Palestine Crisis

Occupied Palestinian Territory Map
Source: OCHA/ReliefWeb

The territory

The West Bank and Gaza fell to British forces during World War I, becoming part of the British Mandate of Palestine. In 1967 Gaza and West Bank were captured by Israel in the Six-Day War. The Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) consists of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. The West Bank is a landlocked territory bordering Israel and Jordan, Gaza is a coastal area on the eastern Mediterranean Sea bordering Israel and Egypt. While the Palestinian Authority (PA) has administered most of Gaza and parts of the West Bank under its control since 1994, Palestine is generally not recognized as an independent state. As of 2024, the Occupied Palestinian Territory was home to an estimated population of some 5.5 million people, among them are 3.2 million people living in the West Bank and 2.3 million residing in Gaza. The OPT covers an area of 6,220 square kilometers.

The humanitarian situation

The overall humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is marked by a protracted political crisis characterized by 57 years of Israeli military occupation. The humanitarian crisis is aggravated by violence against civilians, lack of respect for international humanitarian and human rights law, internal Palestinian divisions and the recurrent escalation of hostilities between Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups. 

In October 2023, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip deteriorated drastically following the start of a war by the Israeli military due to atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups. The increasing escalation of violence and the complete siege imposed on Gaza by the Israeli government has created a humanitarian disaster for the people of Gaza. For more than 18 months, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe has been raging in Gaza, where civilians are dying from where civilians are dying from violence, lack of medical treatment, disease, starvation, dehydration, and hypothermia.

On January 19, 2025, a ceasefire between Israel and the armed group Hamas went into effect. On March 17, Israel broke the two-month ceasefire and relaunched its brutal military campaign across the territory.  (See security situation for latest updates.)

The humanitarian situation in the West Bank has also significantly worsened following the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

Millions of Palestinians struggle to meet their most basic needs and live in dignity. Some 5.9 million registered Palestinian refugees reside in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Most registered Palestinian Refugees live in Jordan (2.3 million), Gaza (1.44 million), West Bank (997,000), Lebanon (532,000), and Syria (618,000). The Syrian conflict that began in 2011 had a devastating impact on the Palestine refugees in the country. Over 120,000 fled Syria, most of them to Lebanon. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a relief and human development agency, providing health, education and other basic services to Palestinian Refugees. Established in 1949, the agency operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. In the absence of a political solution for the Palestinian refugees, the UN General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate.

The UN agency provides primary health care for about 2 million Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. UNRWA runs more than 700 schools, providing an education to more than half a million children. Only one-third of the registered Palestine refugees still live in refugee camps. Two-thirds live in cities, towns and villages throughout the UN agency’s area of operations, and many have moved outside the area and are living in third countries.

Some 2.7 million people, including the entire population of the Gaza Strip, are severely food insecure in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The entire population of the Gaza Strip - more than 2.1 million people - is at imminent risk of famine.

The United Nations estimates that 3.3 million Palestinians across the OPT need humanitarian assistance in 2025. Among them are more than 1.5 million children. The people in need represent 100 percent of the population - 2.1 million -  in Gaza and mor than one million people living in the West Bank.

The UN and humanitarian partners have launched a Flash Appeal seeking nearly US$4.1 billion to meet the humanitarian needs of 3.3 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2025, warning that without sustainable solutions to end the violence, humanitarian needs will continue to rise.

Nearly 90 percent of these funds are earmarked for humanitarian assistance in Gaza and just over 10 percent for the West Bank. The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has seen a sharp escalation in violence, demolitions, displacement and settlement expansion. 

The 2025 appeal targets the entire population of Gaza - some 2.1 million people - all of whom are in need of humanitarian assistance after 15 months of brutal Israeli attacks. According to the UN, the $4.1 billion appeal falls far short of what is needed for a comprehensive humanitarian response, which would require $6.6 billion.

The Flash Appeal reflects the expectation that aid agencies will continue to face unacceptable constraints on their operations in the coming year. As a result, the amount of assistance that humanitarian agencies can provide will be severely limited.

Gaza Map
Map of Gaza

The security situation

Under a series of agreements known as the Oslo Accords signed between 1993 and 1999, Israel transferred to the newly created Palestinian Authority security and civilian responsibility for many Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank as well as Gaza. Since 1994 the Palestinian Authority has administered parts of the West Bank under its control, mainly the major Palestinian population centers and areas immediately surrounding them. Roughly 60 percent of the West Bank remains under full Israeli civil and military control, impeding movement of people and goods through the territory. Gaza has been under the de facto governing authority of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) since 2007.

Before October 7, 2023

The repeated upsurge of hostilities between Israel and armed Palestinian groups is dramatically worsening the situation for the people living in the OPT. The humanitarian conditions created by the political and security crisis continue to impact all parts of the territory, affecting nearly every aspect of Palestinian life. For five decades, Palestinians have struggled with the security and safety consequences of the occupation and political turmoil.

Westbank Map
Map of West Bank

Despite its responsibilities as an occupying power and a party to the Geneva Conventions, the Israeli government continues to implement policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that violate the Geneva Conventions and exacerbate the humanitarian needs and protection risks of the Palestinian population. Such policies also threaten the ability of humanitarian organizations to respond effectively to the emergency.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), consistently high levels of the presence of Israeli Forces, including search-and-arrest operations during both the day and night, arrests, detentions, and ill-treatment of children continues.  OCHA says a steep rise in conflict-related violence, including settler attacks, has further eroded public safety and security, increasing fear among the population in the OPT, particularly among children. Access to mental health and psychosocial services remains limited, as does access to critical health services, particularly in Gaza.

Before October 7, 2023, recurrent escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip resulted in deaths, injuries, psychological distress, the destruction of homes and buildings, and exacerbates Gaza's chronic deficits in housing, infrastructure, and energy. Israeli policies and practices aimed at accelerating the forcible transfer of Palestinians and annexation of territory were increasing. 

The high level of demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian buildings continues to be an element of a coercive environment that leaves many Palestinians throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with no choice but to leave their homes and communities.

Between October 7, 2023 and January 18, 2025

In October 2023, violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory escalated dramatically. On October 7, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, including fighters from the militant Hamas group, launched thousands of rockets toward Israel and breached through a perimeter fence of Gaza at multiple locations. Members of armed groups entered into Israeli towns, communities, and military facilities near the Gaza Strip, killing and capturing Israeli forces and civilians. 

More than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, most of them civilians, were reportedly killed and more than 5,400 injured, most of them on October 7. Some 240 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, were held hostage in Gaza. More than 120 of the hostages have since been released, most of them during a weeklong truce agreement between Israel and Hamas. 

Following the large-scale attack, the Israeli cabinet declared war and the military began indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in Gaza, killing more than 47,000 Palestinians - over 2 percent of Gaza's population - and wounding more than 111,000 others. An estimated 15,000 children are among the dead. More than 10,000 people, including thousands of children, are missing and presumed dead.

However, according to an analysis by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the death toll from Israel's war in Gaza is far higher than official figures. The analysis, published in January 2025 in "The Lancet", estimates that more than 64,000 Palestinians died as a result of violence in Gaza between October 2023 and June 2024, suggesting that the death toll is under-reported by at least 40 percent.

The data does not include Palestinians who died from causes indirectly related to the war, such as starvation, dehydration and disease, nor does it include missing persons. Some 59 percent of the dead were women, children or the elderly, according to the peer-reviewed study.

According to UN officials, at least a quarter of the injured in Gaza - some 30,000 Palestinians - are estimated to require lifelong specialized rehabilitation and supportive care, including those with severe limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries and severe burns.

Among those killed are at least at least 377 aid workers, 270 UN staff, 1060 health workers and 198 journalists.  Overall, Israel's air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip have killed, wounded or left missing 168,000 people since October 7, 2023, representing over 8 percent of Gaza's population.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday that 92% of homes in the Gaza Strip, or about 436,000 homes, were destroyed or damaged as a result of Israeli attacks

As of January 2025, more than 90 percent of housing units in the Gaza Strip, a densely populated area, have been either destroyed or damaged  as a result of Israeli attacks. This includes more than 436,000 homes. Entire residential neighborhoods have been razed to the ground. As of January 2024, over 60 percent of residential buildings and over 80 percent of commercial buildings were either destroyed or damaged, according to the World Bank.

For more than a year, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Gaza, with people dying from widespread attacks and starvation, and the threat of famine looming.  Leading UN officials have called the situation in Gaza "apocalyptic," "hell on earth," "beyond catastrophic," and said that the humanitarian community is "running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza."

Some 1.9 million people – 90 percent of the total population of Gaza - are displaced due to the attacks by the Israeli military or Israeli evacuation orders, including people who have been forced to flee more than a dozen times. Among those uprooted by the war are at least 1 million children, including some 17,000 unaccompanied or separated boys and girls, and a further 35,000 children estimated to have lost one or both parents.

More than 85 percent of Gaza had been placed under evacuation orders or designated a "no-go zone" by Israeli forces, confining 1.9 million internally displaced people (IDPs) to about 15 percent of the tiny territory.

As of July, the United Nations estimated the current population of the Gaza Strip at about 2.1 million, down from a projection of 2.3 million in early 2024. While more than 47,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, some 110,000 Palestinians have reportedly crossed into Egypt.

The United Nations and humanitarian organizations expressed deep concern for civilians in the Gaza Strip after Israel ordered the entire population - more than 1.1 million people - to leave the northern part of Gaza. Fearing catastrophic consequences, they warned that neither the demand to leave nor the total siege of Gaza imposed by Israel is compatible with international humanitarian law.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in panic as Israeli airstrikes continued. Over two million people have been pushed from the north and middle area of the Gaza Strip towards the south. The south, however, has not been spared from bombardment, with significant numbers of civilians killed there.  

Israeli military operations expanded into southern Gaza, forcing tens of thousands again to flee. Israel ordered Palestinians in areas around the Gazan city of Khan Younis to evacuate to Rafah, farther south, near the border with Egypt. Many of them have been displaced more than once before from other parts of Gaza. For months, Rafah was hosting more than 50 percent of Gaza’s population.

There was no electricity, no water, no fuel, no food in Gaza. The functioning of critical services is further compounded by the destruction of water and sanitation, hospitals, electricity lines and cell towers, many of these sites treated as military target. Complete disruptions of communications and internet services, including satellite connections, have been imposed by Israel several times, creating panic and severely disrupting access to essential services and humanitarian efforts.

The displaced people are camping in the streets, sheltering in informal sites, emergency shelters (UNRWA and public shelters), or in close vicinity to up to 155 UNRWA shelters and distribution sites and within host communities in increasingly dire conditions. 

UNRWA shelters are accommodating far more people than their intended capacity. Overcrowding is leading to the spread of disease, including acute respiratory illness and diarrhea. In the north of Gaza, hundreds of thousands of people who were unable or unwilling to move to the south remained amid intense hostilities, struggling to secure the minimum amount of water and food for survival. 

Intense Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea continued across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties and destruction. Ground operations by Israeli forces continued across much of Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are seeking shelter, despite being unable to leave Gaza and the lack of safe havens as even hospitals and UN facilities, which under international humanitarian law are given special protection, were attacked. 

Rafah governorate was the main refuge for those displaced, with some 1.5 million people squeezed into an extremely overcrowded space, following the intensification of hostilities in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah and the Israeli military’s evacuation orders. According to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, their living conditions were abysmal. People lacked the basic necessities to survive, stalked by hunger, disease and death.

The escalation of military activity by the Israeli Defense Forces in and around Rafah further impeded humanitarian access and exacerbated an already dire situation. Since the beginning of May, more than 1.3 million Palestinians – more than half of the population - have been forcibly displaced from Rafah, Gaza's southernmost town, by Israeli evacuation orders or attacks. Israel was intensifying its ground and air operations in the area, putting thousands of lives at risk and blocking vital humanitarian access. 

Most of those fleeing had already been displaced several times. The United Nations, governments and aid agencies had been urging the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, warning that a large-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah would cause carnage and cripple life-saving humanitarian work throughout the Gaza Strip. Virtually no aid had been allowed into Gaza for weeks, and essentials such as fuel, food and water had run out or are in dangerously short supply.

The main crossing into Gaza near the Egyptian border remained closed or was unsafe, as it was located near or in combat zones. Israeli forces took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza on May 7, halting all major aid shipments into Gaza.

Persistent evacuation orders were exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe and further destabilizing the flow of humanitarian aid. Ongoing military attacks by the IDF created an unsafe environment for aid agencies, resulting in little assistance reaching those in need.

The UN expressed grave concern about Israel's July order to evacuate large parts of Khan Younis, which covers about one-third of the Gaza Strip and affected up to 250,000 civilians. Large numbers of people are forced to flee on the orders of the Israeli military, with no regard for their safety or dignity. There have also been regular attacks resulting in mass civilian deaths, despite promises that an area would be "safe". 

Areas defined by Israel as 'humanitarian' and 'safe' were in fact the opposite, leaving families with the cruel choice of staying in an active combat zone or moving to an area that is dangerous, already desperately overcrowded, and uninhabitable. Despite the frequency of evacuation orders and the huge numbers of people being told to move, none of the declared "safe zones" and "evacuation routes" in Gaza were actually safe. 

Israel's relentless assault on the enclave posed significant risks to displaced people and humanitarian workers. The Israeli military systematically attacked civilians and aid workers, including in these clearly marked "safe zones" and "evacuation routes", but nowhere was safe in Gaza. 

Since October 1, 2024, the Israeli military ordered some 400,000 people in northern Gaza to leave their homes without giving them a safe route and safe place to go.  Israeli authorities also blocked aid from reaching them. Critical aid lifelines to northern Gaza had been cut off, no food aid entered northern Gaza for weeks, and all essential supplies were running out. UN humanitarian officials warned that the entire population of northern Gaza was at risk of death as civilians, including children and the disabled, face increasingly horrific conditions in the war-torn territory.

United Nations officials warn that the Gaza Strip has descended into a state of anarchy, obstructing efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to millions of Palestinians in desperate conditions. According to OCHA, intensified attacks, access restrictions, fuel shortages and the breakdown of law and order have created a highly volatile and risky operating environment for aid workers, further disrupting the delivery of life-saving assistance throughout the Gaza Strip.

According to UNRWA, more than 665 incidents impacting 205 UNRWA premises, including direct hits on UNRWA installations and different UNRWA installations sustaining collateral damage, have so far been reported. Many people have been killed and injured by Israeli security forces whilst seeking safety in places protected by international humanitarian law. 

Since the start of hostilities, over 70 percent of hospitals in the Gaza Strip were forced to shut down due to the damage they sustained, lack of power and supplies or evacuation orders, increasing the pressure on the remaining health facilities that are still operational. After a year of hostilities, the health system in Gaza has lost 70 percent of its bed capacity.

Currently, only 17 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip and 47 out of 132 primary health care facilities are partially functional and able to admit new patients, although services are limited.  All three hospitals in Rafah are currently non-functional.

An estimated 50,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip, are in desperate need of prenatal and postnatal care. 350,000 people have non-communicable diseases and need access to medical care.  There are overall 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as more than 135,000 children under two in the Gaza Strip with high vulnerability.

Hospitals are struggling with severe shortages of fuel and medical supplies, and cannot restock supplies. Hospitals, which under international humanitarian law are given special protection, were attacked by Israeli Defense Forces. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported more than 1300 attacks on health care in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7, 2023, killing more than 900 people.

WHO reported a surge in infectious diseases in the Gaza Strip. As of July 7, it has recorded nearly 1 million cases of acute respiratory infections, 577,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea, 107,000 of acute jaundice syndrome and 12,000 of bloody diarrhea. It also has recorded nearly 200,000 cases of scabies, lice, skin rashes, chicken pox and other illnesses.

UN agencies and local authorities warn that there is a high risk of a further spread of infectious diseases across Gaza amid chronic water scarcity and the total inability to manage waste and sewage. The identification of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 in Gaza’s sewage system is of particular concern. Under prevailing catastrophic conditions in Gaza, there is a high risk of spread of this paralytic, deadly disease within the Palestinian enclave and across borders.

The humanitarian supplies that reached Gaza since October 21, 2023, have only slightly alleviated the shortages of water, food, and medicines. Prior to the current crisis, around 500 truckloads of goods moved into Gaza every work day -  a monthly average of nearly 10,000 truckloads of commercial and humanitarian commodities. Israeli authorities continued to restrict the flow of humanitarian supplies, including fuel.

International humanitarian law (IHL) requires Israel to ensure that the basic needs of the population of Gaza are met. Among other things, it must ensure that Gaza is supplied with sufficient water, food, medical supplies, and other basic necessities to enable the population to survive.

However, since Israel declared a full siege on the Gaza Strip on October 9, 2023, the amount of aid entering the enclave had never been sufficient to meet the needs on the ground. For more than 15 months, Israel failed to provide or even facilitate the delivery of essential supplies for the survival of some 2.1 million people still living in Gaza.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report for Gaza, released in October 2024, warns that the entire Gaza Strip is classified at emergency levels of hunger, and that the threat of famine remains as aid dwindles and winter approaches. As of October, some 1.84 million people across the Gaza Strip are classified in crisis levels (IPC Phase 3) or worse, including some 133,000 people facing catastrophic food insecurity (IPC Phase 5) and 664,000 in emergency levels (IPC Phase 4).

Between November 2024 and April 2025, nearly 2 million people, more than 90 percent of the population, are classified in IPC Phase 3 (crisis) or worse, including 345,000 people (16 percent) in catastrophic (IPC Phase 5) and 876,000 people (41 percent) in emergency (IPC Phase 4). Although less densely populated, Rafah and the northern governorates are likely to face higher levels of acute food insecurity.

The previous IPC report for Gaza, released in June, showed that 96 percent of the population faced acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse, with nearly half a million people in catastrophic conditions. According to the analysis, 2.15 million of the 2.25 million people analyzed experienced high levels of acute food insecurity, with 745,000 people (33 percent) classified in emergency levels (IPC Phase 4) and over 495,000 people (22 percent) facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 5).

On June 25, 2024,  the IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) released its latest findings and recommendations. It concluded that the situation in Gaza remained catastrophic and that there was a high and persistent risk of famine throughout the Gaza Strip. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said in an analysis released on May 31 that it was possible, if not likely, that all three IPC thresholds for famine - food consumption, acute malnutrition and mortality - were met or exceeded in northern Gaza in April.

On November 8, 2024, the IPC Famine Review Committee issued an alert that famine is likely imminent in areas of the northern Gaza Strip, while the humanitarian situation throughout the territory is extremely grave and rapidly deteriorating. 

Israel claimed its retaliatory airstrikes and measures were targeting Hamas installations, but civilians - including humanitarian workers and health personnel - were bearing the brunt of the attacks, in serious violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The United Nations urged the Israeli government to cease its collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza, emphasizing that collective punishment is a war crime.

The United Nations, including Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĂĽrk, humanitarian organizations, human rights organizations, and independent UN human rights experts have repeatedly called for the protection of civilians, an immediate ceasefire and the allowance of urgently needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, while influential governments around the world fueled the conflict and took no action to prevent the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the territory. 

An immediate humanitarian cease-fire had become a matter of life and death for millions in the Gaza Strip. Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, public order was expected to completely break down due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.

On October 27, 2023, the UN General Assembly (GA) adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce”. The GA resolution also demands “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped inside the Gaza Strip. The world body approved the resolution by an overwhelming majority of 120 to 14 votes, with 45 abstentions.

On December 12, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution, demanding an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and well as “ensuring humanitarian access”. The resolution also reiterated the GA’s demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, “notably with regard to the protection of civilians”. The resolution passed with a huge majority of 153 in favour and 10 against, with 23 abstentions.

However, the General Assembly’s resolutions are not legally binding like the Security Council’s.

While the UN Security Council had failed for weeks to adopt a resolution calling at least for some kind of halt to the hostilities to assist deliveries of humanitarian aid, it adopted its first resolution on November 15 concerning Israel's war against Gaza. Resolution 2712 calls for "extended humanitarian pauses and corridors” in the Gaza Strip “for a sufficient number of days" to let aid in, repair damage to critical infrastructure such as hospitals, water wells and bakeries, and to enable medical evacuations, especially of children. The Security Council further called on all parties to refrain from depriving the civilian population in Gaza of basic services and aid indispensable to their survival, consistent with international humanitarian law.

On December 22, the UN Security Council passed another resolution on Gaza. Rather than demanding a cease-fire, resolution 2720 (2023) calls for the warring parties to create "the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities." The 15-member body called for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for sustainable cessation of hostilities. The Council also requested the Secretary-General to appoint a Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for the Gaza Strip.

On February 20, 2024, the UN Security Council again failed to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza due to a US veto, marking the second time since early December 2023 that Washington has blocked such a text.

On March 25, 2024, the Council adopted a resolution demanding “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip. Resolution 2728 (2024), which also calls for "the urgent need to expand the flow" of aid into Gaza, passed by a vote of 14 in favor to none against, with the United States abstaining. Yet Resolution 2728 neither names the grave violations of international law committed in Gaza nor the party primarily responsible.

On June 10, 2024, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution (Resolution 2735 (2024)) proposing a comprehensive three-phase ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, urging both Israel and HAMAS to implement it fully and without delay and condition.

On November 20, 2024, the United States vetoed the latest resolution on Gaza in the UN Security Council, which demanded an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire and full humanitarian access for civilians. This was the fourth time the US administration blocked a resolution demanding an end to the war in Gaza since Israel's offensive began in October 2023.

A four-day humanitarian ceasefire was announced on November 22, 2023. Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hams agreed to release Israeli hostages - exclusively women and children - in return for a four-day pause in fighting and the release of Palestinian prisoners. After the humanitarian pause had entered into force on November 24, airstrikes, shelling, and ground clashes ceased. 

The pause in fighting allowed the Palestinian and the Egyptian Red Crescent Societies and UN agencies to scale up the delivery of humanitarian assistance. The truce was extended twice and expired on November 30. On December 1, 2023, the attacks on Gaza were resumed by the Israeli military. Humanitarians warned that despite the short pause in fighting, much more aid was needed, urgently, as the level of aid to Palestinians in Gaza remained completely inadequate to meet the huge needs of 2.3 million people. 

International human rights groups repeatedly called on the international community and particularly the United States, European Union member states, and the United Kingdom to take concrete measures to protect Gaza’s civilian population from unlawful attacks, and refrain from any statement or action that would, even indirectly, legitimize war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip.

Humanitarian organizations, human rights organizations, and legal experts have said that the killing of thousands of innocent children and women, the siege on an entire civilian population, and the trapping of bombarded civilians behind closed borders in Gaza are crimes under international law.  They demand accountability for the crimes committed against civilians in Gaza, from political and military leaders as well as those who provided arms and political or other support.

On April 6, 2024, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Amid the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the resolution also urged all states “to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel.”

Hundreds of humanitarian organizations and human rights groups from around the world have also called for an end to arms transfers to Israel. 

A growing number of independent legal experts and international organizations - including the world's most prominent human rights group, Amnesty International - have found that Israel's actions in Gaza against Palestinians as a group amount to genocide. 

Genocide is a term used to describe violent crimes committed against a group with the intent to destroy the existence of the group, in whole or in part. According to the Genocide Convention, acts amounting to genocide include deliberately inflicting on a group or part of a group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.

In a major report released in December, Amnesty International declared that Israel is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.  One of the rights group's findings was that Israel has deliberately obstructed or denied the entry and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid.

The Amnesty report is the latest in a number of reports accusing Israel of genocide and adds to the body of evidence that Israeli policies and military actions targeting Palestinians as a group amount to genocide, one of the worst crimes known to humankind. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun hearings in a case accusing Israel of committing genocide in its war in Gaza.

US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found that Israeli authorities have deliberately inflicted living conditions calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the population in the Gaza Strip by deliberately depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.

HRW said in a December report that Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide, stressing that the pattern of behavior, along with statements suggesting that some Israeli officials wanted to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, could amount to the crime of genocide.

On March 25, 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories found strong indications that Israel's executive and military leaders and soldiers are acting with genocidal intent in Gaza.  After analyzing Israel's actions and patterns of violence in its onslaught on Gaza, dehumanizing rhetoric from senior Israeli officials and the actions of soldiers on the ground, the Special Rapporteur’s report said that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide had been met.

A report released on November 14, 2024, by the United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs in the Occupied Territories found that Israel's war in Gaza was consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions deliberately imposed on the Palestinians there.

The Committee said that by imposing a siege on Gaza, obstructing humanitarian aid, and targeting and killing civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and Security Council resolutions, Israel is deliberately causing death, hunger, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of warfare, and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, Israel's allies - including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany - continued their political and military support for a war on civilians that has already claimed more than 47,000 lives and is characterized by grave war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israeli forces. These include collective punishment of the civilian population, use of starvation as a method of warfare, denial of humanitarian aid, indiscriminate killings of civilians, disproportionate attacks, forced displacement, torture, enforced disappearance and further atrocity crimes.

On May 20, 2024, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in relation to the war in Gaza. Arrest warrants were being sought for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three HAMAS leaders - Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh.

On November 21, 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, also known as Deif, for crimes against humanity.

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel said in a report released June 12, 2024, that Israeli government and military authorities are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during military operations and attacks in Gaza since October 7.

The Commission found that the Israeli authorities were responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or willful killing, directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity.

The Commission of Inquiry found that the crimes against humanity of extermination, gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys, murder, forcible transfer, and torture and inhuman or cruel treatment were committed. The Commission also found that Palestinian non-state armed groups are responsible for war crimes committed in Israel on October 7.

On October 10, 2024, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry released its latest report. The report found that Israel pursued a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's health care system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination through relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.

With regard to the detention of Palestinians in Israeli military camps and detention facilities, the report found that thousands of child and adult detainees, many of whom were arbitrarily detained, were subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence amounting to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence.

On November 8, 2024, a report by the UN Human Rights Office accused the Israeli Defense Forces of committing serious violations of international law in Gaza, many of which may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity. 

In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) begun hearings in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide in its war in Gaza. South Africa asked the court to demand an emergency suspension of the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza strip. Israel denies the accusation of genocide, although its security forces have killed or wounded at least seven percent of the civilian population within months and the political leadership is depriving the people in Gaza of access to basic means of survival.

In a landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice on January 26 confirmed that Palestinians have a right to be protected from acts of genocide, ordering Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent actions that amount to genocide. Among the provisional measures, the Court also ordered Israel to allow the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the war-shattered enclave and to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services to Palestinians there.

On March 28, 2024, the ICJ issued new provisional measures for Israel as the catastrophic humanitarian situation in bombarded and besieged Gaza continues to deteriorate, and famine is immanent.  The legally binding order compels Israel to take "all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay" to send in "urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance", including food, water, shelter, fuel and medical supplies.

The Court also unanimously ordered Israel to increase “the capacity and number of land crossing points” and to maintain “them open for as long as necessary”. In its new order, the ICJ said Israel must act "in full co-operation with the United Nations". Despite the ICJ rulings, Israel has not stopped its relentless attacks on Gaza and continues to fail to provide or even facilitate the delivery of essential supplies for the survival of some 2.1 million people still living in Gaza. 

On May 24, 2024, the Court ruled that Israel must immediately halt its military offensive in the Rafah Governorate and keep open the Rafah border crossing for the unimpeded delivery of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid at scale. While noting “the worsening conditions of life faced by civilians”, the ICJ also ordered Israel to halt any further action in Rafah, “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.

The Israeli government did not comply. Enforcing compliance with international law is the responsibility of the UN Security Council. However, the Council did not enforce the Court's rulings of May 24 or earlier, in a further breakdown of the international rule of law.

Between January 19, 2025, and March 16, 2025

On January 19, 2025, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip entered into force. The agreement to halt Israeli attacks on the territory, as well as fighting between Israel and Hamas, was reached after more than a year of negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States. The warring parties agreed to it on January 15, and it was approved by the Israeli cabinet on January 18.

Under the deal, Hamas would release hostages it had held since launching an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. In return, the Israeli authorities released Palestinian prisoners and implemented a phased troop withdrawal from Gaza. Other aspects of the agreed deal included the return of Palestinians forcibly displaced by Israeli forces to their homes throughout the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands have returned to their homes in northern Gaza following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from two main roads along the Netzarim corridor. The agreement provided for a full and complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

The agreement consisted of three phases, each lasting six weeks. The terms of phases two and three were still being negotiated as phase one was implemented, but under phase one the cessation of hostilities was expected to continue if six weeks elapsed before the next phase was finalized. 

Phase one included the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas, the release of some Palestinians held in Israeli jails and 33 hostages held by Hamas, and a surge in humanitarian aid to Gaza.  The first phase of the agreement allowed 600 trucks per day into Gaza, including 50 trucks of fuel.

In preparation for the ceasefire, the UN and its humanitarian partners mobilized supplies and resources to scale up the delivery of aid throughout Gaza. Relief agencies werer working to increase the flow of goods into Gaza through all available crossings and to prepare for distributions within Gaza.

The first phase of the agreement, which lasted 42 days (until March 1), allowed humanitarian organizations to rapidly implement a prepared scale-up of their response. The cessation of Israeli attacks allowed for the daily entry of large quantities of humanitarian supplies and a steady flow of fuel. It allowed humanitarian agencies to expand the delivery of life-saving assistance throughout the Gaza Strip, including in areas that were previously inaccessible.

42,000 trucks of goods and humanitarian aid entered Gaza during the first phase. Over 4,000 trucks of aid were crossing into Gaza each week, reaching more than two million people. The ceasefire also significantly improved the overall security environment and humanitarian access in Gaza. 

Since March 2, the entry of all humanitarian supplies, alongside any other cargo, into Gaza has been blocked by Israeli authorities. This has severely affected humanitarian operations and exacerbated the already catastrophic humanitarian situation. Repeated UN requests to collect aid at the Kerem Shalom crossing, where food is rotting and medicine is expiring, have been systematically refused.

Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid is a gross violation of international humanitarian law and a blatant war crime, endangering the lives of more than two million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Israel has also cut power to a desalination plant for drinking water in Gaza, depriving civilians of water essential to their survival.

Since March 17, 2025

On March 17, Israel broke the ceasefire and resumed its brutal military campaign throughout the territory, with a high number of airstrikes and bombardments. Since then, hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands of others have been injured. On March 19, Israel launched military operations on the ground. As the attacks continued following the collapse of the two-month ceasefire, thousands have been forced to flee once again.

For more than a month, Israeli forces have escalated air, land and sea bombardments of the Gaza Strip and expanded ground operations, resulting in mass casualties, destruction of civilian infrastructure and large-scale displacement. Some 500,000 Gazans have been forcibly displaced since the collapse of the ceasefire. More than 2 million people remain trapped, bombed and starving inside the territory, while Israeli attacks on civilians, aid workers, UN personnel, hospitals and ambulances continue with impunity.

Since Israel broke the ceasefire and resumed its attacks on Gaza, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians and injured more than 4,300, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to more than 51,000, with more than 116,000 injured, most of them civilians. But the real figures are estimated to be much higher. 

Thousands more remain buried under the rubble as a lack of heavy machinery and equipment impedes efforts to rescue the wounded and missing. Thousands more are estimated to have died from indirect causes such as lack of medical treatment, dehydration and starvation. 

The recorded dead include at least 15,000 children, 417 aid workers, 294 UN staff, 1,300 health workers and 209 journalists. Gaza holds the dismal record of being the deadliest place in the world for aid workers. Each day, humanitarian workers are attacked, detained, obstructed, injured or killed.

On April 21, Israel's seven-week siege of the territory marked by far the longest period in history in which the Israeli government has blocked all aid and goods from entering Gaza, while hostilities continue and aid supplies dwindle. OCHA warns that humanitarian supplies are nearing total depletion and life-saving services are on the verge of collapse, 

The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate rapidly under the total siege, with no food, fuel, medicine, clean water or other essential goods entering the enclave since March 2. The blockade has forced some humanitarian organizations to cut their food distribution to just one meal a day.

Humanitarian agencies have warned that the aid system in Gaza is facing "total collapse" and "the humanitarian system is at breaking point”. Despite these warnings and Israel's obligations under international law, the blockade of humanitarian aid and commercial cargo into Gaza continues.

Donations

Your donation for the Gaza crisis, the emergency in the wider Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Palestine refugee crisis can help United Nations agencies, international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their local partners to rapidly provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other aid to the people who need it most.

You may also consider an unearmarked donation to organizations that are active in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

To find other organizations to which you can donate, visit: Humanitarian Crisis Relief, Refugees and IDPs, Children in Need, Hunger and Food Insecurity, Medical Humanitarian Aid, Vulnerable Groups, Faith-Based Humanitarian Organizations, and Human Rights Organizations.

Further Information

Last updated: 21/04/2025

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