Amid reports that a return to full-scale war at the weekend may have been averted with the announcement by Hamas that it would comply with the agreed release of Israeli hostages, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that aid teams were “seizing every opportunity” to deliver as much relief as possible to Gazans in dire need.
Speaking from northern Gaza, OCHA’s René Nijenhuis said that families’ main concern was that the ceasefire holds.
He explained that the fragile truce had allowed aid teams to get water trucks and reach people in “desperate need of assistance. They need shelter, they need schooling,” Mr. Nijenhuis said. Children are pleading: “Where’s my school? I want to go to school,” the OCHA officer added.
Truck lifeline
Thousands of trucks carrying food, shelter and medicines have entered the Gaza Strip at a rate of around 600 a day since the ceasefire began on 19 January – far more than those allowed during the hostilities that were sparked by the Hamas-led terror attacks on southern Israel of 7 October 2023.
On Wednesday alone, more than 800 trucks delivered life-saving goods into Gaza, OCHA said, while the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said that it has now reached 1.5 million people with food parcels since the start of the ceasefire – and has enough coming to reach the rest of Gaza’s population.
Since Israeli forces withdrew from parts of the Netzarim corridor that separates north and south Gaza, more than 586,000 people are estimated to have crossed to the north, while over 56,000 were estimated to have moved southward, UN humanitarians reported.
Two million in need
Despite the massive aid boost, it is still not enough to provide the immediate relief that more than two million Gazans require. This will only happen when commercial goods begin to flow into the Strip once again, humanitarians have said repeatedly, including the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“A lot of aid has come in. We have scaled up as fast as we possibly could over the last three weeks of this ceasefire, but of course we cannot undo 15 months of suffering in three weeks,” said UNICEF Communications Manager Tess Ingam, speaking to UN News.
“There needs to be much more aid consistently coming in; also need commercial goods to come in so that markets can be stocked. We need the cash sector and the banking sector to restart again so that people can buy those commercial goods. There’s a lot that needs to happen fast to help resume a functioning goods society in the Gaza Strip.”
UNICEF also warned that its teams cannot quickly repair the damage done by the damage caused by the Israeli military’s use of heavy weapons and high explosives across Gaza.
Basic public services have been smashed and require equipment that is still not being allowed to enter the enclave.
“We need to make sure that certain items that are currently restricted for entry to Gaza are able to enter, for example, pipes for the repair of water systems, generators to run water pumps,” Ms. Ingam said, shortly after finishing a two-week assessment mission in the enclave.
Live fire threat
“UNICEF needs this ceasefire to hold as much for us as for the children of Gaza,” she insisted. “Like all humanitarian actors, we are able to do our best work to save the lives of children and provide them with protection and support when we’re not operating in live fire.”
Speaking exclusively to UN News, Ms. Ingam said that the agency’s three priorities were providing water, boosting healthcare and nutrition and helping people withstand the cold.
“We’re focused on making sure that water flows again, particularly in the areas where water has been really badly damaged, pipes have been damaged, wells have been damaged in the north and in Rafah, so we’re trying to bring water back by doing repairs and also starting water trucking so families have immediate access to water.”
UNRWA’s vital role
Key to the humanitarian response across Gaza, UNRWA runs 120 shelters which host around 120,000 people. It has also opened 37 new emergency shelters, including seven in Gaza City and 30 in North Gaza, and on Thursday announced the reopening of a health centre in Rafah – the first UNRWA facility in the southern city to receive patients since the ceasefire.
The agency said that while the risk of famine has mostly been averted, another immediate priority is providing shelter and warmth to people returning to their shattered homes.
Since the ceasefire came began, 644,000 people have received shelter assistance, UNRWA said, specifically tents, blankets, plastic sheeting, warm winter clothing, sealing-off materials and tarpaulins.
In and around the shelters, the UN agency has also committed to repairing water wells and to provide water and waste disposal services to close to half a million people.
In addition to shelter and food deliveries, healthcare assistance and medical supplies have also increased, too.
Health needs being met
According to the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization has assisted with the medical evacuation of 414 patients requiring treatment outside Gaza. WHO has also delivered supplies for 1.6 million people since the start of the ceasefire, he said.
The UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, meanwhile, reported the increased distribution of relief items including infant warmers, postpartum and dignity kits. The UN agency has also established a new shelter for women inside Gaza City to provide safety from gender-based violence.
In anticipation of possible power cuts, the shelter can run on solar power.
Between 7 October 2023 and 11 February 2025, the Gazan authorities reported that at least 48,219 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Gaza and 111,665 have been injured. Some 1,250 people were killed in the Hamas-led attacks and more than 250 were taken hostage.