Humanitarian Situation Update #336 | Gaza Strip

The Humanitarian Situation Updates on the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank are both issued every Wednesday/Thursday. The Gaza Humanitarian Response Update is issued every other Wednesday. The next Humanitarian Situation Update on the Gaza Strip will be published on 5 or 6 November.

Key Highlights

• Humanitarian actors further increase the number of distribution points and meals served at community kitchens, reaching more people closer to where they reside.
• Shelter needs remain largely unmet, especially in northern Gaza, where many people are staying in severely damaged buildings at risk of collapse.
• According to the UN 2720 Mechanism, interception of aid supplies has fallen from 80 per cent of the cargo the UN and its partners collected from crossings before the ceasefire to five per cent since the ceasefire.
• Even with a modest rise in the number of international emergency medical team personnel in Gaza, entry denials remain high, at 30 per cent last week, according to the Health Cluster.
• Education partners are supporting the rehabilitation of 97 classrooms in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, out of over 2,000 classrooms that require rehabilitation across the Gaza Strip as assessed by the Ministry of Education.

Context Overview

• Over the past week, airstrikes and artillery shelling were reported across the Gaza Strip and were particularly intense on 28 and 29 October. Between 24 and 27 October, continued detonations of residential buildings were reported daily, in multiple areas where the Israeli military remains deployed, especially in eastern Khan Younis and eastern Gaza city. On the morning of 29 October, the Israeli military announced that, after a series of strikes, it has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire.
• In a press release on 29 October, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, spoke of “a wave of Israeli airstrikes mainly on residential buildings, [internally displaced people] IDP tents and schools across the Gaza strip, following the death of an Israeli soldier.” He stated that the “laws of war are very clear on the paramount importance of protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure” and insisted that Israel must comply with its continuing obligations under international humanitarian law and is accountable for any violations. He stressed that all parties must act in good faith to implement the ceasefire.
• The intensification of bombing on the evening of 28 October until late morning on 29 October resulted, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, in the killing of 104 people, including 46 children and 20 women, and the injury of 253 people, including 78 children and 84 women. During this period, strikes resulting in fatalities were reported across all five governorates, including against vehicles, IDP tents, and residential buildings.
• In a statement on 29 October, Save the Children’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, Ahmad Alhendawi, noted that children comprised a third of the reported death toll during the strikes overnight on 28 October and stated: “After some weeks of cautious optimism and hopes of rebuilding Gaza, children and families are once again reliving scenes of fear and loss. This cannot become the new normal under a ceasefire. A lasting ceasefire must mean safety, relief, and recovery for children not continued suffering. It must be fully respected and upheld."
• According to the MoH in Gaza, between 22 and 29 October, 110 Palestinians were killed (including 104 between 28 and 29 October), one died of wounds sustained earlier, 282 were injured and 46 bodies were recovered from under the rubble. This brings the casualty toll among Palestinians since 7 October 2023, as reported by MoH, to 68,643 fatalities and 170,655 injuries. According to the MoH, the total number includes 32 and 220 fatalities who were retroactively added on 23 and 25 October, respectively, after their identification details were approved by a ministerial committee. MoH reported that since the ceasefire came into effect, 211 Palestinians were killed, 597 were injured and 482 bodies were retrieved from under the rubble.
• According to the Israeli military, between 22 and 29 October, as of noon, one Israeli soldier was killed in Gaza, bringing the casualty toll among Israeli soldiers since the beginning of the Israeli ground operation in October 2023 to 471 fatalities and 2,978 injuries. According to Israeli forces and official Israeli sources cited in the media, more than 1,671 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed, the majority on 7 October 2023 and its immediate aftermath. As of noon on 29 October 2025, it is estimated that the bodies of 13 deceased hostages remain in the Gaza Strip.

Humanitarian Access

• As of 28 October, according to the UN 2720 Mechanism, about 212,000 metric tons (MT) of aid, of which about 73 per cent are food supplies, are in the pipeline after being approved and cleared by the Israeli authorities. These supplies are positioned across the region, including Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, and the West Bank, and are ready for dispatch, with some shipments already on the way to Gaza. Between 22 and 28 October, according to the UN 2720 Mechanism, 14 aid cargo requests submitted by three local and international NGOs were denied by Israeli authorities on the grounds that the organizations were not authorized to bring relief items into Gaza. The rejected requests comprised about 472 MT of relief materials and included supplies from the food security and shelter clusters. In total, since 10 October, 67 requests submitted by 27 local and international NGOs for the entry of over 3,200 MT of relief materials have been denied on the grounds that the organizations were not authorized to bring relief items into Gaza.
• Amid efforts by the UN and its partners to scale up the humanitarian response and bring in urgently needed supplies, on 26 October, Israeli forces announced that, beginning the following day, all humanitarian and commercial truck movements through Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem Crossing would be rerouted via the Philadelphi Corridor and Ar Rasheed (coastal) Road, replacing the previous routes through the Morag Corridor and Salah Ad Deen Road. This route, unused for cargo collection by the UN and its partners since May 2025, is considered unsuitable for high-volume transport because the road is narrow and heavily congested with traffic as it passes through densely populated areas. As of 29 October, congestion along this route has led to delays in aid movements from and to the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem Crossing. This further adds to the challenges already facing humanitarian aid delivery, including due to the ongoing closure of all crossings directly into northern Gaza since 12 September.
• As of 13 October, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip under the ceasefire agreement, coordination requests for humanitarian movements within these areas are no longer required. Coordination with the Israeli military continues to be required for convoy movements to Gaza’s crossings as well as in or near other areas where the Israeli military remains deployed.
• Between 22 and 28 October, humanitarian organizations coordinated 64 missions with the Israeli authorities, of which 42 were facilitated, eight were cancelled, 12 were impeded and two were denied. Movements included cargo collection from the two operational crossings (Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem and Kissufim), rescue and road repair missions, assessments, and the crossing of humanitarian personnel. Since the ceasefire took effect, according to the UN 2720 Mechanism, there has been a reduction in the interception of supplies collected by the UN and its partners from Gaza’s crossings. Between 10 and 28 October, five per cent of collected supplies were reportedly intercepted, compared with about 80 per cent between 19 May and 9 October.
• A press release issued by 41 humanitarian organizations operating in the Gaza Strip urged the Government of Israel to uphold its commitments under the ceasefire and international law and allow the free flow of aid. The press release highlights: ‘’Between 10 and 21 of October 2025, 17 [international] NGOs have had urgent shipments of aid, including water, food, tents and medical supplies denied entry into Gaza. 94 per cent of all rejections by Israeli authorities were given to [international] NGOs. Three-quarters of these denials were issued on the grounds that organizations are ‘not authorised’ to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza.” Nearly $50 million in humanitarian supplies remain stuck at crossings and warehouses, leaving many people without adequate shelter, clean water, or essential supplies ahead of the upcoming winter, the organizations reported. The press release urged that Israel’s new registration system (introduced in March 2025) be rescinded to allow aid to move freely, unimpeded and unrestricted.
• Physical access to essential water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure in Gaza has improved. According to WASH Cluster, 66 per cent (258 out 392) of water wells are now accessible, including 138 wells to which access was recently regained (following the withdrawal of Israeli forces), allowing for technical assessments and, in some cases, immediate repairs. Water distribution capacity has similarly been enhanced. Since the beginning of October, water and sanitation service providers received 28 new water trucks through bilateral donations, helping to reach more communities. Access to sewage pumping stations – which are critical for discharging wastewater to the sea and preventing sewage overflow in densely populated areas – has improved. Out of 70 wastewater pumping stations, 50 are now accessible, compared with only 18 in September – this marks a first step toward restoring basic sanitation services, the WASH cluster reported. Solid waste management remains critically constrained as there is no progress in accessing the two official landfill sites, which are essential for the safe disposal of domestic and medical waste. As these sites remain inaccessible, operations continue to rely on already-overcrowded temporary dumping areas and available space for establishing new ones is extremely limited, further compounding the environmental and public health risks.

Food Security and Nutrition

• As of 28 October, 21 Food Security Sector (FSS) partners are producing 1,047,000 daily meals through 172 kitchens across the Gaza Strip. To help families access bread more easily, partners are distributing more than 130,000 two-kilogramme bread bundles produced daily by 15 UN-supported bakeries – including nine in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis and six in Gaza city – at over 400 locations across the Strip. These include community kitchens, shelters and community points where bread is distributed for free, and in UN-contracted shops where bread is available for sale at a subsidized price of three NIS ($0.92). Concurrently, food parcel distributions continue to expand; as of 26 October, 43 general food distribution points are operational, compared with 26 points as of 21 October. Between 13 October (when general food parcel distributions restarted) and 26 October, partners have reached more than 110,000 households across the Strip, including more than 15,000 households in northern Gaza since the distribution restarted in the area on 22 October.
• To reach as many locations and people as possible, a rotation is implemented, meaning that bread may not be delivered daily to the same locations. According to FSS, partners have increased the number of contracted retailers from 22 to 43 shops in the bread distribution network to expand coverage and support the resumption of markets across the Strip. The 21 retailers in northern Gaza began selling bread at a subsidized price on 30 October. While there are efforts to further expand bread production, many bakeries were destroyed or severely damaged during the war and others are unable to operate due to a lack of spare parts.
• During the first two weeks of October, Nutrition Cluster partners screened over 53,000 children aged between six and 59 months across the Gaza Strip, at over 110 sites in central and southern Gaza and eight sites in northern Gaza. Of the total, more than 5,100 children were identified with acute malnutrition, including about 1,120 with the most severe form. Between 1 October and 28 October, Nutrition Cluster partners reached over 150,000 children between six and 59 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBW) with blanket supplementary feeding for the prevention of malnutrition, including small quantity lipid-based nutrition supplements and high-energy biscuits. This represents about one third of the nearly 450,000 children between six and 59 months and PBW in need of essential nutrition support, according to the Nutrition Cluster. Nutrition partners continue to improve access to their services including through the deployment of 20 mobile health and nutrition teams in hard-to-reach areas, including 10 in northern Gaza.
• On 22 October the Nutrition Cluster issued a note highlighting the critical role of breastfeeding in providing infants with safe, nutritious and immune-boosting food that protects against malnutrition and infection; this is essential in Gaza as access to clean water, electricity and fuel remains limited. The Cluster estimates about 32,000 children aged 0-6 months need breast-feeding support; of these, 30 per cent are not breastfed and need ready-to-use infant formula support, and about 97,000 caregivers of children aged 6-23 months require infant and young child feeding support. To promote close contact, the Cluster notes the need for winterization packages to include simple breastfeeding support materials, such as breastfeeding covers, warm shawls, baby carriers or slings, thermal wraps and baby blankets.

Challenges to the Shelter Response

• People in the Gaza Strip continue to gradually return to their communities, wherever access is allowed. Since 10 October, more than 600,000 movements of people were recorded by Site Management Cluster (SMC) partners, including nearly 500,000 movements crossing from southern to northern Gaza, primarily through Al Rashid Road. Reverse movements to southern Gaza continue to be recorded, reportedly due to the lack of essential services in the north. More than 100,000 movements of people were recorded from western to eastern Khan Younis during the same period.
• Shelter needs remain largely unmet, as the Shelter Cluster continues to face significant challenges in bringing its supply pipeline into Gaza. Over the past week, three partners were able to distribute from available supplies only 2,300 tents, about 1,480 blankets and 1,480 tarpaulins to IDPs in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis governorates. Ahead of the winter season, SMC partners are repurposing flour and rice bags originally distributed as food aid into sandbags to reinforce IDP shelters and provide protection against wind and rain, prioritizing 192 makeshift sites at risk of flooding, including nine in Gaza city, 74 in Deir al Balah and 109 in Khan Younis. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC’s) Economic Security Coordinator in Gaza, Amila Suriyarathne, highlighted that as winter approaches, “the limited access to shelter, hygiene and warm clothing are raising grave concerns.” She noted that while there has been a slight improvement following the implementation of the ceasefire, living conditions are still incredibly challenging and stressed that a “drastic increase in supplies” is required to meet the needs.
• In northern Gaza, based on field observations, the Shelter Cluster estimates that many people are taking shelter in severely damaged and unsafe buildings. On 24 October, the Palestinian Civil Defence (PCD) reported that its teams rescued people from a house that suddenly collapsed in Tal al Hawa area of southern Gaza city and issued a general warning against sheltering in buildings that had been bombed. PCD highlighted that many buildings are at risk of collapse, especially given the imminent onset of winter rains that heighten the risk of soil erosion and further damage to already unstable structures. On 25 October, according to PCD, a nine-year old girl was killed, and three others were injured, when a damaged house hosting IDPs collapsed in As Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza city.
• In addition to the unsafe shelter conditions, returning families face the risk of unexploded ordnance. Since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October, Mine Action partners have recorded two explosive incidents, both in Khan Younis, which resulted in six injuries. Service providers and aid workers are also exposed to the risk of unexploded ordnance. Between 10 and 28 October, Mine Action partners carried out 48 explosive hazard assessments to evaluate the safety of service facilities, including hospitals and offices of international NGOs, and provided explosive ordnance disposal support to 54 inter-agency missions.
• In his briefing to the press on 22 October following his visit to Gaza, Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that with little housing left in Gaza, “people are taking shelter anywhere they can, in destroyed buildings, [and] in rag tag tents by the side of the road.’ He noted that the impact is especially acute for 700,000 menstruating women and girls due to limited access to basic hygiene supplies compounded by overcrowded shelters, lack of privacy, and inadequate access to health care and water and sanitation services. According to the WASH Cluster, since 10 October, over one million baby diapers and several hundred thousand sanitary pads have been distributed. However, the distribution of full hygiene kits has been severely limited, with fewer than 10,000 kits delivered to affected populations since the beginning of the ceasefire. This is largely due to supply chain disruptions compounded by limited approvals for hygiene items linked to NGO registration processes.
• According to the Protection Cluster, the protection risks facing people returning to heavily damaged buildings, with no privacy or lighting, are highly concerning as they heighten vulnerability to physical and environmental hazards as well as the risk of exploitation, abuse, and exposure to gender-based violence. Jointly with other clusters, protection partners are working to mitigate the impact of these risks through debris clearance and lighting, winterization support, expanded mental health and psycho-social support, and community-based referral mechanisms.

Access to Health Care

• Since 10 October, the World Health Organization (WHO) has delivered over 840 pallets of life-saving medical supplies into Gaza, including insulin, assistive devices, essential medicines, cholera kits and surgical materials. WHO is also working with the Nutrition Cluster to develop specific nutrition guidelines for children aged 5-10, aiming to treat 2,500 children through the outpatient therapeutic programme and stabilization centres to ensure that this large and vulnerable age group is not overlooked in nutrition response.
• Gaza’s health system continues to face significant challenges in addressing the immense health needs, with only 34 per cent of health service points (223 out of 649) functional, including only 14 out of 36 hospitals, 10 out of 16 field hospitals, 65 out of 182 primary health care centres (PHC), and 134 out of 408 medical points and ambulance centres. The health workforce is severely overstretched to deliver essential trauma and non-trauma care. According to MoH in Gaza, as of 7 October 2025, more than 1,700 health workers have been killed. This death tolls represents about seven per cent of the health workforce in the Gaza Strip prior to the war, which according to the MoH 2022 annual report stood at about 25,000 health workers.
• Combined with massive destruction of civilian infrastructure and the health system, displacement and poor living conditions are creating the perfect storm for the spread of disease and people remain dangerously exposed to the elements as winter approaches, warns Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza described the situation in southern Gaza as “utterly unacceptable,” as families “…are crammed into makeshift tents, packed into the few remaining schools, or sleeping in the open amid rubble, piles of garbage, animal waste, and overflowing sewage.” MSF medical data from 2025 shows that diseases directly linked to poor living conditions, such as skin, eye, respiratory, and gastrointestinal infections as well as generalized aches and pains, account for 70 per cent of all outpatient consultations in MSF healthcare centres in southern Gaza. The collapse of water and sanitation systems has, furthermore, triggered a surge in waterborne diseases, particularly diarrhoeal illnesses. Over the past two years, MSF teams have treated more than 78,000 cases of diarrhoea, including over 24,000 cases since April 2025 alone. According to MSF, recovery from trauma is compromised by harsh living conditions: “We see many people with large open wounds, burns, or external fixators who are living in tents without proper hygiene, waste management, or climate control […] Infections that would normally be preventable are now common, leading to worsening health conditions and repeated hospitalisations.”
• Since October 2023, Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) have been deployed to the Gaza Strip to provide surgical, trauma, and emergency services and to support Palestinian health workers who have been working under extremely adverse conditions. According to the Health Cluster, as of 29 October 2025, 21 EMT partners (two national and 19 international), including 73 international staff, are deployed in Gaza, delivering specialized care in major hospitals and other key health facilities. Since 1 October 2025, EMTs have conducted 142,959 consultations, 880 emergency surgeries, and 450 trauma referrals, helping to fill critical service shortfalls. However, EMT deployment continues to be constrained by access restrictions, including the denial of entry into Gaza of some international health personnel, which limits the scale and continuity of these lifesaving services. Although the number of international personnel has started to slightly increase, the denial of entry of EMTs into Gaza remains a significant issue, with a 30 per cent denial rate over the past week, according to the Health Cluster.
• On 25 October, WHO, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) conducted a joint assessment to evaluate the operational status of, and access conditions at, Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in North Gaza, where none of the six hospitals that were once operational are currently functional. Kamal Adwan, which went out of service on 27 December 2024, was the main paediatric and maternal referral facility in northern Gaza. The assessment found moderate structural damage, particularly to the emergency and rehabilitation wings, while several internal wards can potentially become functional. The facility urgently requires an electricity generator, a new submersible water pump, and portable sanitation units to restore electricity and basic access to WASH services. Overall, the assessment found that pending debris removal, installation of temporary infrastructure and the provision of medical supplies and equipment, reactivation of essential health services at Kamal Adwan is considered feasible in the short term through a phased PHC approach, allowing it to potentially provide critical health services to an estimated 20,000-30,000 people in northern Gaza.
• On 26 October, WHO facilitated the medical evacuation of 55 patients and 158 companions to Jordan, United Kingdom, Spain, and Türkiye. This brings the total number of patients evacuated since 1 October 2025 to 96 patients, including 52 children, 26 men and 18 women. On 24 October, WHO’s Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) said in a press briefing that “Medevac is a flagship, priority programme of WHO. We are ready to scale up to a minimum of 50 patients per day plus companions, in line with the previous ceasefire.” He called for all medical corridors for patients to receive treatment outside of Gaza to be opened, emphasizing that the most important and cost-effective among them is the corridor to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where there is immediate capacity to receive patients. He also called for more countries to come forward to receive patients for treatment abroad.

Access to Learning

• Education Cluster partners are expanding their interventions where possible to restore minimum teaching and learning conditions for over 637,000 school-aged children who have had no sustained access to formal, in-person education and experienced significant learning regression over the two years of hostilities. As of 10 July 2025, 97 per cent of school buildings in the Gaza Strip had sustained some level of damage, the majority (92 per cent) requiring clearance of explosive contamination and either full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to be functional again. Many schools continue to be used as IDP shelters, including 103 government schools (see more below), due to severe shelter shortages. Restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities on the entry of educational and learning supplies also hinder response efforts.
• On 21 October, the Ministry of Education (MoE) completed a rapid assessment of the 309 governmental schools in the Gaza Strip. Findings show that 56 schools (18 per cent) sustained moderate to medium damage, 27 (nine per cent) sustained significant damage, 46 (15 per cent) were partially destroyed, 144 (47 per cent) were fully destroyed, and 36 (12 per cent) remain inaccessible in Gaza and Rafah governorates. Currently, only 28 schools are operational in Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and western Gaza city, with support from Education Cluster partners, of which 22 are used as IDP shelters. According to the MoE, 103 schools, some of which are partially damaged, continue to shelter displaced families and 203 schools require clearance and rubble removal before rehabilitation or reconstruction needs can be determined. The widespread presence of debris across school yards is preventing the use of these areas for the establishment of alternative learning spaces, which are currently being set up using available tents. The MoE also assessed that 2,090 classrooms require rehabilitation.
• Despite the challenges, in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, Education partners are supporting the rehabilitation of 97 classrooms across 10 schools, of which 40 have already been renovated, and are running 253 temporary learning spaces (TLS) serving about 138,331 children. In northern Gaza, rehabilitation efforts remain limited as all school buildings in North Gaza and most of those in Gaza city had been directly hit or severely damaged. At present, there are only three TLS operational in the area, serving about 833 children. Between 26 and 28 October, education partners visited 17 schools in northern Gaza, 13 of which were identified for the potential establishment of learning spaces in school playgrounds or yards. In total, as of 29 October 2025, there are 256 operational TLS serving 139,164 children, six of which have been newly established since 10 October. Of these, 42 are run by UNRWA, which on 18 October launched the new school year via e-learning, aiming to reach over 290,000 children through distance education. In addition, 250,000 students across the Gaza Strip have joined the distance learning programme, which was launched by the MoE on 8 September 2025. In collaboration with other clusters, Education partners are working to ensure that learning spaces provide children not only with education but also with access to fortified nutrition products, protection services, hygiene and sanitation awareness, and Explosive Ordnance Risk Education messages.

Funding

• As of 30 October 2025, Member States have disbursed approximately $1.4 billion out of the $4 billion (35 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. During September 2025, the oPt Humanitarian Fund managed 95 ongoing projects, totalling $57.1 million, to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (87 per cent) and the West Bank (13 per cent). Of these projects, 43 are being implemented by international NGOs, 38 by national NGOs and 14 by UN agencies. Notably, 32 out of the 57 projects implemented by international NGOs 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.