Humanitarians continue to scale up winter support for families in Gaza

15 December 2025

OCHA reports that the UN and its partners continue to deliver assistance to the most vulnerable families in the Gaza Strip. However, they warn that needs continue to outpace the ability of humanitarians to respond, given the ongoing impediments they face. Rainstorms and colder temperatures are also exacerbating the situation across the Strip.

In the ongoing effort to provide winterization support, humanitarians have been distributing packages of essential items – including food aid, hygiene materials and shelter supplies – to help people weather future storms and support them after the latest rains. Between Thursday and Saturday, partners working on improving access to dignified shelter delivered 3,800 tents, nearly 4,600 tarpaulins, and thousands of bedding items to some 4,800 families.

Partners are also working to address the growing risks of hypothermia in newborns, with tailored kits that are locally procured and prepared for distribution. These kits will be provided to mothers and caregivers with newborn and very young children.

Meanwhile, partners leading efforts to improve food security report that after the latest rainstorms hit Gaza on Thursday, some 16 community kitchens were forced to temporarily close due to the weather. Since then, most have resumed their normal operations, with 5,000 additional hot meals per day delivered to 30 sites affected by the rains across the Strip. This is in addition to the ongoing provision of cooked meals, with nearly 1.6 million distributed on Saturday.

In terms of regular monthly food assistance, partners report that some 400,000 people have received these food packages so far in December. One package includes two food rations with staple items such as rice, lentils and oil, as well as one 25-kilogram bag of flour.

However, since Friday – and due to ongoing restrictions affecting humanitarians’ ability to bring in sufficient volumes of aid – partners have once again had to reduce the assistance being provided through such packages to one food parcel, one bag of flour, and 1.5 kilograms of high energy biscuits. This reduced package covers half of the minimum caloric needs per family for the remainder of the month.

In parallel, partners working to improve water and sanitation delivered 15 mobile wastewater pumps to areas that have been flooded. They are also constructing embankments, setting up sandbags, and supporting the drainage of storm- and wastewater.

In another positive development, a temporary medical waste management facility is now operational in the “Netzarim corridor,” which runs across central Gaza from east to west. The facility was set up by the UN and its partners and will collect and safely store medical waste from health facilities in northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing push to improve access to education, partners re-opened more than a dozen temporary learning spaces to accommodate 5,000 children. However, efforts to get children back to regular learning are still constrained due to education supplies being blocked from entering Gaza by Israeli authorities.

Once again, OCHA warns that impediments continue to hamper efforts to accelerate the scale-up of the humanitarian response. These impediments must be lifted, and access must be sustained to allow the UN and its partners to reach everyone in need.