Food security and child nutrition have improved across the Gaza Strip largely due to a scale-up in humanitarian assistance and commercial traffic, but progress remains fragile and could quickly reverse without sustained access, funding and recovery support.The warning from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN child rights agency UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), comes as people across the war-torn enclave still struggle to restore their livelihoods, local food systems and essential services.  “There is progress on food security in Gaza, but it is fragile and can easily be reversed,” said Carl Skau, WFP Acting Executive Director.  “The overall humanitarian situation remains brutal: families lack water, sanitation and medicine. We need sustained access, funding and stability so people of Gaza can begin recovery.” Crisis-level hunger Latest analysis by the UN-backed global food security monitor IPC reveals that 1.4 million people, 67 per cent of Gaza’s population, are experiencing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity, classified as IPC Phase 3 or above.  Although this represents a decrease from 1.6 million people, or 77 per cent of the population, at the end of last year, some 212,000 people remain in emergency conditions, or IPC Phase 4.  Many of them are living in areas near the Israeli-controlled “Yellow Line” where access to humanitarian aid and essential services remains especially difficult. Ceasefire and scale-up The improvements show how quickly conditions can change when humanitarian assistance and commercial activity are scaled up, the UN agencies said, noting that humanitarian operations have expanded significantly since the October 2025 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.   In May alone, food parcels reached around 1.5 million people, multipurpose cash assistance peaked at around 700,000 people, and nutrition support reached 60 per cent of children under five, with access to treatment for acute malnutrition also increasing. This marks a sharp contrast with September 2025, when around 500,000 people received some form of food assistance and nutrition coverage for under-fives was less than one per cent.  The agencies said immediate improvements in food security were observed after the scale-up, and the IPC analysis confirms that the trend has continued. Insufficient food, access restrictions The agencies said immediate improvements in food security were observed after the scale-up, and the IPC analysis confirms that the trend has continued, yet the situation remains precarious.  Food rations are still insufficient in terms of quantity, quality and dietary diversity, while commercial imports of fresh produce and proteins are inconsistent.  Although access into Gaza has improved, only the Kerem Shalom/Abu Salem border crossing in the south remains open, limiting the flow of essential goods needed for recovery and most people thus remain dependent on aid. Malnutrition alert The agencies said malnutrition rates have also improved, largely due to the rapid expansion of nutrition prevention programmes and increased access to treatment for severe and moderate malnutrition.  However, these gains depend heavily on sustained assistance and have occurred despite continued shortages of nutritious food, recurrent disease outbreaks, limited access to safe water and sanitation, and the near collapse of livelihoods. In the coming year some 74,000 children are expected to require treatment for acute malnutrition while roughly 25,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will also need nutrition support, they said.  Moreover, four governorates – North Gaza, Gaza, Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis – are projected to face “alert” levels of malnutrition, IPC Phase 2.  Some areas near the “Yellow Line” remained inaccessible to analysts during the survey period, leaving insufficient data for classification. “Acute malnutrition has fallen, but many children are still going hungry, and some children may never fully recover from prolonged lack of proper nutrition,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.  Local food production key The UN agencies said that although any significant recovery of livelihoods or wider economic activity has yet to begin, early signs indicate that local food production can resume where farmers and herders can access cropland, agricultural inputs, productive assets, veterinary support and other essential services, including energy for irrigation. In the livestock sector, sheep inventories have increased by 33 per cent in areas where support has been sustained.  Communities are also restarting small-scale economic activity where conditions allow. However, these efforts cannot expand while restrictions remain on what enters Gaza and while large areas of land remain inaccessible. More than 70 per cent of cropland is not accessible, and only three per cent is currently usable.  “Food security in Gaza cannot recover unless local food production starts again and farmers, herders, fishers and other producers can rebuild their livelihoods,” said FAO Director-General Dongyu Qu.  “Producers need access to farmland and the sea, and to seeds, tools, livestock supplies and other agricultural inputs, as well as technical support.” 

Amid intensified deadly Israeli attacks in Gaza, the UN chief and top officials condemned the killings while a surge violence rocked the West Bank and aid agencies scrambled to help Palestinians.“We condemn all killings of civilians,” the UN Spokesperson said on Tuesday, adding that under international humanitarian law, civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected.Continued Israeli military operations, new displacement and deteriorating access further limited humanitarian assistance and heightened protection concerns across Gaza, according to the latest updates from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.Read OCHA’s report here.Occupation must endThe Israeli military’s intensified attacks killed and injured dozens in Gaza in recent days, Thameen Al-Kheetan, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said at a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday.Those recent attacks included an Israeli drone strike that killed seven people and others outside a grocery store, west of the Nuseirat refugee camp, and a teacher injured after reportedly being shot by a bullet fired by Israeli forces while she was working inside a temporary learning space, just west of Khan Younis. Nine months after the ceasefire announcement, nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza, Mr. Al-Kheetan said.“The whole of the Gaza Strip is under the Israeli occupation,” he said. “Human rights of the Palestinians ought to be respected, the Israeli occupation has to end and a fair, durable two-State solution has to be implemented.”Verified killings in GazaIsraeli soldiers have killed over 1,100 Palestinians since the October 2025 ceasefire, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.OHCHR has so far verified the killing of 685 Palestinians from October to mid-April, including 283 women and children, mostly in Israeli attacks reported across the Gaza Strip.From 13 to 20 July alone, OHCHR had recorded that the Israeli military had killed at least 57 Palestinians, including six children and eight women. Among the victims, 34 had been killed far away from the Israeli-imposed “yellow line”, painted concrete blocks Israel has installed across the Strip.Trapped behind ‘yellow line’Meanwhile, the Palestinian population in Gaza remained trapped in an ever-shrinking area, with the “yellow line” which marks the edge of Israeli military control constantly being moved westwards, Mr. Al-Kheetan said.The situation reflects a continuous threat to life as the Israeli military appears to routinely fire on Palestinians for mere presence in the vicinity of that line, in violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, he warned.The violations, the suffering and the misery that continue to be imposed on the Palestinians in Gaza cannot be ignored, he said, emphasising that third States had to take urgent action to insist on full respect for the ceasefire, to put an end to all violations and to ensure accountability and justice.Push to revive educationAfter more than two years of prolonged disruption to learning in Gaza, humanitarian partners are continuing to restore and expand access to basic education wherever possible despite persistent insecurity issues and severe operational constraints, the UN Spokesperson said.During the first half of 2026, partners helped 435,000 pre-primary and school-aged children, including approximately 9,300 children with disabilities, get access to structured learning through 610 temporary learning spaces.Around 344,000 children also received essential learning and teaching materials and aid partners supported 11,000 teachers and education personnel through initiatives focused on education in emergencies, disability-inclusive programming, quality learning and safe learning environments. Pressure on health facilitiesUN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator Susanne Tkalec met with the leadership of the Emirati Hospital in Rafah on Monday to discuss practical solutions for strengthening medical waste management in Gaza.“They discussed addressing risks linked to the safe collection, handling and disposal of medical waste, which is a big problem,” the UN Spokesperson said, adding that the visit occurred amid continued pressure on health facilities throughout the Gaza Strip.Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners on Monday supported the medical evacuation of nine child patients and their 15 companions to Jordan and one adult patient and a companion to Türkiye.Since October 2023, 12,700 patients, including 6,163 children, have been evacuated abroad to more than 30 countries for treatment. “Many more people need to be evacuated from Gaza to receive medical help they cannot get currently there,” the UN Spokesperson said.West Bank attacksIsraeli settler attacks have become a leading cause of Palestinian injuries in the occupied West Bank, accounting for 55 per cent of all such cases in 2026, according to the UN relief agency, OCHA.Between 7 and 13 July, about 65 Palestinians, including 18 children and 10 women, were injured by Israeli forces or settlers.During the same period, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man while he was attempting to cross the Barrier in Bir Nabala town to reach East Jerusalem and in a separate incident at the same location, another Palestinian was injured under similar circumstances. Injuries linked to settler attacks have risen sharply, increasing from one injury every three days in 2020 to an average of two per day in 2025 and more than three per day so far in 2026.Pepper spray and assaultsIn the Hiwara community, south of Yatta in Hebron governorate, Israeli settlers injured 45 Palestinians, including 37 in five separate attacks targeting farmers. During these attacks, settlers physically assaulted farmers or sprayed them with pepper spray while they were working on their agricultural land.Among those injured were 12 children, 10 women and one elderly man.Here are more OCHA updates:Since the beginning of 2026, about 850 Palestinians have been injured in the context of settler attacks, including nearly 690 by Israeli settlers and the remainder by Israeli forces Israeli settlers demolished the abandoned Al Yanoun School, while Ar Rifa’iyya School became at imminent risk of demolition following an Israeli court rulingJabal al Aqra’a became the 47th Palestinian community to be fully displaced following recurrent settler attacks and related access restrictions since January 2023

The UN is supporting farmers in Gaza who are struggling to rebuild their smallholdings in areas devastated by the Hamas-Israel war.These growers include Taysir Dahdouh, whose farm in the Zeytun neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, is a little smaller than a football pitch. His land was once covered with greenhouses, but they’ve been destroyed or lost during the conflict that erupted on 7 October 2023. Today, he needs tools, seeds, fertilizer and water to grow the cucumbers and tomatoes he used to.200 new homesAlessandro Mrakic, Head of the Gaza Office for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), told UN News’s correspondent in the enclave that families who had once lived in one heavily bombed area had had to move multiple times before returning. “We have provided 200 relief housing units to provide shelter to the families who came back and started, as you see behind me, agriculture – started producing eggplants, tomatoes, molokhia, among others,” he said.The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday it has scaled up its cash assistance programme to help around 1,500 Palestinian farmers cultivate land across Gaza during the 2026 planting season, enough to produce fresh vegetables for more than 100,000 people.Not enough spaceBut FAO warned that farmers “are squeezed into rapidly shrinking space” amid ongoing Israeli military activity, and it is calling for access to land, sea and production inputs including seeds, fertilizers, irrigation equipment and fishing gear.Elsewhere, Deputy Special Coordinator for the peace process Ramiz Alakbarov welcomed new commitments worth almost $58 million from eight Member States to the UN Horizon Fund, and called on further partners to join the initiative. The World Food Programme (WFP) said people forced to move within Gaza risk losing access to basic services and called for safe access to reach those in need; despite the obstacles, it and its partners reached more than a quarter of a million people across 36 distribution sites in the first 12 days of this month.Summer respiteHumanitarian partners also distributed more than 5,440 educational kits to support around 217,600 children during summer learning activities.Turning to the West Bank, a high-level delegation led by aid coordination office OCHA visited Deir Nidham village in the Ramallah governorate on Wednesday, meeting Palestinian families affected by settler violence and the expansion of settlement outposts. Settler attacks accounted for around 55 per cent of all Palestinian injuries in the West Bank so far during 2026.Guterres voices alarmUN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the Secretary-General is “deeply alarmed” that Israeli authorities have granted city status to Givat Ze’ev, a settlement northwest of Jerusalem, adding that the designation “does not alter the city’s legal status under international law as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, Mr. Dujarric reiterated, recalling the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of July 2024. He said settlements remain a major obstacle to a two-State solution, and renewed the Secretary-General’s call on Israel to halt all settlement expansion.

with $71.4 billion needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction.That’s according to the final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA), jointly conducted with the UN-partnered World Bank.The assessment says $26.3 billion will be needed in the first 18 months to restore essential services, rebuild critical infrastructure and support economic recovery.Since full-scale war erupted in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023, the physical damage in the Strip is estimated at $35.2 billion, with a further $22.7 billion in economic and social losses.Entire sectors have been devastated, including housing, health, education, commerce, and agriculture. Over 371,888 housing units have been destroyed or damaged, more than 50 per cent of hospitals are non-functional, and nearly all schools have been destroyed or damaged. The economy has contracted by 84 per cent.Devastating human toll The impact on the lives of Gazans is just as devastating: more than 60 per cent of the population having lost their homes and 1.9 million people displaced, often multiple times. Women, children, persons with disabilities, and those with pre-existing vulnerabilities bear the greatest burden.Over two years of conflict has resulted in more than 71,000 Palestinian fatalities and over 171,000 injured, according to local authorities, with many still missing under the rubble. Framework for reconstructionThe report provides the foundation for early recovery planning and reconstruction, stressing it must must run in parallel with humanitarian action to ensure an effective transition from emergency relief toward reconstruction at scale in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.The assessment is framed in line with Security Council adopted resolution 2803 (2025) of the US-backed Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, which welcomed establishment of the Board of Peace led by President Trump as a transitional administration to set the framework for redevelopment and authorised the mechanism to set up a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF). The EU and UN emphasise that recovery and reconstruction should be Palestinian-led and should support the transition of governance to the Palestinian Authority, while advancing a durable political settlement based on the two-State solution.Planning and implementation should be inclusive, transparent, and accountable, with particular attention to the needs of women, children, elderly, and persons with disabilities.Conditions neededThe assessment recognises that a set of enabling conditions are essential for recovery, reconstruction, and implementation of the broader political framework:A sustained ceasefire and adequate securityUnimpeded humanitarian access and immediate restoration of essential servicesFree movement of people, goods, and reconstruction materials, within and between Gaza and the West Bank, and a functional, transparent financial systemClear, accountable governance, including defined mandates and establishment of conditions for the transitional administrative bodies in coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA)A credible pathway for the PA’s future governance across the entire Occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is essentialDebris clearance, explosive ordnance management, and resolution of housing, land, and property rights are prerequisites for reconstruction.The international community must mobilise resources in a targeted, sequenced, coordinated mannerAll obstacles to the deployment of expertise and equipment must be removed rapidly