The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip is the worst it has been since the war began in October 2023. Atrocities continue on a massive scale, and the limited amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is needed to support the more than two million starving civilians following 80 days of a total Israeli blockade of all commercial and humanitarian supplies.
As the people of Gaza face starvation and heavy bombardment, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned last week that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering through what may be "the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict." The catastrophic situation continues to worsen, leaving Palestinian civilians to endure unbearable suffering, widespread deprivation, and forced displacement.
Six hundred days since the war began, ongoing Israeli air and ground operations are further dismantling the means of survival for 2.1 million Palestinians. On Tuesday, dozens of people were reportedly shot and injured while trying to access supplies administered through a newly developed distribution scheme run by the Gaza "Humanitarian" Foundation (GHF).
On Thursday, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) issued a statement warning that the new militarized distribution system set up by Israel and backed by the United States does not meet the needs of the people of Gaza, endangers them, and violates humanitarian principles.
The HCT, comprised of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), emphasized that Israeli authorities have undermined the capacity of humanitarian teams on the ground to provide genuine assistance that would reach the most vulnerable groups.
The United Nations, humanitarian aid organizations, and many countries around the world firmly oppose the Gaza “Humanitarian” Foundation. Despite having “humanitarian” in its name, the Foundation is regarded as the very opposite of a humanitarian organization. Its establishment for the purpose of weaponizing aid may constitute a crime against humanity or even be part of a genocide.
On Friday, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the OPT, said that the international community "must stop the clock" on Israel's continued and deliberate misuse of humanitarian language and mechanisms aimed at obscuring and facilitating the commission of atrocity crimes in Gaza.
“We continue to witness a brutal humanitarian camouflage, where the red lines have led to massive atrocities. Israel pretends to promote humanitarian solutions in order to continue its control of Gaza and sustain its systematic denial of life-saving humanitarian aid to the starving population in the besieged strip,” Albanese warned.
“It is a deliberate strategy – aimed at masking atrocities, displacing the displaced, bombing the bombarded, burning Palestinians alive and maiming survivors.”
At the very least, the entity is an attempt to circumvent the UN and its agencies on the ground, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which have long delivered humanitarian aid and basic services to Gazans in accordance with international humanitarian law, relevant UN resolutions, and the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.
The GHF fails the test on all counts, as it is not independent, neutral, impartial, or impartial. It employs a food and essentials rationing system that OCHA describes as "engineered scarcity" and "a policy of deprivation by design," which clearly must be firmly rejected.
“The newly developed distribution scheme is more than just the control of aid. It is engineered scarcity: four distribution hubs located in central and southern Gaza, secured by private US security contractors, where those Palestinians who can reach them will receive rations,” Jonathan Whittall, Head of OCHA OPT, told reporters on Wednesday.
“One of these hubs is near the spot where Israeli forces killed and buried in a mass grave 15 first responders. For me this is a grotesque symbol of how life in Gaza, and that which sustains it, is being erased and controlled.”
Whittall stressed that the new distribution model cannot possibly meet Gaza’s needs. He added that knowingly designing a plan that falls short of minimum international legal obligations is essentially an admission of guilt.
The US-backed entity was created to implement a plan that institutionalizes Israel’s restrictions on aid delivery.
“This is not humanitarianism. Humanitarian action would seek to reach all civilians wherever they are, and would push back on measures to limit aid, instead of accepting these conditions upfront,“ Whittall said.
“This new scheme is surveillance-based rationing that legitimizes a policy of deprivation by design. And it comes at a time when people in Gaza, half of whom are children, are facing a crisis of survival.”
The UN has not only refused to participate in this scheme but has also stressed that it is logistically unworkable and violates humanitarian principles by using aid as a means to further Israel’s broader efforts to depopulate areas of Gaza.
“The message that is being sent through the establishment of these militarized hubs appears to be that in Gaza, survival is a privilege, granted only to those who comply with a military plan that has been described by an Israeli minister as being to ‘conquer, clear and stay’,” Whittall added.
He said that recent events illustrate the ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians and the accelerating assault on their human dignity. Stressing that truly humanitarian action seeks to reach all civilians, wherever they are, he warned that this distribution scheme cannot possibly meet Gaza’s needs.
Humanitarian organizations, including the UN and NGOs, are prepared and capable of effectively delivering assistance to alleviate the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Aid agencies emphasize that the obstacles are political obstruction and systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, not capacity.
At the same time, airstrikes and other attacks continue across the Gaza Strip. Reports indicate that scores of people have been killed and hundreds injured in recent days, including children and other civilians.
On Friday, OCHA reported that strikes had continued across the territory, particularly in northern Gaza. The last remaining partially functioning hospital in the area, Al Awda, was forced to evacuate on Thursday night due to repeated strikes on and around the facility in the preceding days.
Forced displacement continues throughout Gaza. Nearly 200,000 people have been displaced in the last two weeks alone. On Thursday, Israeli authorities issued renewed displacement orders covering approximately 30 percent of Gaza's territory, including North Gaza, eastern Gaza City, and Deir al Balah.
Displacement orders have thus far covered the entirety of the northernmost and southernmost governorates, as well as the eastern parts of the three governorates in between. Aid agencies have noted that the limited movement of people observed in recent days appears to be driven by the search for food and essential supplies for survival rather than by displacement orders.
Despite the immense challenges on the ground and the crippling restrictions on the amount and type of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza, UN agencies and NGOs continue to provide vital support to those in need.
Yet on Thursday, aid agencies only managed to collect five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing. The other 60 trucks had to return due to intense hostilities in the area.
Humanitarian needs in Gaza have exploded following 80 days of a total blockade of all commercial and humanitarian supplies. The limited amounts of aid now entering the Strip are nowhere near sufficient to support the 2.1 million people who are in desperate need of emergency aid.
According to OCHA, the UN continues to send supplies into Gaza through Kerem Shalom, including flour, ingredients for community kitchens, and medical items. However, Israeli authorities have repeatedly denied aid agencies' efforts to collect cargo from the crossing.
The quantity of supplies permitted into Gaza is a mere fraction of what is needed to address the urgent needs of 2.1 million people at a time when the entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine.
Although famine has not yet been declared, people continue to starve and die of starvation. According to an update of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released in mid-May, three-quarters of the population of Gaza faces emergency or catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.
It is estimated that the entire population is facing high levels of acute hunger between now and the end of September 2025, with half a million people experiencing starvation (IPC Phase 5). More than one million people are experiencing emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 4), and the remaining half million are experiencing crisis levels (IPC Phase 3).
The IPC analysis projects that 71,000 children under five, including over 14,000 with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), and nearly 17,000 pregnant and lactating women need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.
However, Israeli authorities continue to obstruct humanitarian aid in violation of international humanitarian law. According to the United Nations, at least 500 trucks carrying commercial and humanitarian supplies are needed daily to enter the territory.
Since the Kerem Shalom crossing reopened more than 10 days ago, only about 900 trucks have been approved to enter. Almost 600 of them have been offloaded on the Gaza side of the crossing but have not yet been distributed to Gaza or reached UN warehouses due to security constraints.
As conditions on the ground continue to deteriorate, looting incidents are becoming increasingly common. On Friday, a group of armed individuals stormed a field hospital's warehouses in Deir al Balah and looted large quantities of medical equipment, supplies, medicines, and nutritional supplements intended for malnourished children.
According to OCHA, meeting humanitarian needs and reducing looting requires getting more aid and essential commercial goods into Gaza and facilitating their safe distribution across the territory. To accomplish this, far more critical supplies must be allowed through multiple crossings and routes.
“Israel, as the occupying power, bears the primary responsibility for restoring public order and safety, which must be a top priority,” OCHA said Friday.
“This could take different forms; among them would be allowing civilian police in Gaza to operate in accordance with law enforcement standards. Criminal looting must be stopped decisively and through lawful means.”
Since breaking the ceasefire and resuming attacks on Gaza, Israeli forces have killed thousands of Palestinians, most of whom were children, women, and the elderly, and injured more than 10,000. This brings the total recorded death toll since October 2023 to over 54,000 and the total number of injuries to over 123,000, most of whom were civilians.
However, the true casualty numbers are estimated to be much higher. Thousands more remain buried under the rubble, as a lack of equipment and insecurity hinder rescue efforts for the wounded and missing. Additionally, thousands more are estimated to have died from indirect causes, such as lack of medical care, dehydration, and starvation.
Among the identified dead are more than 15,000 children, 452 aid workers, 315 UN staff members, 1,580 health care workers, and 219 journalists.
Prior to the Israeli government's total siege, Israeli authorities had impeded humanitarian aid to Gaza for over a year, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. This obstruction was apparently used as a method of warfare, an act that constitutes a war crime.
Leading human rights organizations and experts point out that the blockade and obstruction of humanitarian aid are not only flagrant war crimes but also part of a genocide against Gaza's population. The Israeli government's actions are apparently aimed at deliberately inflicting living conditions that are calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group or part of a group, as defined in the Genocide Convention.
At the same time, Israel's war in Gaza continues to be characterized by grave war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli military and government officials.
These crimes include collective punishment of civilians, use of starvation as a method of warfare, denial of humanitarian aid, targeted killings of civilians and aid workers, indiscriminate killings, disproportionate attacks, deliberate attacks on civilian objects, forcible transfer, torture, and enforced disappearances.
Despite Israeli officials being accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide — some of the worst crimes known to humanity — the Israeli government continues to receive financial, military, economic, and political support from the United States government and allies such as Germany and the United Kingdom, with the world watching.