“Water, food and essential services are still desperately needed”OCHA said, as humanitarian partners rush to meet growing demand amid widespread destruction.
Help is coming
Aid continues to flow into Gaza, and between Friday and Saturday more than 300 truckloads of supplies were collected from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The shipment included thousands of pallets of wheat flour, canned food, rice and hot meal supplies, as well as medical equipment, tents, tarpaulins and winter clothing.
While data from Sunday’s deliveries is still being compiled, the UN confirmed that hygiene kits, postpartum kits and shelter materials entered the Strip.
The United Nations Office for Project Services, which provides comprehensive emergency services (UNOPS), also distributed some 329,000 liters of diesel to keep hospitals, telecommunications and food operations running.
Hot meals and bread.
Humanitarian partners, working with 170 community kitchens, have provided more than one million hot meals, mainly in southern and central Gaza.
In Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Gaza City, 15 UN-supported bakeries are producing tens of thousands of packages of bread daily, which are distributed free of charge to shelters and communities in hundreds of sites.
Teams are also expanding their work to reduce the risk of unexploded ordnance – much of it from the Israeli offensive – as people begin to return to their homes.
During the weekend, Nearly 3,200 people in central and southern Gaza received safety briefings.. Since October 2023, OCHA says, there have been 150 incidents involving explosive devices that caused casualties, including among children.
Attacks on olive groves: West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, OCHA reported that violence related to the olive harvest season, which began on October 9, continued.
More than 85 settler attacks on Palestinian farmers and their land have disrupted harvests, injuring more than 110 people and damaging more than 3,000 trees in 50 villages.
Seventeen attacks were recorded last week alone, most in the Ramallah governorate. “These repeated incidents have devastated livelihoods and deepened fears among farming communities.”OCHA said.
Despite the aid flows, the UN warns that Gaza’s humanitarian needs remain overwhelming, and that food, water and shelter remain critically short as families risk everything to return to their homes.