Humanitarian Situation Update #296 | Gaza Strip

The Humanitarian Situation Updates on the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank are both Issued every Wednesday/Thursday. Exceptionally, the West Bank Humanitarian Situation Update will not be issued this week. The Gaza Humanitarian Response Update is issued every other Tuesday, but was exceptionally issued on Wednesday this week. The next Humanitarian Situation Update on the Gaza Strip will be published on 18 June.

Key Highlights

• Shooting toward Palestinians trying to access food supplies in Gaza continues to be reported, resulting in mass casualties.
• Most of the 6,000 metric tonnes of wheat flour that entered Gaza since 19 May was offloaded by hungry people in dire need to feed their families, reports the Food Security Sector.
• Humanitarian organizations call for the full protection of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis as access to health care across Gaza is becoming increasingly compromised.
• The ongoing fuel blockade, now entering its fourth month, is placing life-sustaining services at severe risk.
• At least 463 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, including three over the past week.
• A new report highlights the degrading physical hardships and profound psychological distress facing women and girls in displacement camps across Gaza, forcing them to adopt extreme coping mechanisms.

Humanitarian Developments

• Since 18 March 2025, Israeli forces have escalated bombardment from the air, land and sea across the Gaza Strip and expanded ground operations. This has resulted in hundreds of casualties, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and large-scale displacement. According to the Site Management Cluster (SMC), more than 664,800 Palestinians in Gaza were displaced between 18 March and 11 June. With no safe place to go, many people have sought refuge in every available space, including overcrowded displacement sites, makeshift shelters, damaged buildings, streets and open areas. People have been confined to ever-shrinking spaces, with 82 per cent of the Gaza Strip now within Israeli-militarized zones or placed under displacement orders since 18 March. Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups has been reported. One rocket was reportedly fired by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza toward Israel on 10 June and intercepted.
• According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, between 5 and 11 June, 497 Palestinians were killed, and 2,053 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 11 June 2025, the MoH in Gaza reported that at least 55,104 Palestinians were killed and 127,394 Palestinians were injured. This includes 4,821 people killed and 15,353 injured since the re-escalation of hostilities on 18 March 2025, according to MoH.
• On 7 June, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported the killing of one of its staff members in an Israeli airstrike on 6 June on his family home in Jabalya, in North Gaza, reportedly along with more than 36 members of his extended family. On 5 June, a female psychologist of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees was reported killed in an airstrike on Gaza city. Additionally, Ma’an development centre reported the killing of one of their staff members in Gaza city on 4 June. Since October 2023, at least 463 aid workers have been killed, including 319 UN staff members.
• On 5 June, an Israeli airstrike hit the yard of Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza city, killing at least four journalists and injuring three others. According to COGAT, the IDF took steps “to mitigate harm to civilians” and struck the yard of the hospital, where a person allegedly affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) “operated from a command and control center.” The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) condemned the repeated targeting of journalists, with 18 reportedly killed in May 2025, and stated that this is at least the third instance of journalists apparently targeted and killed at hospitals; on 7 April 2025, two journalists were killed in Nasser Medical Complex, in Khan Younis, and on 26 December 2024, five journalists were killed in Al Awda Hospital, in Deir al Balah. OHCHR further stated: “The apparent targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, combined with the denial by Israel of access of foreign journalists to Gaza for over 18 months, except a few visits controlled by IDF, appear to indicate a deliberate attempt by Israel to limit the flow of information to and from Gaza and prevent reporting on the impact of its attacks and denial of humanitarian assistance.” In another incident on 9 June, a journalist and three Palestinian Civil Defence paramedics were reportedly killed during a rescue and retrieval operation following an attack on At Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza city.
• Between 5 and 9 June, deadly incidents included the following:
  • On 5 June, at about 13:30, nine Palestinians were reportedly killed and others injured when a group of people was hit near Al Shifa tower, northwest of Gaza city.
  • On 6 June, at about 11:15, a Palestinian female was reportedly killed and several others injured when a school housing internally displaced people (IDPs) was hit in Jabalya Al Balad, in North Gaza.
  • On 6 June, at about 11:45, at least 10 Palestinians were reportedly killed and several others injured during heavy artillery shelling on Jabalya al Balad, in North Gaza, including residential buildings and an IDPs centre.
  • On 7 June, at about 14:00, eight Palestinians, including two children, were reportedly killed and others injured when a group of people was hit in Jabalya an Nazlah, in North Gaza.
  • On 7 June, at about 18:00, six Palestinians were reportedly killed and others injured when two houses were hit in Jabalya al Balad, in North Gaza.
  • On 7 June, at about 5:00, seven Palestinians from the same family, including a mother and her four children, were reportedly killed when a residential building was hit in Gaza city.
  • On 9 June, at about 9:50, six Palestinians including two females were reportedly killed and others injured when an IDP tent was hit in Al Mawasi area in Khan Younis.
  • Between 1 and 9 June, at least 21 incidents were reported where IDP tents were allegedly hit, resulting in the reported killing of about 73 people and the injury of tens of others.
• Between 5 and 11 June, four Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. Between 7 October 2023 and 11 June 2025, according to Israeli forces and official Israeli sources cited in the media, more than 1,624 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, the majority on 7 October 2023 and its immediate aftermath. This includes 424 soldiers killed, in addition to 2,702 soldiers injured, in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation in October 2023. Of these, 17 soldiers were killed and 118 injured since the re-escalation of hostilities on 18 March 2025. On 5, 7 and 11 June, the bodies of five hostages, including four Israelis and one Thai national, were retrieved from Khan Younis and Rafah. As of 11 June, it is estimated that 53 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including hostages who have been declared dead and whose bodies are being withheld.
• Shooting at people trying to reach food supplies, including at the militarized distribution points, continue to be reported. Multiple such incidents reportedly occurred as people were walking towards or waiting at the militarized distribution points in Rafah and Deir al Balah. As of 11 June, Gaza MoH reported that hospitals have received 224 people killed and over 1,858 people injured from the areas newly designated for food distributions. In the last two weeks, the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah has had to activate its mass casualty incident procedure 12 times, receiving high numbers of patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, reporting that an “overwhelming majority of patients from the recent incidents said they had been trying to reach assistance distribution sites.” During this period, ICRC received 933 cases, including 41 declared dead upon arrival, which is higher than all mass casualty incidents the field hospital handled over the preceding twelve months combined. “Medical personnel are struggling to cope with the overwhelming number of patients arriving at the field hospital. They are working under constant exposure to stray bullets, endangering the safety of those providing and receiving medical care,” ICRC stated. According to ICRC, “recent days have also seen an increase in hostilities around the few remaining and functional hospitals. This has made patient transfers between facilities increasingly challenging, and in many cases, patients cannot receive the intensive or specialized care they require.” Commenting on the work of the distribution points, on 10 June, UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini, reiterated that this “humiliating system continues to force thousands of hungry and desperate people to walk for tens of miles excluding the most vulnerable and those living too far. This system does not intend to address hunger. Aid deliveries and distribution must be at scale and safe.”
• After three weeks without medical evacuations, on 11 June, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, stated that WHO supported the medical evacuation of 16 child patients and 48 companions from Gaza to receive specialized medical care in Jordan. According to WHO, more than 10,000 patients, including over 4,000 children, remain in urgent need of medical evacuation.
• On 9 June, WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, reported that “Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis is now essentially out of service due to increasing hostilities in its vicinity. Access to the hospital is obstructed, preventing new patients from reaching care, and leading to more preventable deaths.” Two emergency medical teams are still serving the remaining patients with the limited medical supplies available. On the same day, WHO called for the expedited flow of medical supplies into and across Gaza via all possible routes and for the protection of Nasser Medical Complex, the only remaining health facility in Khan Younis with an intensive care unit (ICU) and the only one capable of providing dialysis for up to 350 patients as well as neurosurgery. WHO reported that the ICU at Nasser was operating at double its capacity despite having recently expanded from 20 to 42 beds. It stressed that the hospital is overwhelmed, food for patients is scarce, fuel supply is low, and many essential medicines, medical supplies and blood units have run out. Moreover, the hospital’s oxygen plants require urgent maintenance, particularly since Nasser provides oxygen for all nearby health facilities.
• Similarly calling for the full protection of Nasser Medical Complex, on 10 June, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) emergency coordinator warned that the facility “has the last functioning intensive care units for children and newborns in the south, which cannot be moved” and added that the hospital is “the only remaining hope for Palestinians in southern Gaza, especially women and children.” MSF further stated: “Israeli forces’ displacement orders and bombings in the close vicinity of Nasser hospital have forced [MSF] to adjust its operations in the hospital and move part of its burn and orthopedic activities to [the MSF] field hospital in Deir Al Balah.” MSF added that its support to Nasser Medical Complex continues at the maternity and paediatric wards as well as through the provision of technical expertise, specialist visits, and financial support.
• Extreme operational challenges continue to face the emergency health response in Gaza. Since the resumption of hostilities on 18 March 2025, WHO has coordinated and facilitated the deployment in Gaza of 37 emergency medical teams (EMTs) from 22 partner organizations, including 35 international and two national EMTs. In total, 74 EMT staff have been granted access to Gaza while 58 have been denied, hampering lifesaving interventions. Moreover, entry into Gaza is often granted at the last minute, delayed, or not approved, severely hindering efforts to coordinate and implement timely deployment plans. Health care operations are additionally compromised by restrictions on the entry of essential medicines, medical consumables and equipment, serious obstacles to safe movement, and attacks on health care. Since 18 March, only 134 pallets of medical supplies from WHO stocks in Gaza have been delivered to EMTs. The inability to deliver more has hindered the ability to meet growing health needs. Attacks on health facilities, ambulances, and EMT accommodations have further undermined the ability of pre-hospital care providers to operate, often necessitating that they be escorted by international agencies to carry out missions safely in high-risk areas. Combined, these constraints jeopardize both the continuity of medical operations and the safety of international EMT staff.
• Between 1 January and 31 May 2025, WHO recorded 76 attacks on health care across the Gaza Strip, reportedly killing 38 people and injuring 65 others and affecting 23 health facilities and 24 health transport vehicles. Fifty-three per cent of these attacks included violence with heavy weapons while 40 per cent involved obstruction to health care delivery. These include 56 attacks on health care documented since 18 March 2025, of which 42 occurred in May. Furthermore, movement restrictions, insecurity and displacement orders are worsening access to health care and hampering the ability of health workers to reach health facilities. No hospitals are currently functional in two of Gaza’s five governorates, namely North Gaza and Rafah. As of 11 June, only 37 per cent (213 out of 572) of health facilities remain functional (all partially except one field hospital that is fully functional). These include 17 out of 36 hospitals, seven out of 15 field hospitals, 63 out of 162 primary health care centers, and 126 out of 359 medical points/mobile clinics.

Women and girl's safety, privacy and dignity in Gaza's overcrowded makeshift shelters

• The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) released a new report that highlights the dire conditions faced by women and girls in makeshift displacement sites across Gaza. “These camps lack even the most basic humanitarian necessities, suffering from severe shortages of clean water, the absence of sanitation, and the total collapse of medical care,” rendering them unfit for human habitation, according to PCHR. Women and girls are disproportionately affected, facing an acute lack of privacy and heightened risks of gender-based violence (GBV), including harassment and assault. The report describes the harsh realities they endure, including the absence of partitions between tents and the need to share overcrowded spaces and tents, which causes profound discomfort and a sense of insecurity for women and girls and severely restricts their freedom of movement. In the absence of safe and adequate sanitation, many women and girls resort to desperate measures to manage their hygiene and protect their dignity; according to PCHR, women and girls have adopted extreme coping mechanisms, such as: limiting the number of times they shower including after the menstrual cycle; avoiding to drink water and risking severe infections to reduce the need for toilet use; taking birth control pills continuously to suppress their menstrual cycles; and using buckets to urinate in inside the tent. Breastfeeding mothers also struggle to find private, safe spaces for nursing, and some are forced to stop breastfeeding altogether, directly affecting their health and that of their infants. In addition to the degrading physical hardships, the report draws attention to the profound psychological distress and loss of dignity women face daily in Gaza’s displacement sites after 19 months – underscoring the urgent need for safe, gender-sensitive shelter, sanitation and protection interventions.

Shrinking Humanitarian Space

• Since 19 May, after almost 80 days of a full blockade on the entry of aid and any other supplies into Gaza, the Israeli authorities have allowed only a select number of UN agencies and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to resume the delivery of aid into Gaza and have authorized the entry of only very limited amounts of certain food items, nutrition supplies, some health supplies, and water purification items. The entry of other aid supplies, such as shelter materials, hygiene products, and medical equipment remains blocked, and so is the entry of cargo through the Egypt and West Bank routes. Both sides of Kerem Shalom crossing are tightly controlled by the Israeli authorities, and the UN has not been permitted to deploy monitors at the site, significantly limiting visibility over the aid pipeline.
• Moreover, although Israeli authorities have reauthorized the use of the “Fence Road” – which is the only viable route currently available for aid destined to northern Gaza – transport capacity remains limited due to the insufficient number of Palestinian drivers who have been vetted by the Israeli authorities. Between 5 and 9 June, Israeli authorities did not authorise cargo manifest and offloads at Kerem Shalom crossing, due to Jewish holidays and citing the congestion of platforms. Concurrently, following a violent looting incident on 4 June, the Special Transport Association announced the suspension of truck operations until further notice, due to concerns about the safety of drivers. On 9 June, collections recommenced, following direct negotiations between organizations and their own contracted transporters. Overall, limited access, long delays in movement approvals (sometimes up to 36 hours and beyond), constantly shifting, insecure convoy routes, intensified military operations, and a breakdown of public order and safety with a very high risk of looting continue to severely constrain operations to collect aid from Kerem Shalom crossing and are placing humanitarian staff, drivers and trucks at significant risk. Collections are frequently cancelled, re-routed, or significantly delayed, aid deliveries have become largely unsafe, unpredictable and inefficient, and the limited assistance that comes through is increasingly being offloaded directly from trucks by hungry civilians and, in some cases, intercepted by armed gangs.
• The ongoing fuel blockade, now entering its fourth month, is placing life-sustaining services – including health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities – at severe risk. Despite maximum efforts to ration available fuel, partners warn that these services may soon cease in some areas if the entry of fuel is not urgently restored. Additionally, without immediate access to fuel that is already inside Gaza but located in hard-to-reach areas that are either militarized or subject to displacement orders, more critical services are at risk of suspending operations soon. Between 15 May and 9 June, missions to retrieve fuel from northern Gaza were denied by the Israeli authorities 14 times and about 260,000 litres of it were recently looted.
• In vast areas across the Gaza Strip, humanitarian teams are required to coordinate their movements with the Israeli authorities. Between 4 and 10 June, out of 102 attempts to coordinate planned aid movements across the Gaza Strip, nearly 47 per cent (48) were denied outright by the Israeli authorities, five per cent (five) were initially accepted but faced impediments, including blocks or delays on the ground potentially resulting in missions being aborted or partially accomplished, 30 per cent (31) were fully facilitated, and 18 per cent (18) were withdrawn by the organizers for logistical, operational, or security reasons. These include 49 attempts to coordinate aid movements in or to northern Gaza, of which 41 per cent (20) were facilitated, 37 per cent (18) were denied, four per cent (two) faced impediments and 18 per cent (nine) were withdrawn. In southern Gaza, out of 53 attempts, 21 per cent (11) were facilitated, 56 per cent (30) were denied, six per cent (three) faced impediments and 17 per cent (nine) were withdrawn.
• Between 5 and 11 June, the Israeli military issued four displacement orders for parts of North Gaza and Gaza governorates. Combined, the orders cover eight square kilometres. Since 18 March, the Israeli military issued 39 displacement orders, placing about 277.6 square kilometres under displacement orders (76 per cent of the Gaza Strip). As of 11 June, 82 per cent of the Gaza Strip’s territory is within Israeli-militarized zones or have been placed under displacement orders (they largely overlap). On 8 June, an evacuation warning was reportedly sent to two schools in Jabalya al Balad, in North Gaza governorate, forcing about 20,000 people who were sheltering in the two schools and surrounding buildings to flee. Successive airstrikes were launched, after the warning, destroying the two schools, with no casualties reported.
• On 10 June, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that “almost three weeks after limited supplies were allowed to enter Gaza, WFP has transported over 700 trucks of aid to the Kerem Shalom border crossing point. This compares to 600-700 trucks of [humanitarian] aid [and other goods] transported per day during the ceasefire earlier this year.” Meanwhile, WFP has more than 140,000 metric tonnes (MT) of food, enough to feed the entire population for two months, within or on its way to the region. According to the Food Security Sector (FSS), most of the 6,000 MT of wheat flour that entered Gaza since 19 May was offloaded by hungry people in dire need, mostly coming from the north, to feed their families, and in some cases by armed criminals, before reaching warehouses or designated distribution points. Israeli authorities also continue to prohibit partners from conducting food parcel distributions (see other challenges above). As of 10 June, 246,000 meals were prepared and delivered by 15 cluster partners through 59 kitchens. This represents a 77 per cent reduction from the 1.07 million meals distributed daily by 180 kitchens at the end of April. These conditions are heightening the risk of worsening food insecurity, eroding community trust, and increasing security threats, FSS warns. “To stave off starvation, stabilize markets and calm desperation, we need to consistently support the entire population with basic food requirements every month,” WFP stated, underscoring that this is “the only way to reassure the population and to push back starvation.”
• On 10 June, a major telecommunications and internet service provider reported a critical infrastructure failure, resulting in a blackout of internet connectivity and significant disruptions to mobile networks in Gaza city and northern Gaza. This new fibre cut compounds a series of unresolved damages along the critical Salah ad Din and Al Rasheed backbone routes, sharply increasing the risk of a total communications collapse across Gaza. The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) is coordinating closely with relevant stakeholders to expedite access and facilitate urgent repair efforts to restore connectivity. Furthermore, the ETC warns that without the immediate delivery of fuel and engine oil to operate generators that power key infrastructure, telecommunications services are expected to shut down imminently. This could lead to a complete collapse of telecommunications and internet services. Such a collapse would severely impact humanitarian coordination, operational continuity, staff safety, and the ability of affected populations to access life-saving information and services.
• Severe fuel shortages are crippling water production and disrupting critical WASH operations, forcing partners to drastically ration limited supplies. According to the WASH Cluster, without urgent fuel deliveries, hundreds of groundwater wells are at risk of shutting down, desalination systems will suffer permanent damage, and water trucking from the few remaining water sources may cease entirely, compromising public health and increasing the risk of disease outbreaks and social unrest. The fuel crisis is also threatening solid waste collection and sanitation services. In the absence of fuel, these operations will come to a halt, leading to further accumulation of waste and a surge in pests and rodents – exacerbated by the lack of pesticides – endangering public health. In response to growing public health risks, water quality monitoring has been significantly scaled up across the Gaza Strip by WASH partners; a total of seven field laboratories, operated and supported by seven WASH partners, are now actively conducting water quality testing to ensure safe water access and mitigate the risk of waterborne diseases, up from four operational labs in previous months.

Funding

• As of 10 June 2025, Member States have disbursed approximately US$648 million out of the $4 billion (16 per cent) requested to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of three million out of 3.3 million people identified as requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2025, under the 2025 Flash Appeal for the OPT. Nearly 88 per cent of the requested funds are for humanitarian response in Gaza, with just over 12 per cent for the West Bank. Moreover, during May 2025, the oPt Humanitarian Fund managed 128 ongoing projects, totalling $74.2 million, to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (88 per cent) and the West Bank (12 per cent). Of these projects, 63 are being implemented by INGOs, 49 by national NGOs and 16 by UN agencies. Notably, 47 out of the 79 projects implemented by INGOs or the UN are being implemented in collaboration with national NGOs. For more information, please see OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service webpage and the oPt HF webpage.

* Asterisks indicate that a figure, sentence, or section has been rectified, added, or retracted after the initial publication of this update.