Gaza ceasefire response

Yesterday, fuel was delivered to five bakeries in Gaza city, ensuring they can operate at full capacity for a week. Thirteen bakeries in the south and central Gaza continue to function at full capacity. The World Food Programme reports that it has delivered more than 10,000 metric tons of food to Gaza since the ceasefire took effect.

As the humanitarian response continues, the UN and our humanitarian partners are carrying out needs assessments to inform those efforts. Between Monday and yesterday, partners assessed 148 displacement sites where some 195,000 people have been sheltering in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah. The teams found that in all but 12 per cent of these sites, people are starting to leave.

Our partners who are working to support water, sanitation and hygiene services in Gaza continue to scale up water trucking in the governorates of Rafah, North Gaza and Gaza. In Rafah, some 300 cubic metres of potable water is being distributed each day – enough for about 50,000 people.

Our partners working in shelter are providing tarpaulin sheets to displaced people in the north and east of Gaza city. They also expect to distribute tents to families returning to their destroyed homes in both southern and northern areas of the Strip.

Our nutrition partners report that high energy biscuits were distributed to 19,000 people south of Wadi Gaza, and 10,000 people on the northern side.

Aid workers stationed along the Salah ad Din and Al Rashid roads continue to provide support to those on the move, including food, water and hygiene kits. UNICEF is distributing identification bracelets for children to help families stay safe on their journey. 

The World Health Organization has supplied fuel, tents and equipment, enabling the Palestine Red Crescent Society to establish two trauma stabilization points on Al Rashid Road. Humanitarian partners operate three medical points and 30 ambulances along Al Rasheed Road. Yesterday, humanitarian partners reached 29,000 people on the move with high energy biscuits.

As of earlier today, our partners estimate that more than 423,000 people have crossed from south to north, since the opening of these roads on Monday. Those on the move include unaccompanied children, pregnant women, older people, the chronically ill, people with disabilities and those in need of medical care.

Today, UN agencies brought six fuel tankers to northern Gaza to support bakeries, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene services, and other essential activities. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization says it is working to restore local food production in Gaza by scaling up deliveries of critical agricultural inputs. FAO is also focused on rebuilding agrifood infrastructure, such as greenhouses, wells and solar systems.

The agency’s latest geospatial assessment – carried out with the UN Satellite Centre between October and December 2024 – indicates that three quarters of fields once used to grow crops in Gaza – as well as olive tree orchards – have been damaged or destroyed. Cattle* losses are at 96 per cent, and the fishing sector is on the brink of collapse.

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

The World Food Programme has brought more than 10,000 metric tons of food into Gaza since the ceasefire – and that for the first time in months, families in Gaza are receiving significantly more rations – two food parcels and a 25-kg bag of wheat flour. The agency has also distributed nutrition products to 46,000 people, including children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Thanks to the influx of fresh supplies entering the Strip, WFP has also been able to get bakeries up and running in the south – eight old and five new ones – and prepare hot meals and deliver ready-to-eat meals to families in shelters.

Since the start of the ceasefire, the UN Mine Action Service and its partners have assessed nearly a dozen sites across Gaza to reduce the risk that explosive ordnance poses to civilians, including humanitarian personnel.