Humanitarian Situation Update #349 | Gaza Strip

Between 17 December 2025 and 20 January 2026, there will be one Humanitarian Situation Update issued every week. The next Humanitarian Situation Update on the West Bank will be issued on 23 December and the next Humanitarian Situation Update on the Gaza Strip will be issued on 30 December.

Key Highlights

• Severe storm conditions have resulted in reported deaths, flooding incidents that affected nearly 55,000 households, and the evacuation of 370 families from shoreline sites.
• Despite improved food access and restored operations, ongoing access and procedural constraints led to reduced food rations in early December to maximize coverage, the World Food Programme reports.
• Access constraints facing Emergency Medical Teams have eased, with denial rates decreasing to about 20 per cent, compared with 30 - 35 per cent before the ceasefire, according to the Health Cluster. There are 343 EMT staff in Gaza, including 73 international staff and 270 national staff.
• In a statement by the Humanitarian Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, UN agencies and NGOs call for the immediate lifting of impediments to humanitarian access and NGO operations.

Context Overview

• The Israeli military remains deployed in over 50 per cent of the Gaza Strip, beyond the so-called “Yellow Line,” which remains largely unmarked on the ground and where access to humanitarian facilities and assets, public infrastructure and agricultural land remain severely restricted or prohibited. For example, in North Gaza, out of six once functional hospitals, four are inaccessible: the Indonesian, Al Awda and Beit Hanoun hospitals are beyond the so-called “Yellow Line” and Kamal Adwan Hospital is immediately adjacent to it, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Across the Gaza Strip, Health Cluster data indicates that 35 health facilities are located east of the so-called "Yellow Line," including eight hospitals and 26 primary health care centres (PHCs) that are non-functional while the Emirati field hospital in Rafah is functional but inaccessible. Detonations of residential buildings and bulldozing activities continue to be reported, including east of and near the so-called “Yellow Line.” Access to the sea remains prohibited and the detention of Palestinian fishers at sea continues to be reported, including the reported detention of four fishers by Israeli forces off the coast of Khan Younis on 14 December. Across the Gaza Strip, airstrikes, shelling and gunfire continue to be reported, resulting in casualties.
• Storm Byron, which struck Gaza on 11 December, resulted in widespread flooding, rain-related damage, and severe hardship for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip. As tents were flooded, thousands of families have lost their temporary shelters or experienced loss of clothing, bedding and other essential belongings. Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD) reported that their teams were able to evacuate some families from dilapidated buildings at risk of collapse and continued to respond to distress calls, mainly in relation to collapsed buildings, water leakages, flooded tents and the displacement of families. On 17 December, PCD highlighted that they had received over 5,000 distress calls, 17 already damaged residential buildings have collapsed, and over 90 sustained precarious damage. On the same day, The Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza reported that a total of 12 people died following the collapse of walls and damaged houses and one child died due to hypothermia (a two-week-old child who died on 15 December).
• The Site Management Cluster (SMC) has activated daily monitoring of flood-related incidents across managed displacement sites to facilitate rapid, joint response to flooding alerts. As of 16 December, SMC partners had received alerts of flooding incidents affecting 132 sites, impacting nearly 55,000 households across all five governorates, with Gaza city recording the highest number of reported incidents, followed by Khan Younis and Deir al Balah. SMC warns that the overall impact is likely significantly higher, particularly in high-risk, unmanaged sites, with hundreds of thousands of people living in low-lying, coastal or debris-filled areas exposed to flooding. According to SMC, since 10 December, at least 370 families were evacuated from shoreline sites to East Hamad city in Khan Younis (see more information below).
• According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, between 10 and 17 December, 14 Palestinians were killed, 84 were injured and seven bodies were recovered from under the rubble. This brings the casualty toll among Palestinians since 7 October 2023, as reported by the MoH, to 70,668 fatalities and 171,152 injuries. According to the MoH, the total number includes 277 fatalities who were retroactively added between 5 and 12 December after their identification details were approved by a ministerial committee. MoH reported that since the ceasefire, 394 Palestinians have been killed, 1,075 injured, and 634 bodies retrieved from under the rubble.
• According to the Israeli military, between 10 and 17 December, as of noon, no Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza. The casualty toll among Israeli soldiers since the beginning of the Israeli ground operation in October 2023 stands at 471 fatalities and 2,992 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 17 December, the remains of one hostage is in the Gaza Strip.
• No medical evacuations were reported between 9 and 17 December. In a press briefing, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), stated that, according to Gaza MoH records, 1,092 patients had died while awaiting medical evacuation between July 2024 and 28 November 2025, noting that this figure was likely underreported and not fully representative, as it was based solely on reported deaths. More than 18,500 patients, including 4,096 children, in Gaza still require medical evacuation, while only 260 patients along with 800 companions have been evacuated since the ceasefire. WHO called on more countries to welcome patients from Gaza, and for medical evacuation to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be restored.
• In November, over 57,500 cases were logged through World Food Programme (WFP) feedback channels in Gaza, including hotlines, help desks and chatbots. This is compared with over 44,400 cases logged in October through the same channels. According to WFP, the increase is likely linked to the scale-up of operations following the ceasefire, including the expansion or resumption of activities, in addition to the restoration of connectivity services by the telecom operator. Cases were predominantly received from Khan Younis (22,901), followed by Gaza city (17,029) and Deir al Balah (15,792); 79 per cent of all cases were reported by male callers. More than 80 per cent of the cases were related to food and cash assistance by WFP, including distribution schedules, eligibility criteria and assistance duration. Shelter-related cases, as received via WFP feedback channels, increased sharply from 1,240 in October to 3,630 cases in November. Most of these cases involved requests for tents and basic repair materials.
• Between 10 October and 16 December, the Cash Working Group (CWG) partners distributed Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) to over 138,700 households, compared with 40,440 in September prior to the ceasefire. Each household received 1,250 NIS (approximately US$378) in digital payments, in line with the Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) transfer value. Cumulatively, more than 305,000 households in the Gaza Strip have received at least one MPCA transfer in 2025. According to the CWG, cash-out commissions continued to decline, decreasing from 14 - 16 per cent in late November to a stable 12 per cent between 4 and 7 December, marking the lowest level recorded in 2025.

Humanitarian Access

• Between 10 October and 16 December, according to the UN2720 Mechanism, more than 119,000 metric tons (MT) of UN-coordinated aid were offloaded at Gaza’s crossings, of which over 111,000 MT were collected during the same period. Of the total dispatched, 55 per cent was via the Israel route (including through Ashdod and Ben Gurion), 30 per cent via the Egypt route, eight per cent via the West Bank route, and two per cent via the Cyprus Maritime Corridor. Humanitarian cargo coming from Jordan constituted about five percent of the total aid dispatched via the “back-to-back” modality while “government-to-government” modality remains suspended. As of 16 December, more than 172,000 MT of pre-cleared aid positioned across the region by 56 humanitarian partners are in the pipeline for transfer into Gaza, of which about 72 per cent are food supplies, according to the UN2720 Mechanism.
• Between 10 October and 16 December, some 9,000 MT of aid supplies were rejected by Israeli authorities for entry into Gaza, mainly requests submitted by local and international NGOs on the grounds that the organizations were not authorized to bring relief items into Gaza, items considered by Israeli authorities to fall outside the “humanitarian” category, or items classified as “dual-use.” In November, such rejected requests included frozen meat, tropical fruit, biscuits, vehicles, power equipment, specialized machinery, multipurpose tents, and learning and recreational materials for children.
• Humanitarian convoys by the UN and its partners inside Gaza continue to require coordination with Israeli authorities to and from crossings and in or near other areas where Israeli forces remain deployed. Between 10 and 16 December, humanitarian organizations coordinated 47 missions with the Israeli authorities, of which 30 were facilitated, 10 were impeded, and four were denied, while three missions were cancelled. During the same period, heavy rain reduced the accessibility for convoy movements along Al Rasheed Road, the Philadelphi Corridor to Kerem Shalom Crossing, and Al Rasheed Road to Zikim Crossing. The southern section of Salah ad Din Road remains closed, further constraining movement options. Overall, between 10 October and 16 December, 57 per cent of the 556 requested missions were facilitated, nine per cent were denied, 22 per cent were impeded and 12 per cent were cancelled. Missions requiring prior coordination with the Israeli authorities included cargo uplifts and monitoring; road repair works; search-and-rescue missions; assessment and clearance missions; staff rotations; medical evacuations and patient transfers; vehicle retrievals; and winterization distribution or assessments, among others.
• According to WFP, while access to food has significantly improved, with WFP food operations and distribution networks restored across Gaza, “persistent access restrictions, inconsistent procedures, and sudden changes across all corridors continue to put at risk all the progress made.” This has led to reduced food rations in early December to maximize coverage, WFP reported. For the December general food assistance cycle, as of 15 December, Food Security Sector (FSS) partners have assisted about 550,000 people but had to reduce the family ration of two food parcels and one 25-kilogramme (kg) flour bag (which covered 75 per cent of the minimum caloric needs) to one food parcel, one bag of flour and 1.5 kg of high-energy biscuits per family (which cover 50 per cent of the minimum caloric needs). Calling for unfettered access to tackle winter hunger in Gaza, WFP’s Deputy Country Director in Palestine noted: ‘’We still have all the issues that we’ve been talking about for months and months – the logistical challenges, the fact we’re very limited in terms of the number of roads we can use, that we still have a very high level of insecurity, that bureaucratic processes are still impeding humanitarian delivery.’’ She highlighted that there are items that aid actors cannot bring into Gaza because they are considered “dual-use” items, such as tents with aluminium frames, mobile storage units, and spare parts for trucks.
• A joint international and Palestinian NGOs report on humanitarian access constraints across the OPT found that humanitarian access remains severely obstructed, preventing predictable and scalable aid delivery across the Gaza Strip. The report highlights that 73 per cent of the 37 NGOs working in Gaza and surveyed reported having vital cargo blocked from entering Gaza due to restrictions by Israeli authorities, with repeated rejections affecting both life-saving supplies (food, shelter, health) and essential operational equipment, such as generators, solar panels, batteries, and water filtration units. In addition, 25 out of 37 NGOs reported security risks arising from airstrikes or shelling near their operations, limiting their ability to operate safely. In parallel, 24 out of 37 NGOs reported disruptions caused by the presence of unexploded ordnance, further restricting movement and access to affected communities.
• On 17 December, UN agencies and more than 200 international and local NGOs under the Humanitarian Country Team urged the international community to take immediate and concrete actions to press the Israeli authorities to lift all impediments to humanitarian access and NGO operations across the OPT, especially in the Gaza Strip. They warned that restrictive policies, including a new international NGO (INGO) registration system with vague and politicized criteria, are undermining relief efforts and risk the collapse of the humanitarian response. The statement emphasizes that many essential supplies, such as food, medicine, hygiene items and shelter materials, remain stuck outside Gaza, that dozens of INGOs face deregistration and forced closure by year’s end, and that the loss of NGO capacity would severely disrupt lifesaving services, including health care, nutrition treatment, water and sanitation, and emergency shelter, at a time when needs are acute and alternatives cannot fill the gap.

Shelter and Winterization

• Winter conditions have exacerbated safety risks linked to war-damaged structures and makeshift tents, leaving thousands of displaced families highly exposed to cold weather and heavy rainfall. According to the Shelter Cluster, since 10 December, 17 buildings are estimated to have collapsed and more than 42,000 tents or makeshift shelters are estimated to have sustained full or partial damage, particularly in 320 displacement sites and 43 areas, affecting at least 235,000 people. Rainstorms have additionally resulted in temporary disruptions to some humanitarian operations, such as the temporary closure of 16 community kitchens for one day and damage sustained by 35 safe spaces and service points for children. According to child protection partners, caregivers continue to report difficulties keeping children warm at night, rising stress levels and reduced participation in activities, while frequent movement in search of safer shelter is contributing to caregiver fatigue and increasing requests for additional winter items, counselling and access to safe spaces.
• Despite challenges, partners continue to bolster emergency interventions where possible, including through the distribution of a range of shelter items (e.g. tents, blankets and winter clothing) to families and hospitals, reinforcing fragile shelters with sandbags, supporting local authorities in the evacuation of families from high-risk areas, conducting repairs of water and sewage systems, and expanding efforts to pump accumulated water and wastewater. In parallel, all partners continue to prioritize assistance to the most affected families. For instance, based on Shelter Cluster referrals, FSS partners have distributed hot meals and/or high-energy biscuits to more than 5,000 families affected by flooding, including families relocated from the shorelines to Hamad city, in northwestern Khan Younis.
• According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), long-term shelter solutions are urgently needed to address deplorable conditions. As weather forecasts indicate further heavy rainfall and colder northerly winds early next week, humanitarian needs are anticipated to grow. Yet, available resources continue to fall short of addressing existing emergency needs. For example, the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) Cluster notes that partners face critical shortages of jetting and vacuum trucks, sewage pipes, manholes and cement which are needed to further scale up support to flood-prone areas and repair wastewater systems. The Shelter Cluster reports that, as of 17 December, only about 1,100 tents of those that have entered Gaza through UN coordination are available in stock, while about 1.3 million people remain in need of urgent shelter assistance.

Access to Healthcare

• WHO is working to help keep newborns, children, and mothers warm and safe in hospitals and is supplying breastfeeding support items and materials for skin-to-skin care to protect pre-term and low-birth-weight infants during the harsh winter months. The Agency further reports that needs are growing. Within the context of dire shelter conditions, poor access to water and sanitation services and winter weather, children under five, the elderly and people with chronic illnesses are particularly at risk of contracting acute respiratory infections, hepatitis and diarrheal diseases.
• According to the Health Cluster, between 30 November and 6 December, health partners carried out over 186,600 consultations, of which 20 per cent were related to communicable diseases. Acute respiratory infections (ARI) accounted for 56 per cent (over 21,700 consultations) of the total consultations while acute water diarrhea accounted for 31 per cent (over 10,600) of the total consultations. During the same period, skin diseases have increased to over 6,800 cases from over 5,700 cases the previous week. These included Chickenpox, ectoparasitic infestations common in overcrowded settings with limited access to water and hygiene services, and Impetigo, which is a bacterial infection common among children and often linked to poor hygiene and skin injuries.
• Severe weather has additionally disrupted health service delivery, with several facilities affected by heavy rainfall and flooding, according to the Health Cluster. At Nasser Medical Complex, for instance, flooding in the Internal Medicine Emergency Department required the temporary relocation of patients and services to the hospital’s main building, placing additional pressure on other departments that are already overstretched.
• According to the Health Cluster, access constraints facing Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) have eased, with denial rates decreasing to approximately 20 per cent compared with 30 - 35 per cent before the ceasefire. Since October 2023, EMTs, both national and international, have played a critical role in sustaining the health response in Gaza, deploying specialized doctors and clinical staff to fill staffing gaps caused by massive losses and displacement. They have delivered millions of medical consultations, tens of thousands of emergency surgeries, and trauma and non-communicable disease care. As of 17 October, there are approximately 343 EMT staff in Gaza, including 73 international staff and 270 national staff.
• Since 10 October, Health Cluster partners have supported the re-opening or establishment of 55 health service points across the Gaza Strip, including 37 in Gaza city and North Gaza governorate. Some tertiary-level services have resumed on a limited basis, including at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city. Also in Gaza city, the International Medical Corps field hospital has recently installed 200 beds to function at full operational capacity, providing surgical, medical, pediatric, neonatal and maternal health services, with the ability to support up to 45 deliveries per day. Moreover, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) repaired and resumed patient care at Al Quds Hospital, with four PRCS hospitals providing emergency and support services to a monthly average of about 106,000 patients, as of October 2025. This is in addition to tens of thousands of people assisted by PRCS through first aid delivery, clinics and medical points, and the distribution of essential relief items, including food, water, hygiene kits, blankets and mattresses.
• Overall health system functionality remains severely constrained, however. Only half of hospitals and less than half of primary health care centres are currently partially functional and face shortages of essential medical equipment and supplies. According to WHO, although approval rates for supplies improved, the process of getting medicines and medical equipment into Gaza remained unnecessarily slow and complex. WHO also faced challenges in bringing into Gaza laboratory reagents and critical lab machine components, as many items were classified as “dual use” and denied entry. For a population of over two million people, there are still no functioning magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines in Gaza, WHO noted, emphasizing that medical supplies must be given a blanket approval to enter Gaza and be expedited so urgent needs could be addressed.

Funding

• As of 18 December, Member States disbursed approximately $1.6 billion out of the $4 billion (40 per cent) requested to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of 3 million out of 3.3 million people identified as requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under the 2025 Flash Appeal for the OPT. Nearly 88 per cent of the requested funds is for the humanitarian response in Gaza, with just over 12 per cent for the West Bank. In November, the oPt Humanitarian Fund managed 128 ongoing projects, totalling $73.5 million, to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (89 per cent) and the West Bank (11 per cent). Of these projects, 61 are being implemented by international NGOs, 51 by national NGOs and 16 by UN agencies. Notably, 58 out of the 77 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.