Amid the launch of the US administration’s “Board of Peace” and ongoing reconstruction talks on the Gaza Strip, United Nations aid agencies insisted on Friday that Gazans need immediate relief from the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. People across the territory continue to struggle to meet their basic needs as Israel's ongoing violations of international law severely obstruct the humanitarian scale-up.
“It's absolutely critical to unlock the congestion [...] at crossing points and to reopen critical lifelines like the Jordan corridor,” said Juliette Touma, director of communications at the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
Briefing journalists in Geneva, Touma pointed out that, although the October 2025 ceasefire agreement brought some respite to families in the war-torn enclave, “people continue to be killed, day in, day out”.
The ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, 2025, enabled many humanitarian organizations to resume operations in previously inaccessible areas and increase the delivery of aid and services. However, since the ceasefire went into effect, Israeli forces have repeatedly violated it by launching heavy air bombardments on the territory, killing over 460 civilians and injuring more than 1,200 others.
Since October 2023, over 240,000 Palestinians, primarily civilians, have been killed, injured, or maimed in Israeli military operations. The recorded death toll exceeds 71,500, of whom over 20,000 have been confirmed to be children. The overall number of injuries surpasses 171,000. However, the actual number of casualties is believed to be much higher.
Ongoing killing of civilians in Israeli attacks
On Friday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed horror at the ongoing killing of civilians in Israeli attacks in Gaza amid a broader pattern of post-ceasefire violence and the lingering effects of two years of devastation.
“The crisis in Gaza is nowhere near over. People are dying every day, both in Israeli attacks and as a result of continued Israeli restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance, in particular shelter, leading to deaths from the cold and under collapsing buildings,” said Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights in the OPT.
“This is a time for the international community to intensify support and pressure to stop the bloodshed and advance a rights-based approach to recovery and reconstruction,” he added.
UNOPS official Touma insisted that highly vulnerable Gazans cannot wait for a reconstruction plan to take shape, one of the stated aims of the US-led "Board of Peace."
“They need supplies at the same time; it's not just the services,” she explained.
Echoing these concerns, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) emphasized its longstanding and crucial role in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), including Gaza. UNRWA was entrusted with this mission by UN Member States at the General Assembly in December 1949.
"We are the largest United Nations agency operating in the Gaza Strip," said Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA senior communications manager, speaking from Amman.
“We have the knowledge; we have the trust of the community […] we must be able to continue doing our work; that's crystal clear. We have to be part of the reconstruction by definition, I mean, that’s what we mandated to do.”
Although it is unclear exactly how the United Nations will support the “Board of Peace” launched by the United States on Thursday, last November’s Security Council resolution welcoming the board's creation emphasized the importance of collaborating with "partner organizations," including the United Nations.
“On the issue of the Board of Peace, what we can say is that we are very strongly committed to do whatever we can to ensure the full implementation of the Security Council Resolution 2803,” said Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the UN Information Service in Geneva.
“There is a role for the UN there about the UN leading on humanitarian aid delivery, which we have been doing for such a long time, and we will continue to do the best of our capacities.”
Hundreds of thousands exposed to cold, rainy winter conditions
As the winter weather continues to take a toll on Gaza’s most vulnerable individuals, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that people across the territory are struggling to meet their basic needs due to the limited scale of humanitarian assistance.
Since Sunday, humanitarian organizations have provided emergency shelter assistance to over 13,000 households, distributing hundreds of tents and thousands of tarpaulins, according to OCHA.
Although aid agencies continue to distribute mattresses, warm clothes, solar lights, and more, the UN humanitarian office noted that "capacity and funding constraints" have limited support to only around 40 percent of the 970 existing displacement sites across Gaza. These sites host an estimated 1.3 million people who are still uprooted.
On Friday, OCHA emphasized that hundreds of thousands of people staying in displacement sites are exposed to cold, rainy winter conditions, according to aid agencies working on site management.
Humanitarian organizations estimate that hundreds of households have had their tents damaged by strong winds this week. These relief organizations are coordinating emergency repairs and stressing the need for more sustainable solutions.
Meanwhile, healthcare needs remain enormous across Gaza, where providers such as UNRWA are trying to treat around 15,000 patients a day despite numerous challenges.
“We had 22 clinics operating across the Gaza Strip before the start of the war, we're now down to half a dozen,” said Fowler. “And we have mobile health teams that operate, but in incredibly complicated circumstances.”
Several UNRWA facilities are located behind the so-called Yellow Line, a series of concrete blocks installed by Israeli authorities to separate Gazans from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as outlined in the three-step Gaza peace plan.
“That makes it incredibly difficult to do our work and so many of our locations have been heavily damaged or indeed completely destroyed,” Fowler continued.
“On top of that, we remain banned by the Israeli authorities from bringing in any of our own supplies. This has been a ban that was imposed at the beginning of March 2025 that has not been lifted for us; this means that we faced regular stock-outs of basic medical material and medicines in our pharmacies.”
For over 27 months, the Gaza Strip has been ravaged by an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, with people dying from widespread violence, disease, hunger, a lack of shelter, and a shortage of other basic resources necessary for survival.
Humanitarian and human rights organizations emphasize that Israel is deliberately failing to provide the relief required by international law and continues to prevent necessary supplies from reaching Gaza's civilian population at scale.
Israeli attacks on the United Nations in East Jerusalem and on Palestinians in the West Bank
Addressing the destruction of the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem on Tuesday, Fowler recounted how visiting diplomats were caught up in the dramatic events when Israeli forces stormed and demolished buildings in the compound, firing tear gas.
"This is a United Nations compound, so this is an attack on the United Nations," he told journalists.
“It's an attack on international law, and it's something with potential implications globally, because what happens to UNRWA now could happen to another agency tomorrow in the Occupied Palestinian Territory or elsewhere. So, you know, this creates this kind of precedent and this is extremely dangerous.”
Fowler expressed concern that the Kalandia Training Center, supported by UNRWA, could be shut down within days. The center principally helps lower-income families earn the skills they need to earn a living.
“If the center were to be forcibly closed - and we do fear that this could happen within days - there is no educational alternative for these students,” he said.
The UN agency is also deeply concerned about the situation in the occupied West Bank one year after Israeli forces launched “Operation Iron Wall.”
“This led to the mass displacement of people from three camps in the north of the West Bank,” the UNRWA spokesperson explained, in reference to Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee settlements.
“These Palestine refugees who are expelled by the Israeli forces from the camps, they're living in poverty, they've had their income cut off, they have very few prospects of returning to their homes,” he added, noting that UNRWA is the largest provider of humanitarian aid to around 33,000 people who've been displaced in the last year.
“The camps are progressively being demolished by the Israeli military. So therefore, changing the facts on the ground, changing the topography and the demography of these large communities,” Fowler added.
This comes as OCHA reported on Thursday that over 100 Palestinian Bedouin and herding households from five communities across the central West Bank were displaced in the two weeks leading up to January 19 due to "ongoing settler attacks, threats, and intimidation." These attacks have prevented residents from reaching their homes, pastures, and water sources.
On Wednesday, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that ongoing operations by Israeli forces, along with settler violence and movement restrictions, continue to disrupt people’s access to schools, workplaces, markets, and health care.
The UN agency estimated that more than 230,000 women and girls, including nearly 15,000 pregnant women, have limited access to reproductive health services due to the escalation of violence, particularly in the governorates of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas.