OCHA: UN dispatches vital humanitarian assistance in Gaza

22 May 2025

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said today that truckloads of life-saving aid are finally on the move into Gaza again.

In a social media post, Fletcher said he was in close touch with the UN team in the Strip, noting that today will be crucial. “I’m in awe of courage of our humanitarians – but they continue to face huge challenges getting goods out of the crossing to where it is needed,” he added.

OCHA reports that yesterday, about 90 loaded trucks left Kerem Shalom to multiple destinations inside Gaza. They carried nutrition supplies, flour, medicines and other critical stocks that were allowed in.

OCHA stresses that this shipment is limited in quantity and nowhere near sufficient to meet the scale and scope of the needs of Gaza’s 2.1 million people. Other supplies as basic as fresh food, hygiene items, water purification agents, and fuel to power hospitals have not been let in for over 80 days.

What the UN is currently allowed to bring in includes nutrition products, some food ingredients and medical supplies.

Of yesterday’s supplies, more than 500 pallets with nutrition supplies – nearly 20 truckloads – were safely offloaded in UNICEF’s warehouse in Deir al Balah. They include ready-to-use therapeutic food and lipid-based nutritional supplements. These life-saving supplies are now being unpacked and repackaged so that smaller loads can reach people in need via dozens of distribution points.

There were also shipments of flour – over 50 truckloads – to help a number of bakeries in Deir al Balah resume operations. Yesterday, humanitarians managed to provide those bakeries with fuel from supply that was already inside Gaza. Today, some of them have resumed operations, and the bread produced will be provided through community kitchens.

The latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) concluded that people across Gaza are at risk of famine, with nearly half a million people teetering on the edge of starvation.

Medical supplies have also been transported to destinations in Gaza closer to where people in need are.

OCHA underscores that it is critical for the Israeli authorities to facilitate the movement of humanitarian convoys, including from southern Gaza to the north, so that all supplies can reach people in need wherever they are across the Strip.

Regarding access to and from Kerem Shalom, reaching the crossing on the Palestinian side requires humanitarians to travel through an Israeli-militarized area. This means that humanitarian teams need to wait, often for hours, for military activities to pause – for their safety – and for a green light to be given by the Israeli authorities to proceed.

It is also critical to ensure the use of secure routes from Kerem Shalom onward into Gaza, as the UN did last night and hopes to do again going forward.

Meanwhile, military operations continue across the Gaza Strip, with reports of strikes, shelling and fresh ground incursions. In recent days, attacks have reportedly struck tents and buildings where people are sheltering, causing scores of casualties.

Yesterday, Palestinian rocket fire towards Israel was also reported.

Today, Al Awda Hospital in North Gaza caught fire, reportedly after being attacked. Through coordination with the Israeli authorities, OCHA facilitated the access of the Palestinian Civil Defense to the area, where they spent hours working to extinguish the fire. According to initial reports, the medicine warehouse was heavily damaged.

Yesterday, the hospital was hit and damaged in a separate strike, and one staff member was injured. In a social media post, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noted that Al Awda is the last functioning hospital in North Gaza governorate, warning that it is overwhelmed and at risk of closure due to insecurity and access constraints.

He stressed that even if health facilities are not attacked or forced to evacuate, hostilities and military presence prevent patients and staff from accessing care. These conditions also keep WHO from being able to resupply hospitals to keep them running. With other medical facilities out of service, those that are still functioning – even partially – are having to cope with a surge in trauma cases.

Water wells in some areas of Gaza are shutting down as they remain out of reach or lack fuel. OCHA reports that Israeli authorities continue to deny attempts to retrieve fuel from areas where coordination is required.