The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that critical funding shortfalls, severe operational restrictions and continued Israeli military operations are compounding the humanitarian emergency across Gaza and other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), leaving millions grappling with acute hunger and limited access to essential services. Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Office released a report on Monday detailing war crimes, crimes against humanity and potential genocide in Gaza.
The 2026 Flash Appeal, released in December and seeking to mobilize just over US$4 billion to support nearly three million people across Gaza and the West Bank, is currently only 12 percent funded, with just $490 million received so far, which is significantly constraining life-saving operations.
The emergency in Gaza is further exacerbated by severe physical blockades restricting essential supplies. Humanitarian efforts are hindered not only by financial constraints, but also by the limited entry of critical equipment, spare parts and fuel. During the first week of May, only around half of the aid trucks arriving from Egypt were able to offload at Israeli-controlled crossings along Gaza’s perimeter.
The impact of funding shortfalls on food security is particularly stark. In Gaza alone, UN partners are struggling to maintain basic services: the capacity of kitchens supporting meal distribution has dropped significantly from 1.8 million meals served in February to 1 million daily meals.
Although aid efforts are shifting towards providing cash and livelihood support to enable populations to generate income, humanitarian organizations report that the private sector is currently failing to supply enough nutritious and affordable food. The situation has driven families into severe deprivation.
According to sources on the ground, one in five families eats only once a day, with mothers often skipping meals so their children can eat instead.
Beyond aid shortages, daily life remains extremely precarious. Israeli military operations continued over the weekend, leading to new displacement of residents from areas including eastern Khan Younis and eastern Gaza City, fearing tank activity or bombing.
While most of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents remain displaced, often in dire conditions, daily life is marked by insecurity, ongoing attacks on residential areas and the progressive destruction of critical infrastructure.
Repeated and prolonged displacement, combined with severe movement restrictions, continues to disrupt daily life. Access to essential services remains severely limited, with healthcare, water and sanitation, education and protection services all being significantly impacted.
As global attention shifts elsewhere, families are being forced to survive without access to life-saving supplies and the essential goods needed to live safely and maintain their dignity. Although the ceasefire has reduced the intensity of the conflict, people are still trapped in a cycle of violence.
Since October 2023, Israeli military forces have killed over 72,700 Palestinians and injured more than 172,000 people in Gaza, in locations such as homes, shelters, hospitals, schools and queues for aid.
The true death toll is believed to be higher. Among the confirmed casualties are at least 589 aid workers, 397 UN staff members, 1,700 healthcare workers and 259 journalists. An estimated 58,000 children have lost one or both parents.
The World Health Organization estimates that over 43,000 people in Gaza, including around 10,000 children, have sustained life-changing injuries for which rehabilitation services are either unavailable or extremely limited.
“Civilians must always be protected, and this includes allowing them to move to safer places where their basic needs can be met. They must also be allowed to voluntarily return when conditions permit,” OCHA said on Monday.
OHCHR report details atrocity crimes
In a related development, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) released a report on Monday detailing atrocity crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory between October 2023 and May 2025. The report concludes that many violations of international law committed by Israeli military and other security forces against the civilian population amount to war crimes.
“On and after October 7, 2023, Israel unleashed devastating violence and dispossession in Gaza and the West Bank, committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of the OHCHR office in the OPT, in Geneva.
According to the report, Israeli officials directed attacks on civilian or protected objects, including healthcare and medical facilities, as well as attacks on civilians, including journalists, civil defenders, health workers, humanitarian actors, and police, "in a routine and repeated fashion."
The report concludes that the entirety of Israel's conduct in Gaza raises serious concerns regarding its compliance with the obligations set out in the Genocide Convention.
“The fact remains that Palestinians have no means to ensure their survival or to protect their loved ones, with hundreds killed since the announcement of a ceasefire,” Sunghay said.
During the reporting period, the Israeli blockade of Gaza resulted in the starvation and famine foretold and later confirmed, with hundreds starving to death, including dozens of children.
“Any use of starvation as a method of war against civilians is a war crime, and it may amount to a crime against humanity and even genocide in certain conditions,” the UN official said.
If starvation is committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, it constitutes genocide under international law.
“Displaced Palestinians have scant prospects of return, raising concerns about ethnic cleansing and forcible transfer. In Gaza, the neighborhoods they fled are gone as Israeli forces continue to unlawfully demolish buildings across Gaza— homes still laden with thousands of unretrieved Palestinian bodies,” said Sunghay.
The report also documents war crimes and potential crimes against humanity committed by Palestinian armed groups in Israel, including serious violations committed on October 7, 2023, and subsequently. Throughout the reporting period, these groups continued to fire indiscriminate weapons into Israel, endangering civilians and civilian property.
Additionally, the report chronicles atrocities and violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, by Israeli security forces or with their support. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,096 Palestinians in the West Bank, one in five of them children, with impunity.
“Many incidents raise concerns about unlawful killings and extrajudicial executions,” Sunghay said, noting that settler attacks are routinely carried out with the support, acquiescence, or participation of Israeli security forces.
The report calls on third states to take every measure at their disposal, in accordance with international law, to end the Israeli occupation, dismantle existing settlements, protect civilians, hold all parties accountable for serious violations, and enable Palestinians to exercise their human rights.
“Most of the horrors documented here, and those documented for decades before, have gone unpunished, with no prospect of justice for the victims,” Sunghay said.
Despite the ceasefire in Gaza and the humanitarian space it created, the situation in the OPT requires urgent attention and action from the international community. The lack of accountability for past violations only fuels their recurrence and fails to protect the lives and rights of civilians.
Legal experts and humanitarian organizations across the globe are expressing increasing concern about the ongoing impunity enjoyed by Israeli military personnel and government officials for crimes they have perpetrated.
According to experts in international law, deliberately obstructing humanitarian assistance in the context of the situation in Gaza constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and amounts to war crimes, crimes against humanity and, according to several legal assessments, genocide.
While the UN Human Rights Office itself has not formally declared genocide, UN commissions, international and Israeli human rights organizations, rights experts and leading genocide scholars have determined that Israel's actions in Gaza meet the legal definitions of not only war crimes and crimes against humanity, but genocide against Gaza's population as well.