By Terje Berg-Hansen Here are some recent papers, reports and videos regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza
August 11th 2025
UNRWA Situation Report #183 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem
Highlights
The Gaza Strip
- During the reporting period, airdrops from several member states have continued, despite warnings from several international bodies that they are very expensive and ineffective.
- UNRWA Commissioner General stated that “Airdrops are at least 100 times more costly than trucks [that] carry twice as much aid as planes. (…) UNRWA, the largest UN agency on the ground, has 6,000 trucks loaded with aid stuck outside Gaza waiting for the green light to enter. The UN including UNRWA [and] partners were able to bring in 500 to 600 trucks a day during the ceasefire earlier this year, [with aid reaching] the entire population of Gaza in safety and dignity.”
- WFP Executive Director said that “We can’t airdrop our way out of an unfolding famine. Not in Gaza.” where “500,000 people are starving (…). The only way to get food to them, at scale, is by land.”
- The Humanitarian Country Team of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) issued a statement calling for urgent action to safeguard the humanitarian operations of International NGOs in the oPt, that are currently facing risk of de-registration.
- As reported by OCHA, over the past week, one PRCS staff member was killed at the PRCS headquarters in Khan Younis, when the PRCS Headquarters in the area was hit.
- Since the war began, nearly 350 UNRWA team members have been confirmed killed.
- As of 6 August, 86.3 per cent of the Gaza Strip remains within the Israeli-militarized zone, under displacement orders, or where these overlap. As reported by OHCHR, as part of the statement by UN experts “nearly 1,400 people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured while seeking food. At least 859 people have been killed around GHF sites since the beginning of GHF’s operations in late May 2025.”
- The health response in the Gaza Strip continues to face operational challenges, including extensive damage to health facilities, obstacles to safe movements and restrictions on the entry of medical supplies and fuel. UNRWA medical services are under-resourced. The agency has run out of nearly 60 per cent of essential medicines. As an example: UNRWA no longer has medicines for hypertension, no antibiotics for adults, no antiparasitic products and no iron supplements for children
- UNRWA has not been allowed to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, including medicines and medical supplies, for more than five months now (since 2 March 2025).
The occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem
- Tens of thousands of Palestine Refugees remain forcibly displaced in the northern West Bank. According to the latest UNRWA assessment, some 30,000 residents of Nur Shams, Tulkarm, and Jenin refugee camps are unable to return to their homes as a result of the large-scale Israeli Forces operation ‘Iron Wall’, ongoing since January 2025.
- Following the killing of a Palestinian community member by an Israeli settler on 28 July, the Bedouin refugee community of Umm al Kheir has remained under heightened Israeli movement restrictions, including the administrative detention of several community members and withholding of the deceased’s body at the time of reporting.
May 19th 2025
Press release
Joint statement from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank
- English
- العربيَّة
We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable. Yesterday’s announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate. We call on the Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. This must include engaging with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles. We call on Hamas to release immediately the remaining hostages they have so cruelly held since 7 October 2023.
The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law. We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law.
Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7. We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate.
We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.
We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank. Israel must halt settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians. We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions.
We strongly support the efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. It is a ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages and a long-term political solution that offer the best hope of ending the agony of the hostages and their families, alleviating the suffering of civilians in Gaza, ending Hamas’ control of Gaza and achieving a pathway to a two-state solution, consistent with the goals of the 18 June conference in New York co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France. These negotiations need to succeed, and we must all work towards the implementation of a two-state solution, which is the only way to bring long-lasting peace and security that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve, and ensure long-term stability in the region.
We will continue to work with the Palestinian Authority, regional partners, Israel and the United States to finalise consensus on arrangements for Gaza’s future, building on the Arab plan. We affirm the important role of the High-level Two-State Solution Conference at the UN in June in building international consensus around this aim. And we are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end.
UN relief chief welcomes limited Gaza aid resumption – but it’s a ‘drop in the ocean’
© UNFPA/Yasmeen Sous
Tom Fletcher said in a statement on Monday that nine UN trucks were cleared to enter the southern Kerem Shalom crossing earlier in the day.
“But it is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed…We have been reassured that our work will be facilitated through existing, proven mechanisms. I am grateful for that reassurance, and Israel’s agreement to humanitarian notification measures that reduce the immense security threats of the operation.”
13 May 2024
Rafah exodus reaches 360,000 as UN underscores $2.8 billion aid appeal for Gaza, West Bank
© UNRWA
Gazans are on the move again as Israeli forces intensify bombardments.
Nearly 360,000 people have fled Rafah in the last week amid continuing Israeli bombardment that has crippled humanitarian aid deliveries and is believed to have killed another UN aid worker, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Monday.
“Nearly 360,000 people have fled Rafah since the first evacuation order a week ago,” the UN agency said in a post on X, referencing leafleting by the Israeli military ordering those in eastern Rafah to leave their shelters.
In another alert, UNRWA warned of ongoing “restricted humanitarian access” to and across the Gaza Strip that was now “a matter of life or death” for Gazans already suffering “relentless bombardments and food insecurity”.
The development comes one week since Israel moved ahead with its military offensive in Rafah, seizing control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing and Kerem Shalom crossing.
“We immediately and urgently need safe passage for humanitarian aid and workers,” the UN agency insisted amid fresh reports of more clashes and shelling in Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the enclave.
“Bombardments and other evacuation orders have created more displacement and fear for thousands of families” in the north, UNRWA said. “There’s nowhere to go. There’s NO safety without a ceasefire.”
The UN agency also reported on Monday that another staff member had been killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of staff killed in the war to 188.
The individual – a 53-year-old senior projects officer – was believed to have died in an Israeli strike in the central town of Deir Al-Balah after leaving Rafah. “He leaves behind a wife and four children,” the agency said.
Israeli minister calls for ‘hellfire on makers of terrorism’ in Gaza
Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar says no humanitarian aid should enter Gaza.
“The despicable murderers in Gaza deserve no humanitarian assistance from any civilian or military mechanism,” Zohar said on X. “Only hellfire should be poured on the makers of terrorism until the last hostage returns from Gaza.”
His comments come soon after Defence Minister Israel Katz reiterated that no aid convoys will be allowed inside the Strip as a tool to pressure Hamas.
A full blockade of humanitarian aid into the Strip has been ongoing since early March. The combination of bombs and a debilitating humanitarian situation is rapidly worsening conditions in Gaza.
Civilians in the enclave have been subjected to extreme food shortages and famine-like conditions throughout the war. Dozens of children have died of starvation, and countless others have succumbed to wounds or preventable illnesses during a deteriorating man-made humanitarian disaster.
Gaza aid worker killings: One humanitarian still missing in mass grave
UN humanitarians and partners on Tuesday expressed deep shock at the killing of 15 colleagues on duty in southern Gaza by Israeli forces whose remains were recovered on Sunday from a shallow grave after a week-long rescue operation, noting that one worker is still missing.
The week-long rescue operation ended on Sunday 30 March with the recovery of the bodies of 15 humanitarian colleagues: eight from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), six from the Palestinian Civil Defence (PCD) and the UNRWA worker.
The body of one more PRCS worker is still missing at the site, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which on Monday repeated its calls for information from the Israeli military.
Available information indicated that the first team had been killed by Israeli forces on 23 March; the other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues, OCHA said.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Türk said in his statement that the discovery of the bodies buried next to their “clearly destroyed” vehicles was “deeply disturbing”.
“This raises significant questions with regard to the conduct of the Israeli army during and in the aftermath of the incident,” he added.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1161736