OCHA: UN Relief Chief warns that as fighting continues in Gaza city, access to the north is difficult

02 October 2025

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said today that as fighting continues in Gaza city, getting aid to the north is difficult. He stressed the need for humanitarians to be able to work unimpeded, noting that many have been forced to suspend their work in the area.

Fletcher stressed that issuing displacement orders does not take away the parties to the conflict’s obligations under international humanitarian law; many civilians remain in Gaza city and must be protected.

Meanwhile, OCHA says that people continue to be displaced from northern Gaza. In the span of just 10 hours yesterday, partners tracking population movements counted 6,700 people fleeing from the north to the south. Since mid-August, more than 417,000 such displacements have been recorded.

However, conditions in the south remain dire and unsafe. OCHA has received reports of intense strikes in recent days in parts of Deir al Balah, one of the places where people have been told to move. Tents, houses and even a crowded market have been hit, with the UN Human Rights Office reporting that many of those killed appear to be civilians.

Between Saturday and Tuesday, some 127,000 people arrived in nearly 360 displacement sites that partners have been able to monitor in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis. Altogether, those sites are hosting more than half a million people.

Families in southern Gaza are squeezed into these and other overcrowded shelters or makeshift tents along the coast. Many others are sleeping out in the open, often amid rubble. New arrivals in the south face poor sanitation, no privacy or safety, and a high risk of children being separated from their families – all while being exposed to explosive ordnance.

Partners working on protection also warn of the financial burden of displacement, as families are selling their essential belongings to pay for transport. Those who cannot afford it are forced to walk, which is especially hard for families with mobility challenges.

To support people in the south, the UN and its partners have expanded services. For example, in Khan Younis, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has recently rehabilitated nine medical points, alongside the Japanese Health Centre and Hamad Health Centre – more than doubling the number of functioning health facilities there. Work also continues to rehabilitate shelters and other medical facilities.

The UN and its humanitarian partners continue to operate in the north, to the extent possible. Just today, humanitarians successfully transferred some fuel to that area to power critical facilities that people rely on for their survival.