UNITED NATIONS, Thursday, April 17, 2025 (WNP): The United Nations has sounded the alarm over the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, warning that intensified Israeli military operations and mounting restrictions on aid access are displacing hundreds of thousands and cutting civilians off from basic necessities like food, water, and medicine.
Since March 18, more than 500,000 Palestinians have been newly displaced—many forced to flee multiple times—as bombardments continue across the enclave.
Conditions on the ground are deteriorating at an alarming rate, with acute shortages of essential supplies and soaring rates of malnutrition, particularly among children.
“Tents are no longer available for distribution,” UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay told reporters during a briefing at UN headquarters in New York. She added that families in Bani Suhaila, in Khan Younis Governorate, recently received only minimal aid, such as a few blankets and tarpaulins. Overcrowding in shelters and the lack of food, water, and medicine have reached critical levels.
Children are bearing the brunt of the collapse. Humanitarian agencies report that the number of children receiving supplementary feeding plummeted by more than two-thirds in March, heightening fears of acute malnutrition amid failing health systems.
Hospital operations are also faltering under pressure from dwindling medical supplies and fuel shortages.
“Humanitarian agencies are struggling to operate, as no aid has entered Gaza for weeks,” Tremblay said. “We are now in the seventh week of this crisis, and as military operations expand, the situation is only worsening.”
On Wednesday, only two out of six UN-coordinated humanitarian missions received Israeli authorization, while four—including a critical mission to retrieve fuel from Rafah—were denied, she noted.
Despite the insecurity and access barriers, humanitarian organizations are pressing on with relief efforts. Community kitchens across Gaza are preparing more than one million meals daily. However, with 2.1 million residents now almost entirely dependent on aid, these efforts fall far short of meeting the population’s basic needs.
