UN calls for more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza before winter

(MENAFN) The United Nations has warned that urgent humanitarian assistance must be accelerated to the Gaza Strip before the arrival of winter, as thousands of displaced families move into newly accessible areas following the October 10 ceasefire.

Citing information from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said that "families in the Gaza Strip continue to move towards areas that are newly accessible since the ceasefire, with some seeking shelter in displacement sites that are already overcrowded."

"Our partners monitoring the flow of people across the Strip report that on Sunday, they recorded nearly 13,800 displacements towards Gaza City and North Gaza, and about 4,100 movements towards the east," Haq explained.

He added that humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza "continue to scale up their operations as outlined in the 60-day plan, expanding their presence in areas that were previously inaccessible and increasing assistance to meet growing needs."

Shelter remains the top priority, with Haq noting that "on Sunday, they (humanitarian partners) distributed 300 tents to vulnerable households in Khan Younis and 14,700 blankets to families in 16 displacement sites across the Al Mawasi area, also in Khan Younis."

"Our partners stress that far greater volumes of shelter materials must be allowed into Gaza before the winter season begins," he said, emphasizing that such an increase "will require Israeli authorities to authorize more humanitarian organizations to bring in those supplies."

"So far, only a limited number of UN agencies and partner organizations have such permissions," Haq pointed out.

Providing an update on aid deliveries, Haq reported that UN teams "have been able to collect 10,638 metric tons of essential supplies from those crossings" since the ceasefire began, as of October 19.

"The UN and our partners also continue to offload supplies at the available crossings. Between 17 and 19 October, 303 UN and partner trucks with 6,455 pallets of aid were offloaded at the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem and Kissufim crossings, according to the UN 2720 Mechanism," he said. Most of this aid consisted of food, while the remainder included water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies.

Turning to the occupied West Bank, Haq said that "two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, it has already seen severe attacks by armed settlers in the West Bank against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity activists."

"In the first half of 2025 alone, there were 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage – a 13% increase over the same period in 2024," he added, citing the UN Human Rights Office.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 68,200 people have been killed and over 170,300 injured in the territory since October 2023. In the occupied West Bank, at least 1,056 Palestinians have been killed, roughly 10,300 injured, and more than 20,000 — including 1,600 children — detained during the same period, based on official Palestinian data.

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