Humanitarian Situation Update #278 | 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 for the West Bank will be issued on 10 April.

Key Highlights

• Acts of war in Gaza show utter disregard for human life, top UN officials say, calling on world leaders to act with urgency to save Palestinians in Gaza.
• With no aid entering since 2 March, malnutrition, disease and other preventable conditions are expected to surge, increasing the risk of preventable child deaths, UNICEF warns.
• Medicines and medical consumables are rapidly running out in Gaza, including critically low levels of supplies and blood units for maternal and child health.
• With two-thirds of the Gaza Strip territory designated as “no-go” zones or placed under displacement orders, over 390,000 people have been displaced in three weeks.
• The number of aid workers killed since October 2023 rises to 412.

Humanitarian Developments

• Since 18 March, and for more than three weeks, Israeli forces have escalated bombardment from the air, land and sea across the Gaza Strip and expanded ground operations, resulting in hundreds of casualties, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and large-scale displacement. Humanitarian operations have been stifled by a combination of expanded military activity, the Israeli government’s blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies for more than a month, killing of aid workers and attacks on their premises, and severe movement restrictions within Gaza. Over 390,000 people are estimated to have been displaced again, according to the Site Management Cluster (SMC), with no safe place to go. On 3 and 6 April, rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, most of which were reportedly intercepted. Rocket fire that directly hit the city of Ashkelon on 6 April reportedly resulted in the injury of at least 12 Israelis, according to media reports. 
• On 7 April, the heads of OCHA, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), UNRWA, the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)* issued an urgent appeal to world leaders to act firmly and urgently to save Palestinians in Gaza. In their statement, the top UN officials noted that “acts of war in Gaza…show an utter disregard for human life.”  They also stressed that “assertions that there is now enough food to feed all Palestinians in Gaza are far from the reality on the ground,” warning that key commodities, including essential medical and trauma supplies, are rapidly running out. Underscoring the urgent call, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, stated that " we are being deliberately blocked from saving lives in Gaza, and so civilians are dying.”
• According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, between 3 and 8 April, as of noon, 287 Palestinians were killed and 912 were injured. Many bodies remain under the rubble of destroyed structures, according to MoH. Since 19 January, when the first phase of the ceasefire took effect, and as of 8 April, a total of 901 bodies were retrieved from across the Gaza Strip, the MoH reported. Between 7 October 2023 and 8 April 2025, the MoH in Gaza reported that at least 50,810 Palestinians have been killed and 115,688 Palestinians injured. This includes 1,449 people killed and 3,647 injured since the escalation of hostilities on 18 March, according to MoH. 
• On 1 April, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that one of its staff, working at the MSF urgent care unit in Khan Younis, was killed along with his wife and 28-year-old daughter. MSF said that this is the second killing of an MSF colleague in just two weeks. On 6 April, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) stated that two of their staff, who worked at the PRCS Al Amal hospital in Khan Younis, were killed along with their three children in an airstrike that hit their home in Khan Younis. In total, since 7 October 2023, at least 412 aid workers, including 291 UN staff, have been killed in Gaza.
• In two separate incidents, three Palestinian journalists were reportedly killed in Khan Younis. On 6 April, a female journalist was killed along with seven other Palestinians, including children and women, when a residential building was reportedly hit in Al Amal neighbourhood in western Khan Younis. In another incident on 7 April, a tent used by journalists and media workers was hit close to Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, setting it on fire and killing one journalist and another Palestinian. Nine other journalists were injured, including one who succumbed to his wounds on 8 April. Referencing the incident, the Palestinian Journalists Protection Center (PJPC) emphasized that “the deliberate targeting of journalists constitutes a war crime and reflects a broader, systematic pattern of grave human rights violations committed by Israel against civilians—especially journalists—who are entitled to protection under international humanitarian law.” The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) also condemned the attack, noting that the number of journalists and media workers killed in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 has increased to 208. According to PJS, in March, seven journalists were killed by Israeli forces, six of whom were in the field and one in his home. Additionally, eight of the journalists’ relatives and family members were killed when the journalists were killed, PJS reported. 
• Between 3 and 7 April, other incidents resulting in fatalities were reported across the Gaza Strip, including the following:
  • On 3 April, at about 18:00, four Palestinians were reportedly killed when a school was hit in At Tuffah area, east of Gaza city. 
  • On 4 April, at about 01:50, 25 Palestinians, including women and children, were reportedly killed and others were injured or missing under the rubble when a residential building, housing over 50 people, was hit in the Al Manara neighbourhood in southeastern Khan Younis.
  • On 4 April, at about 13:20, three children were reportedly killed and others injured when a bicycle carrying water was hit in Khuza'a in eastern Khan Younis.
  • On 6 April, at about 22:20, at least nine Palestinians, including four children and three women, were reportedly killed and at least 27 others were injured when a residential building was hit in central Khan Younis.
  • On 5 and 7 April, two food charity distribution points (Tekiya) were hit in Khan Younis, resulting in the killing of three Palestinian men on 5 April and seven Palestinians, including two children, among them a girl, on 7 April. 
• Between 7 October 2023 and 8 April 2025, according to Israeli forces and official Israeli sources cited in the media, more than 1,607 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, the majority on 7 October 2023 and its immediate aftermath. This includes 407 soldiers killed, in addition to 2,587 soldiers injured, in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation in October 2023. As of 8 April, it is estimated that 59 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including hostages who have been declared dead and whose bodies are being withheld. 
• Between 18 March and 6 April, the Israeli military issued 15 displacement orders, placing about 130.8 square kilometres, or 36 per cent of the Gaza Strip, under active displacement orders. In addition to areas placed under displacement orders, the Israeli authorities have requested the UN to coordinate movements to the “no-go” zone along Gaza’s perimeter and along Wadi Gaza where Israeli forces have re-deployed since 20 March. Together, these areas comprise about 66 per cent of the Gaza Strip. According to the Site Management Cluster (SMC), over 390,000 people are estimated to have been displaced between 18 March and 6 April, including families who were sheltering at about 320 displacement sites. Between 3 and 6 April, two displacement orders were issued by the Israeli military, as follows:  
  • On 3 April, a displacement order was issued for Az Zaytoun and Tel El Hawa areas in Gaza governorate, covering approximately 5.1 square kilometres in two neighbourhoods. 
  • On 6 April, a displacement order was issued for Az Zawayda and An Nuseirat in Deir al Balah governorate, covering approximately 3.1 square kilometres in nine neighbourhoods. Initial information indicates that the area includes 12 displacement sites with about 8,000 people, one field hospital, three Primary Health Care Centres (PHCs) and three medical points. Two field hospitals, four PHCs, and eight medical points are located within 1,000 metres of the area slated for evacuation. 
• Most attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements to about two-thirds of the Gaza Strip territory designated as “no-go” zones or placed under displacement orders (see above) have been denied, especially for aid delivery which is often blocked. Given restricted access, there are no clear estimates of the number of people who remain in these areas. Humanitarian partners on the ground report that these areas are not empty and include families who may have immediately fled following the issuance of orders but returned when only limited military activities were conducted. Initial information based on recent field visits by aid actors in Gaza, including in central, eastern, and southwest of Gaza city, indicate that despite efforts to scale up response, access to essential services is increasingly difficult due to insecurity and lack of supplies. Additionally, restricted humanitarian movements are hindering critical tasks, such as the delivery of chemicals for desalination plants and picking up commodities at crossings. 
• Between 3 and 7 April, out of 36 planned aid movements across the Gaza Strip that were coordinated with the Israeli authorities, 25 were denied, one faced impediments, and 10 were facilitated. Out of 14 planned humanitarian assistance movements in or to northern Gaza that were coordinated with the Israeli authorities, only five were facilitated and nine were denied. These include 12 aid missions that needed to pass through the Israeli-controlled Wadi Gaza area between southern and northern Gaza. Of these, five were facilitated by the Israeli authorities through Al Rashid Road while seven others were denied. In southern Gaza, out of the 22 planned humanitarian assistance movements, five were facilitated, 16 were denied and one faced impediments. 
• On 4 April, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) expressed alarm at the breakdown of public order in Gaza, with recent allegations of killings and unnecessary or disproportionate use of force in crowd control by the local police. OHCHR stated: “As vital aid becomes scarcer and people become more desperate, our Office has received reports of several incidents alleging the unnecessary or disproportionate use of force by local police against crowds seeking food” as well as reports of “undue restrictions on the freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression, including arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture.” OHCHR added: “Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza have served to dismantle and destroy Gaza’s governance and law enforcement structures, contributing to a deterioration of public order that threatens the safety of Palestinians and their access to basic services and life-saving humanitarian aid,” a situation that has been “further exacerbated by Israel’s complete closure of crossings into Gaza, preventing entry of any goods or essential supplies as families struggle to find the basic necessities such as food and water.” 
• The health system in Gaza is overwhelmed by the influx of casualties and rapidly depleting essential medicines and supplies due to the blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid supplies into Gaza for over a month. On the occasion of World Health Day, WHO reported that supplies for maternal and child health, including for caesarean sections, anesthesia for delivery and pain management, as well as blood units needed for surgeries and complicated deliveries are critically low. Essential medical equipment, such as portable incubators, ventilators for neonatal intensive care, ultrasound machines, and oxygen pumps were reportedly not allowed entry to Gaza. In addition, 180,000 doses of routine childhood vaccines — enough to fully protect 60,000 children under the age of two — have not been permitted to enter, leaving newborns and young children without the life-saving care they urgently need. In a press conference marking the same occasion, the MoH in Gaza reported that while medical teams and ambulance crews continue to operate under life-threatening conditions to save lives, 37 per cent of medications and 59 per cent of medical supplies are at zero stock. This includes medications for operating rooms, intensive care units, and emergency departments that have been depleted to unprecedented levels, with higher percentages of critical medications being at zero stock, such as 54 per cent of medications for cancer treatment, 40 per cent of those for primary care and 51 per cent of medicines for maternal and child health. Furthermore, the destruction of diagnostic imaging equipment has severely restricted patients’ access to these vital services, while fuel shortages threaten to shut down the hospitals' essential departments that rely on generators, MoH added.
• In Gaza governorate, access to health care facilities is affected by displacement orders and the safety of healthcare workers remains at risk, with at least two reported killed as they left their health facility in Gaza city on 7 April. Twelve out of 17 hospitals are partially functional and 17 out of 41 PHCs are functional, including 13 partially, and there is only one field hospital. Moreover, Health Cluster partners support 23 health facilities in Gaza governorate, including a newly opened, level-2 health centre offering general medical consultations, services for non-communicable diseases, wound care, sexual and reproductive health services, psychosocial support and nutrition services. At Al Shifa Hospital, doctors are being forced to discharge patients early to make room for trauma cases in urgent need of surgery, according to WHO, which is providing technical expertise to strengthen mass casualty management to save lives. A WHO-provided tent with ten inpatient beds is already in place, with plans underway to bring in more tents to expand hospital bed capacity. A new 70-bed surgical and orthopedic wing is also under construction to help absorb the growing caseload.
• Following coordination with Israeli authorities and notwithstanding extremely challenging conditions, on 6 April, WHO reached Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza city, where it had deployed an international orthopedic emergency medical team to address the surge in trauma cases, supporting the replenishment of essential supplies from its dwindling stocks, and improving trauma care pathways to enable patient transfers to Al-Shifa Hospital, also in Gaza city. Due to heavy patient overload, Al Ahli Hospital’s CT scanner — the only one in northern Gaza — has broken down due to sustained overuse, 50 out of 160 blood units were used in one day, and the hospital’s three operating theatres are not enough to meet the demand for surgeries, WHO reported. In one instance, the hospital’s emergency department was pushed to eight times its capacity following an airstrike on a school in the city, receiving over 180 injuries and 52 fatalities in just one night, according to WHO. Referring to this incident, Dr. Khamis Elessi, rehabilitation and pain medicine consultant at the hospital, told WHO that the vast majority of casualties were women and children and stated: “In Gaza city, we need more doctors, more emergency physicians, more vascular surgeons and neurosurgeons. And more efforts to stop this and to open a safe passage for people who want to get treated outside.” 
• A significant reduction in water supply through pipelines from Israel, coupled with the lack of power, fuel, spare parts and access, is likely to further jeopardize people’s access to safe drinking water across the Gaza Strip and expose them to conditions that threaten their survival and dignity, according to the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) Cluster. At present, only one of three Mekorot water pipelines from Israel to Gaza is functional—the Bani Suheila connection in Khan Younis—and the main desalination plant in southern Gaza has had an 85 per cent reduction in its water production since early March following power cuts by Israel. The second pipeline in Deir al Balah (Bani Saeed) has been non-functional since January 2025, after sustaining damage, with no permission hitherto granted by Israeli authorities to safely access and repair the line in the “no-go” zone. The third pipeline to northern Gaza (Al Muntar) has stopped functioning since 3 April 2025; the line previously provided nearly 50 per cent of water supply in Gaza and North Gaza governorates.
• UNICEF now estimates that access to drinking water for one million people, including 400,000 children, has dropped from 16 litres per person per day during the ceasefire to just six, warning that if “fuel runs out in the coming weeks, this [the amount] could drop below four liters, forcing families to use unsafe water, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks, particularly among children.” The WASH Cluster is exploring contingency measures, such as scaling up water trucking from private desalination plants and further expanding the use of ground water wells, but serious challenges persist, including the blockade on the entry of essential supplies, including fuel, and shrinking humanitarian space. 
• A growing sanitation crisis is having a detrimental impact on Gaza's health care facilities. The WASH Cluster reports that over 250 health care facilities are awaiting essential infection prevention and control supplies, currently held outside the Gaza Strip. These supplies are vital to protect both patients and health workers, especially given the limited capacity of WASH services across health care facilities. In the absence of these supplies, there is an urgent need for prioritization and targeted training to help staff identify the best safety measures with limited resources. This situation is placing an additional burden on Gaza’s already overwhelmed health care workforce, amid an exceptionally serious depletion of essential medical and trauma supplies while hospitals have been inundated with casualties.  
• UNICEF warns that with no aid entering since 2 March, malnutrition, disease and other preventable conditions are expected to surge, increasing the risk of preventable child deaths. In central and southern Gaza, ready-to-use complementary food for infants—critical for healthy growth amid widespread food shortages—has been depleted. Only limited amounts of ready-to-use infant formula (RUIF) remain for 400 children, while nearly 10,000 infants under six months are not exclusively breastfed. UNICEF cautions that without access to RUIF, families may be forced to use alternatives mixed with contaminated water, compounding health risks, and that the lack of food and drinkable water also compromise breastfeeding practices and infant health.  “UNICEF has thousands of pallets of aid waiting to enter the Gaza Strip,” said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder. “Most of this aid is lifesaving – yet instead of saving lives, it is sitting in storage. It must be allowed in immediately. This is not a choice or charity; it is an obligation under international law,” he added. Meanwhile, displacement orders and bombardment have forced the closure of 15 per cent of all nutrition sites, interrupting treatment for about 350 acutely malnourished children. Many more are at risk of being denied lifesaving support as nutrition detection and treatment services are disrupted. The Nutrition Cluster reports that operational capacity for nutrition screening has dropped by 30 per cent, reaching only around 58,000 children in March, compared with 83,000 in February.
• A recent assessment conducted by Food Security Sector (FSS) partners reveals an interlinked crisis in agriculture, livestock, and fisheries, marked by input shortages, water scarcity, and widespread damage to livelihoods and infrastructure. Whether due to missing irrigation systems, livestock losses, or destroyed fishing boats, production disruptions are not isolated challenges but symptoms of a broader collapse in access, affordability, and mobility, particularly for vulnerable groups. While limited inputs constrain crop producers, herders face a survival crisis marked by high rates of animal mortality, the destruction of shelters, and potential health risks due to parasite infection among surviving livestock that passes on to people. This is compounded by unexploded ordnance risk and access limitations, which significantly undermine food production. Furthermore, fishers continue to face insecurity at sea and lack of essential equipment. Overall, the assessment finds that physical access challenges and security access constraints shape participation in land, water, or sea activities. 
• The escalation of hostilities since October 2023 has triggered a severe environmental crisis in Gaza, with profound impacts on water resources, agriculture, and waste management systems, according to a recent report by the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON). The report highlights that the destruction of critical infrastructure and heavy military vehicle activity have exacerbated long-standing environmental challenges, resulting in widespread pollution, including water pollution, reduced agricultural output, and soil degradation. Warning of severe threats to public health, the report notes that the vast majority of fields once used to grow crops and olive tree orchards have been damaged or destroyed, solid waste management services are on the brink of collapse, and there is widespread environmental contamination by an estimated 50 million tonnes of debris, unrecovered bodies, the open burning of waste and unexploded ordinances. The report calls for urgent, coordinated efforts to rebuild Gaza’s environmental infrastructure and mitigate long-term socio-economic and public health impacts. 

Funding

• As of 8 April 2025, Member States have disbursed approximately US$178.1 million out of the $4.07 billion (4.4 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 Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Nearly 88 per cent of the requested funds are for humanitarian response in Gaza, with just over 12 per cent for the West Bank. Moreover, during March 2025, the oPt Humanitarian Fund (oPt HF) managed 110 ongoing projects, totalling $67.6 million, to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (89 per cent) and the West Bank (11 per cent). Of these projects, 56 are being implemented by international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), 42 by national NGOs and 12 by UN agencies. Notably, 43 out of the 68 projects implemented by INGOs or the UN are being implemented in collaboration with national NGOs. For more information, please see OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service webpage and the oPt HF webpage.

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