with 36 out of the 38 coordinated requests submitted to Israeli authorities between 1 and 30 December denied, one facing impediments, and one facilitated. This excludes 67 coordinated movements to Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing, of which two were denied, 21 impeded, five cancelled and 39 facilitated.

• The latest information on supplies entering Gaza can be accessed through the link below:  

The West Bank, including East Jerusalem

• According to OCHA, between 7 October 2023 and 8 January 2024, 813 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Of those, 498 Palestinians were killed in 2024.  

• Between 1 and 8 January 2025, there were 11 Palestinians reported killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem: nine killed by the Israeli Forces, and two in the ongoing Palestinian Security Forces operation in Jenin Camp and surrounding areas. During the same period, two Israeli settlers and an Israeli police officer were killed by Palestinian armed actors. 

• The Palestinian Security Forces operation in and around Jenin Camp against Palestinian armed actors has been ongoing since early December, with two fatalities recorded since 1 January. On 1 January, the UNRWA Jenin Camp Health Centre was directly hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing significant damage. This followed several weeks of occupation of the Health Centre by Palestinian armed actors, who vacated the premises on 31 December 2024. On 3 January, an exchange of fire took place between Palestinians and Israeli Forces during an operation  in Balata Camp, killing one Palestinian and injuring nine. On 5 January, the Israeli Forces forced a Palestinian family to demolish their building containing six apartments in Silwan, East Jerusalem, displacing around 39 Palestinians from their homes. On 7 and 8 January, the Israeli Forces deployed drone-fired missiles in Tammun, in northern West Bank. The first of these incidents resulted in two Palestinians killed, with the second missile killing three Palestinians including two children.

• On 6 January, two Israeli settlers and an Israeli police officer were shot and killed, and eight others injured, when a group of Palestinian armed groups allegedly opened fire at Israeli vehicles in the vicinity of Al Funduq, in northern West Bank. Following the incident, extensive access restrictions were imposed by the Israeli authorities across the northern West Bank, including the temporary closure of all checkpoints in the Nablus area.

• Three additional Palestinians were killed in exchanges of fire with the Israeli Forces during this period, in Meithalun, Askar Camp, and Al Badhan.  

Overall situation

The Gaza Strip

• Between 7 October 2023 and 8 January 2025, according to the MoH in Gaza as stated by OCHA, at least 45,936 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in the Gaza Strip while 109,274 have been reported injured.

Humanitarian access and protection of civilians

• UNRWA is working to verify the details of incidents that reportedly impact UNRWA premises. Further information will be provided once it becomes available*.

• During the reporting period, six new armed conflict-related incidents have been reported impacting UNRWA installations and displaced people sheltering there, including UNRWA personnel:

o On 6 January, 20 people were reportedly injured, including an UNRWA staff member, in an UNRWA school north-west of Nuseirat (Middle Areas), due to an air munition from an Israeli Forces quadcopter hitting the schoolyard.

o On 4 January, Israeli Forces artillery fire directly struck an UNRWA school in Gaza City in Al Sabra area (Gaza City), causing damages to the northern building. Five displaced people were reportedly injured and transferred to hospital.

o On 3 January, Israeli Forces artillery shells reportedly struck a classroom of an UNRWA school in Gaza City in the Al Sabra area, causing a fire to break out. Several people were reported injured.

o On 2 January, a stray bullet reportedly hit the guards’ room of an UNRWA store in Gaza City. No injuries were reported, while the room sustained minor damage.

o On 2 January, an Israeli Forces quadcopter reportedly dropped an air munition in the vicinity of an UNRWA school in Nuseirat (Middle Areas), causing a minor injury to a child inside the school. No damage to the school was reported.

o On 31 December 2024, the Israeli Forces reportedly conducted a number of strikes near a UN international staff guesthouse west of Gaza City. Shrapnel inside the installation and damages were reported.  

o [Late report] On 15 December 2024 (estimate), three UNRWA schools in Beit Hanoun were reportedly damaged during the Israeli Forces military operation in the Al-Izba area in Beit Hanoun (Northern Gaza).

*As of 23 December, 648*incidents impacting UNRWA premises and the people inside them have been reported since the beginning of the war (some with multiple incidents impacting the same location). 201* UNRWA installations have been impacted by armed conflict-related incidents since the beginning of the war, some on multiple occasions. UNRWA estimates that, in total, at least 745*persons sheltering in UNRWA installations have been killed and at least 2,202* injured since the start of the war. UNRWA continues to verify and update the number of casualties caused by these incidents.

* Since the start of the war in October 2023, the latest casualty figures are continuously under review as UNRWA gains access to locations that were previously inaccessible and as further verifications occur. The summary figures will be published/updated as information becomes available, noting that these numbers are subject to change once verifications are concluded.  

UNRWA response

The Gaza Strip

Health

• According to the Health Cluster, UNRWA remains one of the largest health actors operating in the Gaza Strip, contributing to over half of the people reached with health services since 7 October 2023. Between 7 October 2023 and 29 December 2024, UNRWA provided over 7 million medical consultations across the Gaza Strip.  

• In addition to medical consultations, UNRWA (in partnership with and support from other UN agencies, including UNICEF and WHO) continues to provide vaccines to children. Over 234,000 routine immunisation vaccines have been administered to children from in 2024 . In addition, around 560,000 children under the age of 10 across the Gaza Strip have been vaccinated against polio.  

• As of 4 January, only three out of 22 UNRWA health centres and four additional UNRWA-rented facilities used as temporary health centres were operational in Gaza. Health services are also provided through  92 mobile medical teams working in 53 medical points inside and outside shelters in the middle area, Khan Younis, Al Mawasi and Gaza City. UNRWA health facilities provide primary health care, including outpatient services, non-communicable disease care, giving out medications, vaccination, antenatal and postnatal health care, laboratory and dental services, physiotherapy and dressings for the injured. The number of operational health facilities changes constantly based on demand, access and security.  

• To date, 1,208 UNRWA health staff continued to work in health centres, temporary clinics and medical points across the Gaza Strip. UNRWA continued to provide mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services in the middle and Khan Younis areas, with teams of psychiatrists, psychosocial  and supervisors to assist special cases referred from UNRWA health centres and shelters. On 4 January, UNRWA teams responded to 529 cases in health centres and at medical points through individual consultations, awareness sessions and to address cases of gender-based violence (GBV).    

• On 4 January, UNRWA medical teams provided care for 666 post-natal and pregnant women at high risk.

• On 4 January, UNRWA teams provided dental and oral health services i in fixed and mobile clinics, reaching 504 patients. On 4 January, 263 patients received physiotherapy rehabilitation services in health centres and medical points.

• DifferentUNRWA laboratory services are  limited to three tests out of nearly 35 that were available before 7 October 2023. This is due to limited availability of stocks of most laboratory supplies. Laboratory equipment requires maintenance or replacement.

Psychosocial Support and Learning

• UNRWA remains the largest provider of emergency learning and psychosocial support (PSS) across the Gaza Strip. Around 660,000 children are out of school due to the war. On 1 August 2024, UNRWA began its first phase response of “Back to Learning” with a focus on mental health activities. This is taking place in up to 45 UNRWA schools-turned-shelters [2] by expanding ongoing PSS activities, focusing on arts, music and sports and raising awareness on the risks of explosive ordnance, with the support of up to 750 [3] school counsellors and hundreds of teachers. UNRWA continues to provide lifesaving PSS services in Gaza, including psychological first aid, individual and group counselling, fatigue management sessions, recreational activities, Explosive Ordnance Risk Education and protection cash assistance, reaching children, youth and adults.

• Since the onset of the conflict and up to 5 January, around 730,000 displaced people, including over 520,000 children, have benefited from 280,115 PSS sessions and activities. Between 30 December and 5 January, a total of 11,629 displaced people accessed these services.  

• More than 18,000 children, over half of them girls, have benefited from UNRWA’s “Back to Learning” programme so far. Between 30 December 2024 and 5 January 2025, 10,645 children (4,151 boys, 6,494 girls, including 355 children with disabilities) participated in “Back to Learning” activities, including basic literacy and numeracy sessions, PSS sessions, and recreational activities including arts, music and sports. The activities were conducted daily across 86 temporary learning spaces in 40 shelters, for an average of seven hours per day. This is thanks to 975 UNRWA teachers, with support from counsellors, aiming to address the psychosocial needs of children and adolescents.

• Between 7 October 2023 and 6 January 2025, UNRWA’s social work team has provided services to 202,265 displaced people, including psychological first aid, PSS services, family and individual activities, as well as case management. During the same reporting period, protection services were provided to 1,898 survivors of GBV and 3,052 children, including 1,494 unaccompanied children, covering reunification, cash assistance, safe sheltering, medication, dignity kits and non-food items through referrals. The team also supported 22,017 persons with disabilities with PSS; 7,753 of these individuals received assistive devices and rehabilitation services. Awareness sessions on GBV, child protection, disability and special needs, as well as managing social and psychological stressors, were conducted for 149,446 displaced people.

Food Security

• From 7 October 2023 to 31 December 2024, a total of over 388,000 families (nearly 1.9 million people) have been reached with two rounds of flour; over 374,000 of those families have received three rounds.

• In December 2024, UNRWA reached nearly 135,000 families (or nearly 1 million people) with flour, distributing around 3.4 million kilos of flour in southern and central Gaza.

• UNRWA continues to distribute food parcels wherever possible. These include [4] rice, chickpeas, lentils, beans, oil, salt, sugar, milk powder, hummus, canned meat and canned fish, and are designed to cover approximately 90 per cent of daily calorific needs per quarter. To date, around 1.69 million people have been reached, of whom at least 215,000 people have received two rounds of food parcels since the war started.

• In December 2024, UNRWA teams distributed over 52,000 food parcels.

• In addition to the distribution of UNRWA food parcels, the Agency distributes food parcels on behalf of other UN organisations, reaching over 1.4 million people.  

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

• Since October 2023, UNRWA has carried out emergency WASH activities across the Gaza Strip.  The main activities include operating and maintaining water wells and desalination systems and supplying water with water trucks and bottled water. In addition, UNRWA continues to distribute hygiene kits and maintain hygiene in UNRWA shelters and sites by providing cleaning supplies, community-based solid waste management and pest control.

• UNRWA continues to be one of the largest WASH actors in the Gaza Strip. Between August and mid-November, UNRWA accounted for around 44 per cent of water, sanitation and hygiene activities reported in the Gaza Strip, Including access to water (56 per cent), access to sanitation and solid waste management (42 per cent), and flood mitigation and prevention (66 per cent).

• In the second half of December, around 50,000 cubic metres of water – both potable and domestic – were distributed by UNRWA across the Gaza Strip. Moreover, an UNRWA water well in Gaza city was rehabilitated.

• Winterization efforts are ongoing in southern Gaza and the middle area, with around 250 manholes cleaned in the second half of December. Sixty-six cleaning and pest and rodent control measures were completed. Moreover, during the same period, UNRWA conducted 90 hygiene promotion sessions and distributed over 500 litres of cleaning liquids for shelters across the Gaza Strip.

• UNRWA continues to provide a solid waste collection and transfer service in southern Gaza and the middle area. Over the second half of December, around 4,000 tons of solid waste have been collected and transported to temporary dumping sites.  

(Background Information:

UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency’s area of operations pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.

UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. 

Tens of thousands of Palestine refugees who lost their homes and livelihoods due to the1948 conflict continue to be displaced and in need of support, nearly 75 years on.

UNRWA helps Palestine Refugees achieve their full potential in human development. It does this through quality services it provides in education, health care, relief and social services, protection, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and emergency assistance.  UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.)