Occupied Palestinian Territory Emergency Response: IOM Activity Update #44 (01 – 31 May 2025)

16 June 2025

Situation Overview:

As of 28 May, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that despite trucks full of aid being cleared by the Israeli authorities, restrictions for aid workers to retrieve items on the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing point remains a challenge. Distribution remains severely constrained by security risks, ongoing hostilities and roadblocks.

IOM Response:

IOM operates under three strategic priorities—Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Shelter and Site Management—by leveraging its global expertise in these humanitarian sectors while working through local and locally-based partnerships. IOM is urgently appealing for funds to support critical, lifesaving needs under all sectors, through the OPT Flash Appeal.

Common Pipeline:

Since March 2024, over 1.6 million items have been dispatched to partners to distribute onwards to vulnerable families in Gaza. Partners have distributed all stock received prior to the aid blockade, including tents, hygiene kits, tarps and bedding kits.

Water Sanitation and Hygiene:

Technical expertise is seconded to support WASH initiatives, including operational assistance to field teams, coordination with the WASH Cluster, and collaboration with support offices at UN agencies on project management. IOM’s WASH support aims to strengthen the delivery of critical WASH services and contribute data to the Cluster to enhance advocacy efforts and inform strategies for restoring WASH infrastructure in Gaza. More than 2.3 million WASH items remain in stock across IOM warehouses, ready for dispatch to meet the needs of more than 1 million people. IOM continues to advocate for the clearance of critical hygiene and sanitation items to facilitate their entry into Gaza, where conditions remain dire and access to basic services is severely limited.

Shelter:

More than 3.2 million shelter items remain in stock across IOM warehouses, ready for immediate dispatch to address critical gaps on the ground. These include high priority items such as tents, tarpaulins, and shelter toolkits, which are essential for displaced families currently living in makeshift shelters, damaged buildings or overcrowded displacement sites. IOM continues to advocate for these items to be cleared for entry into Gaza, where the Shelter Cluster estimates that 1.1 million people are in urgent need of emergency shelter assistance. If access through the crossing points is granted, IOM stands ready to meet the current shelter needs, with the largest number of items for shelter and non-food items in the pipeline. This would support those in overcrowded shelters, reduce protection risks and improve living conditions for thousands of people.

Site Management – Humanitarian needs and population monitoring:

As part of IOM’s commitments with the Site Management Cluster (SMC), this month the Humanitarian Needs and Population Monitoring (HNPM) team supported the tracking of displacement movements affecting over 638,000 people since the collapse of the ceasefire on 18 March 2025. The approval of limited aid entry after an 11-week aid blockade coincided with a renewed military offensive that forcibly displaced over 195,000 people between 15-27 May alone. These efforts have directly informed operational planning, guided partner coordination, and supported the delivery of lifesaving assistance across more than 730 displacement sites. Through a network of over 600 site-level focal points who are monitoring living conditions and the ongoing collapse of basic services.