OCHA: Mass casualties reported in Gaza as hostilities continue

02 June 2025

OCHA warns that the situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip continues to worsen by the day.

Hostilities across Gaza have reportedly caused mass casualties. In the last two days, partners reported scores of people killed and injured, apparently while gathering to receive supplies near militarized distribution centers in Rafah and Deir al Balah.

Attacks against health facilities have also continued. Yesterday in North Gaza, Noura Al Kaabi Centre for dialysis was reportedly hit. The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that more than 40 per cent of dialysis patients in Gaza have died since the escalation of the hostilities in October 2023. This is because the centres were either struck or unreachable.

As hostilities continue, people have once again been forced to flee. On Saturday, Israeli authorities issued another displacement order in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah. This has affected about 100,000 people living in more than 200 displacement sites. Two primary healthcare centres and five medical points are within the displacement area – while three hospitals, three field hospitals, seven primary healthcare centres and 20 medical points are located within 1,000 metres of it.

Overall, since 18 March, humanitarian partners estimate that more than 640,000 people – nearly a third of Gaza’s entire population – have been displaced again across the Strip.

The latest displacement order also deprived at least 8,000 students of learning, as tens of functioning temporary learning spaces and a dozen public schools had to suspend their operations. These closures constitute a severe setback for children’s education, limiting access to a safe and structured learning environment.

The UN and its humanitarian partners continue efforts to identify and treat malnutrition whenever possible and as dwindling supplies allow. Last week, they distributed supplements to about 40,000 children, despite severe challenges and restrictions on humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, as people endure deprivation, hunger and the absence of adequate food distribution, looting incidents continue to be reported. The vast majority are people taking flour directly from open trucks, out of clear desperation. However, humanitarian teams have also started observing some criminal looting again.

The UN and its partners continue to call for the full lifting of the restrictions on aid and other essentials to ensure the needs of civilians in Gaza are met.

This comes as people continue to suffer from frequent water shortages. The pipeline in Deir al Balah, which supplied at least 12,000 cubic metres every day, is still not operational – and humanitarians’ attempts to carry out coordinated missions to repair it have been denied. Today, five missions to distribute potable water in the displacement camps in Jabaliya were also denied by Israeli authorities.

Partners working on protection report that last week, five organizations suspended their services due to ongoing hostilities, displacement and access restrictions in Gaza city and North Gaza. However, despite the trauma, exhaustion, and anxiety among displaced workers and volunteers, partners reached thousands of individuals with life-saving protection services during the last two days. In view of the desperate conditions on the ground, needs for safe shelter, mental healthcare and basic aid remain acute.

Over the weekend, the UN and its partners kept working to bring supplies from the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. More than 100 truckloads of food and medical supplies were picked up on Saturday and Sunday, bringing to more than 300 the number of truckloads picked up from the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing since it was reopened.

Today, one of our attempts to collect supplies from Kerem Shalom was denied. Another was still ongoing, awaiting a green light from Israeli authorities, a pause in the bombing along the route, and the allocation of a viable path.

Because of the Israeli weekend and holiday, the border was kept closed, preventing the UN from bringing more supplies through Kerem Shalom since Saturday.

OCHA stresses that even when the crossing is open, severe restrictions on what humanitarians can bring in – both in terms of volume and variety – mean that the supplies currently entering Gaza are still just a trickle and fall far short of what people need.