The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “dire” with children among those worst affected by shortages of shelter, food, water and medicine, the United Nations warned.
Briefing reporters in New York City on Tuesday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said hundreds of thousands of families across the Strip continue to face urgent needs, despite a modest expansion in aid deliveries. Children remained particularly affected.
UN health partners have scaled up basic services, including a catch-up vaccination campaign launched last week. More than 6,000 children under the age of three have now received routine immunizations, Al Jazeera reported.
Daily bread rations are now reaching at least 43 percent of Gaza’s population. Monthly wheat flour distributions reached 1.2 million people this month.
However, more than one million people still require urgent shelter support during the winter cold and rain, Dujarric said, underscoring the need for longer-term solutions such as home-repair tool kits, communal heating spaces and equipment to remove the vast piles of debris.
James Elder, the UNICEF spokesperson, stressed the urgent need to reopen the Rafah border crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip, calling it a “lifeline” for medical evacuations, family reunification, and essential services.
The Rafah crossing, Gaza’s key border crossing with Egypt, has been mostly closed since May 2024, when the Palestinian side came under the control of invading Israeli forces.
The crossing was supposed to have reopened during the first stage of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which began in October.
But the Israeli regime tied its opening to the recovery of the body of Ran Gvili, the last remaining Israeli captive in Gaza, whose remains were recovered in an Israeli operation on Monday.
Israeli forces continue with their deadly attacks in violation of the October ceasefire with Hamas with at least four Palestinians killed in the al-Sanafour area of war-battered Gaza City.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 71,660 people and wounded 171,419 since it began in October 2023.