OCHA: Total blockade on aid enters seventh week

16 April 2025

OCHA reports that hostilities across the Strip continue to take a devastating toll on civilians, causing further death, displacement and destruction of critical infrastructure.

Humanitarian partners estimate that since 18 March, some 420,000 people have been newly displaced or uprooted once more. This is in addition to the hundreds of thousands repeatedly displaced prior to the ceasefire.

OCHA reports that tents are no longer available for distribution across Gaza. In the town of Bani Suhaila in Khan Younis Governorate, for example, families who had recently been displaced received only modest quantities of blankets, tarpaulins and sealing-off materials.

Last week, OCHA visited displacement sites in Khan Younis. Most of the people there are living in overcrowded shelters and have reported needing shelter, food, water and medicine.

Meanwhile, humanitarian partners report a rise in acute malnutrition in the Strip. The lack of supplies is also affecting the implementation of therapeutic treatment programs. In March, the number of children who received supplementary feeding decreased by more than two thirds, according to partners.

Additionally, access constraints hinder the ability to resupply the hospitals with medical stocks, putting more patients at risk. Humanitarians are finding it increasingly difficult to operate as the total blockade on aid enters its seventh week, military operations expand, and attacks on civilians, including aid workers, continue.

OCHA says that Israeli authorities continue to deny planned coordinated missions. Today, only two out of six planned humanitarian movements that were coordinated with the Israeli authorities, were facilitated. The remaining four were denied, including one mission to retrieve fuel from Rafah, which is urgently needed.

Despite access restrictions and insecurity, aid organizations continue to try to save lives and assist the most vulnerable. Every day, community kitchens prepare more than one million meals for vulnerable people across Gaza. But these quantities hardly suffice, as most of the 2.1 million people there rely on humanitarian aid to access food.

OCHA reminds us that under international humanitarian law, civilians, including aid workers and medical staff and their facilities, must be respected and protected, and the essential needs of civilians must be met.