Humanitarian situation update: Gaza Strip

Nearly one million people are estimated to be in Gaza city, where famine has been confirmed. They are facing daily bombardment and compromised access to means of survival after the Israeli military placed the entire city under a displacement order.

With no safe place left, the UN and its humanitarian partners call for a ceasefire, the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and the sustained expansion of humanitarian access throughout the Gaza Strip.

The number of aid workers killed in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 rises to 540.

Some humanitarian facilities in Gaza city have been forced to halt services and many others risk shutdown, including temporary learning spaces and those offering sexual and reproductive health services to women and girls.

For more information, read our latest update.

Newly displaced people in Gaza city, just hours after leaving an area of Ar Rimal neighbourhood following a warning by the Israeli military that its forces would attack a high-rise tower nearby. Photo by OCHA

Water Fact – September 8, 2025

Water Fact – September 8, 2025

While Israel’s forces level many of the remaining buildings in Gaza City and continue to slaughter Gaza’s residents seeking food from the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the word ‘humanitarian’ has again been pressed into service in a ghoulish manner.  

 

On Sept. 6, the army announced it was creating a new 24 square mile ‘humanitarian zone’ for Palestinians fleeing from Gaza City in the now largely destroyed southern city of Khan Yunis.  The zone would, the army claims, include hospitals, water pipelines and desalination facilities – infrastructure that it has been busy destroying throughout the Gaza Strip.  

 

Shortly before bombing high rise towers in Gaza City, army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Avichay Adraee told the water-and-food-starved city residents on social media: "Take this opportunity to move early to the humanitarian zone and join the thousands of people who have already gone there.”  The estimated 200,000 residents remaining in Gaza City are being offered two options: move south or be killed.  

 

According to The Washington Post, the next phase of the planning process that created the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will be GREAT (Gaza Reconstruction, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust).  Can you get more dystopian than this?

Israel/ OPT: US sanctions against Palestinian NGOs a blatant attack on human rights

Amnesty International:

Responding to the US government’s decision to impose sanctions against Palestinian NGOs, al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in the context of sanctions imposed against International Criminal Court (ICC)- related activities, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International said:

“The Trump administration’s decision to impose sanctions against three prominent Palestinian human rights organizations is a deeply troubling and shameful assault on human rights and the global pursuit of justice.

“These organizations carry out vital and courageous work, meticulously documenting human rights violations under the most horrifying conditions. They have steadfastly continued to do so in the face of war, genocide, and the oppressive reality of Israel’s apartheid regime, as well as malicious attempts to discredit their findings and cripple their funding with spurious terrorism accusations.

“They are the voice of Palestinian victims, amplifying stories of human suffering and injustice that would otherwise remain unheard. Their work is indispensable for achieving justice and accountability for decades of atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.

Read the article here.