Humanitarian Situation Update #255 | Gaza Strip

The Humanitarian Situation Update is issued by OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory twice a week. The Gaza Strip is covered on Tuesdays and the West Bank on Thursdays. The Gaza Humanitarian Response Update is issued every other Tuesday. The next Humanitarian Situation Update will be issued on 16 January.

Key Highlights

• The fuel crisis continues to threaten the operation of critical health services, from ventilators in Intensive Care Units to hemodialysis machines.
• Critical water, sanitation and hygiene facilities and activities are at risk of grinding to a halt if no additional fuel is urgently received, warns the WASH Cluster.
• Explosive weapons in 2024 left an average of 15 children a day in Gaza with potentially life-long disabilities, according to Save the Children.
• Less than 450 patients have been medically evacuated outside Gaza since May 2024, out of just over 5,000 evacuated in total since October 2023 and more than 12,000 still in need of urgent, life-saving evacuation, according to the Health Cluster.
• Women and girls in overcrowded and poorly lit shelters face heightened vulnerability to violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse, warns UNFPA.

Humanitarian Developments

• Israeli bombardment from the air, land and sea and detonation of residential buildings continues to be reported across the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of civilian infrastructure. Rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups towards Israel has also been reported.
• Between the afternoons of 8 and 14 January 2025, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 210 Palestinians were killed and 738 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 14 January 2024, at least 46,645 Palestinians were killed and 110,012 were injured, according to MoH in Gaza. According to the Ministry, the cumulative figure includes 499 fatalities that were retroactively added as of 11 January 2025 after their identification details were consolidated and approved by a ministerial committee.
• Attacks on schools-turned-shelters continue to be reported. On 7, 9 and 11 January, strikes impacting schools or school yards with tents sheltering IDPs in Jabalya, in the North Gaza governorate, reportedly killed 15 people, including three women and three children, and injured over 30 others, including 19 children. On 13 January, a school was also reportedly hit in the Ad Daraj neighbourhood in central Gaza city, resulting in five people killed and others injured.
• Other deadly incidents reported between 7 and 13 January 2025 include:
  • On 7 January, at about 19:15, five Palestinians, a mother and her four children, were reportedly killed and several others injured when a tent sheltering IDPs was hit in Al Mawasi area in western Khan Younis.
  • On 7 January, at about 19:00, eight Palestinians including children were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Jabalya Al Balad in southern North Gaza.
  • On 7 January, at about 20:15, seven Palestinians, including a couple and their three children, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in southern Khan Younis.
  • On 8 January, at about 12:00, staff of a telecommunication company were reportedly hit while working to fix connection lines in Ash Shuja’iyeh neighbourhood in eastern Gaza city, resulting in several casualties.
  • On 10 January, in the afternoon hours, a Palestinian journalist was shot and killed in An Nuseirat refugee camp, in Deir al Balah, bringing the total number of journalists and media workers killed since October 2023 to 195, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS). On 14 January, PJS condemned the killing of two additional journalists in Gaza city on 13 and 14 January 2025.
  • On 10 January, at about 12:10, at least one Palestinian child was reportedly killed and several others injured in an explosion, reportedly caused by an explosive remnant of war, in Al Mawasi area in western Khan Younis.
  • On 11 January, at about 16:10, three Palestinians, including a girl, were reportedly killed and four others injured when a tent sheltering IDPs was hit in Al Heker area, south of Deir al Balah.
  • On 12 January, a Palestinian ambulance officer reportedly succumbed to his injuries after being hit by an airstrike while on duty in Jabalya. According to MoH, 1,060 health sector staff have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
• Between the afternoons of 8 and 14 January 2025, 12 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. Between 7 October 2023 and 14 January 2025, according to the Israeli military and official Israeli sources cited in the media, more than 1,605 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, the majority on 7 October 2023 and its immediate aftermath. This includes 405 soldiers killed in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation in October 2023. In addition, 2,561 Israeli soldiers were reported injured since the beginning of the ground operation. On 10 January, the Israeli authorities, as cited in the media, confirmed the death of an Israeli hostage whose body was recently recovered along with another hostage from a tunnel in Rafah. As of 14 January, it is estimated that 98 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including hostages who have been declared dead and whose bodies are withheld in Gaza.
• “For the children of Gaza, the new year has brought more death and suffering from attacks, deprivation, and increasing exposure to the cold,” stated the UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, stressing that in the first seven days of 2025 alone, at least 74 children were reportedly killed in several mass casualty events across Gaza, “including nighttime attacks in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Al Mawasi.” At the same time, the continued lack of basic shelter amid winter temperatures, with nearly one million children living in makeshift tents, coupled with lack of access to nutrition and healthcare and the dire sanitary situation, all pose extreme risks for children, with newborns and children with medical conditions being particularly vulnerable, added the UN official. On 14 January, Save the Children reported that the use of explosive weapons in Gaza throughout 2024 left “an average of 475 children each month – or 15 children a day - with potentially lifelong disabilities,” including loss of limbs, sight and hearing. This calculation is based on previous estimates by the Protection Cluster and the Health Cluster’s Trauma Working Group suggesting that in the first 11 months of 2024, at least 5,230 children sustained conflict-related injuries requiring significant rehabilitation support that is inaccessible in Gaza due to the decimation of the health system and restrictions on entry of critical supplies, “leaving them with a high likelihood of disability,” explains the NGO. According to specialized surgeons cited by Save the Children, rising child malnutrition is aggravating the situation, hampering the healing of wounds, and thousands of children who lack prosthetics for their injured limbs face the risk of also developing deformities on their back or issues on the opposite limb, including early osteoarthritis in the hip or knee joint.
• On 11 January, the Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD) stated that several firefighting and rescue vehicles in Gaza, Deir al Balah, and Khan Younis governorates have stopped working due to the lack of maintenance parts and equipment needed to repair and operate them. PCD indicated that their stockpile of these supplies, along with equipment and repair parts that were available on the local market and had allowed PCD to maintain a minimum level of maintenance for their vehicles, have been destroyed. This has come at a time when, according to PCD, more than half of Civil Defense vehicles across Gaza remain out of service due to the lack of fuel to operate them.
• The Health Cluster reports that all still partially functional hospitals have exhausted their reserve fuel stocks and are relying on piecemeal quantities of fuel delivered daily by partners in an attempt to safeguard the most critical services. The fuel crisis, which has been exacerbated by the looting of fuel trucks, continues to threaten the operation of health facilities, directly affecting about 2,000 patients in Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, 10 per cent of whom are in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), and around 220 patients in the northern Gaza governorates, 70 of them in ICUs. The fuel crisis is also threatening the continued operation of 75 haemodialysis machines across the Strip that represent a lifeline for approximately 700 patients suffering from kidney diseases, the majority of them being in central and southern Gaza. At present, due to the critical shortage of both haemodialysis machines and supplies, these patients are only receiving sub-optimal treatment, undertaking an average of 10 dialysis sessions of three-to-four hours each per month, compared to the 12 sessions of four hours each required according to international standards. Prior to the current hostilities, 198 dialysis machines were available across the Strip.
• On 8 January, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned that all three key hospitals in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis - the Nasser Medical Complex, the Al-Aqsa and European Gaza hospitals - were “on the verge of closure due to a lack of fuel,” placing at imminent risk the lives of hundreds of patients, including newborns in incubators who depend on mechanical ventilators to stay alive, and disrupting the treatment of patients with burns and trauma. Furthermore, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) reports that the Nasser Medical Complex, which as of 10 January had 13 patients, including three children, relying on mechanical ventilation and 17 newborns depending on incubators for survival, has been forced to prioritize power for operating theatres, paediatric and neonatal ICUs, while other hospital facilities have minimal lighting and are relying on a smaller generator and solar systems during daylight hours. In the Gaza governorate, the last fuel delivery took place on 4 January, with efforts ongoing to plan a resupply mission early next week to maintain critical health services. In North Gaza, where there is only one barely functional health facility, the situation is similarly critical; as of 13 January, Al Awda Hospital has been striving to provide care to 36 patients amid severe shortages of medicines, medical supplies, fuel and food, warns the World Health Organization (WHO, with the hospital’s Director reporting that the facility has been without fuel for 95 days. Despite all the efforts of the Health Cluster, continuous insecurity in the area surrounding the hospital, damaged infrastructure that has rendered the road impassable, and access impediments continue to prevent access to the facility.
• The lack of fuel is threatening to cause an abrupt halt to critical WASH services across the Gaza Strip. The WASH Cluster warns that - unless fuel is urgently received - all WASH services both north and south of Wadi Gaza will imminently cease functioning, with the sole exception of the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant, which in November was reconnected to an electric feeder line from Israel and no longer relies on fuel to operate. WASH partners also would be unable to truck and distribute water, and all sewage and solid waste management operations would grind to a halt. The present crisis is only the apex of a long-standing fuel shortage that has severely compromised all WASH operations throughout 2024; according to the WASH Cluster, the daily quantity of fuel received by WASH partners has plummeted to an average of 8,746 litres in November and less than 12,000 litres in December, compared to the 70,000 litres required per day at a minimum for critical WASH activities, such as production, treatment and distribution of water, pumping, desludging and transfer of sewage, and solid waste management. Moreover, since 6 October 2024, access to water production points in North Gaza and eastern Gaza governorate has also been consistently denied by the Israeli authorities, further curtailing the Cluster’s ability to provide people with water. Combined, the lack of fuel and access restrictions have forced WASH actors to make impossible choices, having to decide daily between providing water, pumping sewage, repairing water or sewage leaks, or transferring solid waste. Displaced people, particularly in northern Gaza, have been forced to either survive on extremely limited quantities of water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene, or to take long dangerous trips for collection, or even resort to using unsafe water sources. Aggravating these conditions is the lack of fuel for sewage and solid waste management, which continues to cause sewage spills and a mounting accumulation of solid waste in or near displacement sites, exacerbating the spread of vermin, infectious diseases and other public health risks.
• Amid immense challenges, efforts have continued to rehabilitate key healthcare facilities in Gaza governorate, with the Al-Rantisi Paediatric Hospital and the Ophthalmic Hospital resuming partial functionality on 1 and 7 January, respectively. Overall, 18 out of 36 hospitals are at present partially functional in Gaza, 10 of them in the Gaza governorate, four in Khan Younis, three in Deir al Balah and only one in the North Gaza governorate. On 12 January, WHO also conducted a mission to the Al-Shifa Hospital to inter alia deliver 9,700 litres of fuel, provide blood and plasma units for onward distribution to other health facilities in Gaza city, facilitate the rotation of an Emergency Medical Team hitherto deployed at the Al Ahli Hospital to southern Gaza, and deliver training on a new disease surveillance system.
• On 8 January, six children and their five companions were evacuated to the United States to receive specialized medical treatment, while four other patients and their five companions were transferred to Jordan. As of 8 January 2025, according to the Health Cluster, 446 patients, including 266 children, have been exceptionally evacuated outside Gaza since the closure of Rafah Crossing on 7 May 2024, out of just over 5,000 evacuated in total since October 2023, while more than 12,000 patients are estimated to require urgent medical evacuation abroad.
• The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reports that over 40,000 pregnant women are experiencing emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 4) and more than 8,000 are enduring catastrophic food insecurity conditions (IPC Phase 5). Amid severe access impediments to maternal and neonatal care, rising malnutrition continues to drive up rates of preterm births and neonatal complications, UNFPA warns. At present, emergency obstetric and newborn care is only available at seven out of 18 partially functional hospitals across Gaza, four out of 11 field hospitals, and a community health centre. Three of these field hospitals, two in Khan Younis and one in Deir al Balah, as well as the community health centre in Deir al Balah host six containerized health units procured by UNFPA. These units continue to address gaps in maternal healthcare in displacement cites, supporting over 2,000 deliveries per month. Despite access and resource challenges, partners are doing their utmost to expand sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services across Gaza, delivering essential medical supplies, clean delivery kits, and postpartum kits, and continue to train midwives on urgent delivery and neonatal resuscitation. Particularly in northern Gaza, where access remains severely limited, UNFPA relies on mobile SRH teams, including midwives, to provide care through home and shelter visits.
• On 12 January, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for An Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al Balah, covering approximately 0.86 square kilometres. Several evacuation orders had already been issued for the designated area. An estimated 4,100 people living in the area were affected, including those sheltering at two UNRWA shelters, so were three medical points, two water trucking points and two Temporary Learning Spaces (TLSs). Aid organizations report that limited displacement movements were subsequently observed towards other areas in Deir al Balah.
• Between 4 November and 16 December, the Site Management Working Group (SMWG) assessed 565 displacement sites in southern Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, hosting a total of 171,505 households, or nearly 842,000 people, the majority of whom had been displaced from Gaza and North Gaza governorates since October 2023. Eighty per cent of the sites were makeshift shelters while the remaining 19 per cent were collective centres. The assessment, which relied on data collected through interviews with Key Informants (KIs), highlighted that 82 per cent of the sites had some type of site committee and 70 per cent had women involved either in the management of the site, the distribution of aid or in specific women’s committees. According to KIs, access to sufficient food and adequate drinking water was absent or extremely limited at 87 and 51 per cent of the sites, respectively. Nearly all sites (95 per cent) had no source of lighting, and 36 per cent had people staying in the open without shelter. Over 60 per cent of KIs reported that none of the households have had access to adequate hygiene items. Overall, the five most critical needs highlighted by residents across all sites were food, shelter, household items, personal hygiene supplies and latrines, with the most urgent NFIs being clothing, bedding items and washing supplies.
• Gender-based violence (GBV) is surging, according to UNFPA, with women and girls in overcrowded and poorly lit shelters facing increasing denial of access to resources within households and heightened vulnerability to emotional and physical violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse. The lack of privacy and safe spaces, hygiene facilities and menstrual supplies only exacerbates risks and further undermines safety and dignity, with hygiene-related infections being on the rise. In December, over 37,000 people received specialized GBV services across Gaza, including Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), case management, safety and legal aid. UNFPA also distributed 1,248 dignity kits and a two-month supply of menstrual pads to 27,600 women and girls, as well as 5,202 hygiene kits to frontline professionals, including health and social workers, and youth volunteers.
• Between 1 and 13 January, out of 204 planned aid movements requiring coordination with Israeli authorities across the Gaza Strip, 41 per cent (83) were facilitated, 34 per cent (70) were denied, 15 per cent (31) were interfered with or initially agreed to but then faced impediments, and ten per cent (20) were cancelled by the organizers due to logistical and security challenges. Movements facing impediments were accomplished either partially or not at all. Of the coordinated movements, 32 needed to cross from southern Gaza through the Israeli military-controlled checkpoints on Al Rashid or Salah ad Din roads to areas north of Wadi Gaza (including both North Gaza and Gaza governorates); of these, only 28 per cent (nine) were facilitated, 38 per cent (12) were denied, 22 per cent (seven) faced impediments, and 12 per cent (four) were cancelled. These include ten attempts to reach the besieged area in North Gaza, of which eight were denied and two were withdrawn. Coordinated aid missions to areas in the Rafah governorate, where there has been an ongoing Israeli military operation since early May, have faced similar challenges. Fifteen out of 22 planned movements submitted to the Israeli authorities to access Rafah governorate between 1 and 13 January were denied, four were facilitated, and two were initially agreed to, but faced impediments. This excludes 16 coordinated movements to Kerem Shalom crossing, of which 56 per cent (nine) were facilitated, 12 per cent (two) were impeded, and 31 per cent (five) were cancelled.
• A study published by the medical journal The Lancet estimates that between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024, a total of 64,260 people died due to traumatic injury in Gaza, representing 2.9 per cent of Gaza’s pre-conflict population, or one in 35 inhabitants. This mortality rate is 41 per cent higher than the one estimated by MoH during the same timeframe, which stood at 37,877 deaths. The study also infers that, while the official MoH estimate as of 6 October 2024 stood at 41,909 deaths, “assuming that the level of under-reporting of 41 per cent continued from July to October 2024, it is plausible that the true figure now exceeds 70,000.” Further details on the methodology and additional findings can be found in the report.

Funding

• As of 14 January 2025, Member States have disbursed approximately US$123.2 million out of the $4.07 billion (three per cent) requested to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of three million out of 3.3 million people identified as requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2025 under the 2025 Flash Appeal for the OPT. Nearly 90 per cent of the requested funds are for the humanitarian response in Gaza, with just over 10 per cent for the West Bank. Moreover, during December 2024, the oPt Humanitarian Fund (oPt HF) managed 111 ongoing projects, totalling $82.2 million, to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (86 per cent) and the West Bank (14 per cent). These include 64 projects implemented by international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), 34 by national NGOs and 13 by UN agencies. Of the 77 projects implemented by INGOs or the UN, 46 are being implemented in collaboration with national NGOs. For more information, please see OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service webpage and the oPt Humanitarian Fund webpage.

* Asterisks indicate that a figure, sentence, or section has been rectified, added, or retracted after the initial publication of this update.