Hostilities, displacements, restrictions threaten survival of Gazans: UN

Palestinians fleeing from the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun are seen on a road in Gaza City, on March 18, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

Intensifying military operations in northern Gaza, together with displacement orders and dwindling basic humanitarian services, are depriving Gazans of the means to survive, UN humanitarians said Tuesday.

Since the latest Israeli evacuation orders were issued for northern regions of the strip on Sunday, at least 1,500 families have been displaced, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), quoting its partners on the ground.

Five school buildings sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza were reportedly hit, with deaths and injuries. Initial assessments by OCHA partners indicate that many families who fled from the schools after the attack have returned to northern Gaza, mainly due to the lack of alternatives and limited shelter space elsewhere, said the office.

Humanitarians said health care is also under attack.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in central Gaza, a tent sheltering displaced people in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah was reportedly hit on Monday, with five people injured. The agency added that the hospital's internal medicine department also sustained some damage, and its oxygen supply line was affected.

Since the outbreak of the new round of Gaza conflict in October 2023, the WHO has documented 734 attacks on health care in Gaza. The health agency reiterated its call for the protection of civilians and health care facilities.

OCHA said that movement restrictions remain a major challenge, preventing its partners from having a predictable and sustainable way to provide critical services and assistance.

"Only eight out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, including to remove debris," OCHA said. "Three other missions were outright denied, while two missions were impeded, and two others had to be canceled due to security or logistical challenges."

The office said that the decrease in humanitarian assistance and basic services is a red flag that demands urgent action to secure the opening of all crossings and facilitate all humanitarian operations, including a meaningful flow of necessary life-saving supplies.

OCHA said fuel supplies are rapidly depleting, with devastating consequences for civilians.

The Gaza health authorities reported that Al-Shifa Medical Complex suspended its kidney dialysis services due to fuel shortages and that intensive care services would be limited to a few hours each day.

"Ensuring sustained access to fuel is essential to avoid a collapse of the logistics backbone underpinning the humanitarian response," OCHA said, noting that no fuel has entered Gaza since the ceasefire broke down over 17 weeks ago.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said the window to push back starvation in Gaza is closing fast.

The agency said its teams are adapting in real time, setting up new distribution points, navigating extreme constraints and using every safe route to reach people where they are. However, to sustain these efforts, the agency reiterates its call for multiple points of access and safe routes to reach people, support from the international community and a sustained ceasefire.

On its ReliefWeb, OCHA said 169 non-governmental organizations are calling for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli-U.S. militarized distribution scheme known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

They signed a statement asking for the Israeli-approved plan to revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanism and lift the Israeli government's blockade on aid and commercial supplies.

They alleged that 400 UN-led aid distribution points operating during the temporary ceasefire across Gaza were replaced by just four military-controlled U.S.-operated distribution sites, forcing 2 million people into overcrowded, militarized zones where they face daily gunfire and mass casualties while trying to access food and are denied other life-saving supplies.

"Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families," the ReliefWeb appeal said. "The weeks following the launch of the Israeli distribution scheme have been some of the deadliest and most violent since October 2023."

OCHA said that in less than four weeks, more than 500 Palestinians were killed and almost 4,000 injured just trying to access or distribute food. Israeli forces and armed groups, some reportedly operating with backing from Israeli authorities, routinely open fire on desperate civilians risking everything just to survive.

"The humanitarian system is being deliberately and systematically dismantled by the government of Israel's blockade and restrictions, a blockade now being used to justify shutting down nearly all other aid operations in favor of a deadly, military-controlled alternative that neither protects civilians nor meets basic needs," said the statement.

OCHA said that experienced humanitarian actors remain ready to deliver life-saving assistance on a large scale. Yet more than 100 days since Israeli authorities reimposed a near-total blockade on aid and commercial goods, Gaza's humanitarian condition is collapsing faster than at any point in the past 20 months.