(UN News)* — Hostilities across the Gaza Strip continue to take a devastating toll on the population, with daily reports of Israeli strikes killing and injuring many civilians, UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Thursday .
OCHAsaiddozens of people, including at least eight children, were killed in Gaza City on Wednesday 9 April 2025 after an Israeli strike hit a residential building.
(UN News)* —In Gaza, ongoing Israeli military operations and the aid blockade have continued to add to daily fears and hardships being faced by those about to give birth in the devastated enclave.
That’s the message from the UN World Health Organization, WHO, which said on Wednesday that mothers are going into labour amid dire conditions, putting their health and their babies’ lives at risk.
Statement by heads of OCHA, UNICEF, UNOPS, UNRWA, WFP and WHO
UNICEF/UNI448939/Eyad El BabaA child and his father as they pass through the rubble of buildings in Gaza.
NEW YORK, AMMAN, COPENHAGEN, GENEVA, ROME, 7 April 2025 (UNICEF)* – “For over a month, no commercial or humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza.
“More than 2.1 million people are trapped, bombed and starved again, while, at crossing points, food, medicine, fuel and shelter supplies are piling up, and vital equipment is stuck.
(UN News)* — Amid the ongoing Israeli aid blockade and bombardment of Gaza, aid teams on warned that civilians trapped there face multiple daily challenges as relief supplies run critically low.
In a joint statement, the heads of the UN’s aid agencies warned that “we are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life,” with Israeli displacement orders forcing hundreds of thousands to flee – with nowhere safe to go.
(UN News)* — Amid reports of escalating settler violence in the West Bank, the UN rights office, OHCHR, briefed the Palestinian rights committee at UN Headquarters in New York, which also featured a screening of the Oscar winning documentary No Other Land.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | Basel Adra (left), Palestinian film director, delivers testimony during a meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.\
Ambassador Riyad Mansour of the Observer State of Palestine and Israeli Human Rights lawyer Netta Amar Schiff – who joined via videolink – also took part.
(UN News)* —The recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers in Gaza raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights told the Security Council on Thursday .
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, briefs the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
Ambassadors met for an emergency session to discuss the escalation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Rights chief Volker Türk said he was pained to brief the Council once again on the “catastrophic suffering of people in Gaza,” noting that “the temporary relief of the ceasefire, which gave Palestinians a moment to breathe, has been shattered.”
(UN News)* —UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed grave concern on Wednesday over the human toll resulting from the intensified hostilities in Gaza.
He condemned the reported killing of more than a thousand people, including women and children, since the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 18 March.
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NEW YORK/AMMAN, 31 March 2025 (UNICEF)* – The breakdown of the ceasefire and resumption of intense bombardments and ground operations in the Gaza Strip has reportedly left at least 322 children dead and 609 injured – constituting a daily average of around 100 children killed or maimed over the past 10 days.
UNICEF/UNI501860/El Baba
Most of these children were displaced, sheltering in makeshift tents or damaged homes.
(UN News)* —The UN Secretary-General on took the “difficult decision” to reduce the aid operation inside the Gaza Strip following the resumption of deadly Israeli airstrikes – but pledged that “the UN is not leaving” the enclave.
“In the past week, Israel carried out devastating strikes on Gaza, claiming the lives of hundreds of civilians, including United Nations personnel, with no humanitarian aid being allowed to enter the Strip since early March,”said a statement released by his Spokesperson.