#Hostilities in the occupied #Palestinian territory (oPt) - 11 November 2025 - Public Health #Situation #Analysis (PHSA) (#WHO, summary)

 

SUMMARY OF CRISIS AND KEY FINDINGS 

The fragile Gaza ceasefire announced on 9 October 2025 marked a momentous but precarious juncture in the ongoing conflict.{3} 

The ceasefire remains in place but is fragile, and violations from both sides continue.{4} 

When the ceasefire was agreed in mid-October, the UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher outlined a 60-day plan to deliver vital aid to people in Gaza, stressing that full implementation requires more crossings, rapid and unimpeded access, sustained fuel entry, restored infrastructure, protection of aid workers, and adequate funding.{5}  

While humanitarian aid has begun to flow into Gaza offering a measure of relief, uncertainty persists. Meanwhile, the Rafah Crossing as well as other crossings in the north remain closed, limiting efforts to alleviate Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.{6} 

According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, the casualty toll among Palestinians since 7 October 2023, as reported by MoH, is 67 938 fatalities and 170 169 injuries.{7} 

Following the announcement of the ceasefire, large-scale population movements have been observed across Gaza as families attempt to return home after months of displacement. Over 533 000 people have moved from south to north since 10 October.{8} 

Most people in Gaza reside in inadequate shelters that fail to meet basic emergency standards, leaving them exposed to harsh winter conditions.{9} 

The UN Satellite Centre reported that as of 23 September, the extent of damage in Gaza City encompassed approximately 83% of all structures.{10}  

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) report diseases directly linked to poor living condition (such as skin infections, eye infections, aches and pains) account for 70% of all outpatient consultations in health care centres in southern Gaza.{11} 

According to Early Warning, Alert and Response System (EWARS) reporting, acute watery diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections are 17.5% of all consultations in Gaza as of October 2025.{12} 

Ongoing attacks and resource shortages have severely weakened the health system. Every hospital is overrun.{13} 

A total of 50% (18 out of 36) of hospitals are functional, all partially.{14} 

Many health facilities have been shut down in Gaza City and in the North, leaving hundreds of thousands of people with limited access to lifesaving medical services. As of 15 August 2025, Famine (IPC Phase 5)—with reasonable evidence—was confirmed in Gaza Governorate. Access constraints severely limit the quantity of aid that agencies can bring in to stabilize the markets and address people’s needs. 

Anticipation of food inflows upon the ceasefire drove food prices down. However, liquidity constraints persist, with cash withdrawal fees still between 20-24%.{15} 

While attention has been fixed on Gaza, violence and restrictions in the West Bank have intensified. Military operations in Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarm refugee camps have displaced over 30 000 people, yet humanitarian groups remain barred from assessing the full scale of destruction.{16} 

More broadly, oPt has endured a protracted cycle of conflict, hunger and despair for over five decades. In 2023, this cycle reached unprecedented new peaks as tensions escalated in the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank on 7 October, resulting in civilian fatalities, widespread destruction, massive displacement, rising food prices and a declining currency.{17} 

The unprecedented impact of the current war on Gaza demands a transformative shift in addressing mounting immediate needs, revaluating long-term systemic challenges to relief efforts, and confronting the root causes of the conflict by ending the occupation and upholding international law.{18} 

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{1} UNDSS (2024), Security Travel Advisory, available at: https://dss.un.org/Welcome-to-UNDSS?returnurl=%2f 

{2} Inform Risk Index 2025 (2024), available at: https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/inform-index 

{3} United Nations (2025), Fragile Gaza ceasefire marks ‘a momentous but precarious juncture,’ UN envoy tells Security Council 

{4} WFP (2025), WFP Palestine’s Emergency Response External Situation Report #71 (7 November 2025) 

{5} OCHA (2025), Humanitarian Situation Update #331 | Gaza Strip [EN/AR/HE] 

{6} WFP (2025), WFP Palestine’s Emergency Response External Situation Report #71 (7 November 2025) 

{7} OCHA (2025), Humanitarian Situation Update #331 | Gaza Strip [EN/AR/HE] 

{8} WFP (2025), WFP Palestine’s Emergency Response External Situation Report #71 (7 November 2025) 

{9} UNRWA (2025), UNRWA Situation Report #192 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem [EN/AR] 

{10} UNRWA (2025), UNRWA Situation Report #192 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem [EN/AR] 

{11} MSF (2025), Post-ceasefire, Palestinians in Gaza are still living in dire conditions 

{12} WHO (2025) EWARS Unified Disease Surveillance Dashboard - The Gaza Strip · Dashboard · Metabase 

{13} MSF (2025), “Medicine is being strangled”: MSF doctor on the collapse of Gaza's health system 

{14} WHO (2025), HeRAMS occupied Palestinian territory: Gaza infographics September 2025 https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiZjI3ODU4N2YtZmE4Yi00NzcwLTgwMmQtN2JhOTU2YjZkNTQ1IiwidCI6ImY2MTBjMGI3LWJkMjQtN GIzOS04MTBiLTNkYzI4MGFmYjU5MCIsImMiOjh9 

{15} WFP (2025), WFP reaches families most at risk with food assistance as post-ceasefire scale-up gathers pace  

{16} NRC (2025), West Bank: Impunity deepens the occupation amid increasing restrictions on aid 

{17} WFP (29 March 2024),  State of Palestine Annual Country Report 2023 - Country Strategic Plan 2018 - 2028 

{18} ESCWA (2 January 2024), October 2023 in Gaza: the deadliest month in a twenty-first century war? [EN/AR] 

(...)

Source: World Health Organization, https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/emergencies-trauma-care/who-phsa-opt-111125-final.pdf?sfvrsn=efa97590_1&download=true

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#Assessment of #malnutrition in preschool-aged #children by mid-upper arm circumference in the #Gaza Strip (January, 2024–August, 2025): a longitudinal, cross-sectional, surveillance study

 

Summary

Background

Since October, 2023, Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip have suffered war-induced displacement, food insecurity, malnutrition, and elevated risks of famine and mortality. In this study, we aimed to document the extent of, and patterns in, wasting malnutrition in children aged 6–59 months across the Gaza Strip between January, 2024, and August, 2025.

Methods

This longitudinal, cross-sectional, surveillance study was conducted across a total of 16 UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East health centres and 78 medical points established within school shelters and tent encampments across the five governorates of Gaza. Children aged 6–59 months were screened for wasting malnutrition by mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurement. Children with a MUAC of less than 125 mm were enrolled into therapeutic feeding regimens. MUAC Z scores were derived from published WHO age-specific and sex-specific arm circumferential growth curves. Monthly prevalence of acute wasting (MUAC Z scores less than –2) and severe wasting (MUAC Z scores less than –3) were described by age, sex, type of screening facility, and governorate.

Findings

Between Jan 1, 2024, and Aug 15, 2025, 265 974 measurements were obtained from 219 783 uniquely identified children, with two-thirds of children screened in Khan Younis and Middle Governorates. The monthly prevalence of acute wasting ranged from 5% (34 of 722 children) to 7% (794 of 10 907) between January and June, 2024. After approximately 4 months of severe aid restrictions between September, 2024, and mid-January, 2025, the prevalence of wasting increased from 8·8% (1601 of 18 225 children) to 14·3% (1661 of 11 619), with the highest prevalence observed in Rafah (32·2%; 95 of 295) and among children aged 24–59 months (21·0%; 1366 of 6518). After a 6-week ceasefire, marked by a substantial increase in the number of aid trucks entering through territory borders, by March, 2025, the prevalence of wasting had declined to 5·5% (831 of 15 165). However, after an 11-week blockade from March to May, 2025, and continued severely restricted entry of food, water, medicines, fuel, and other essentials thereafter, by early August, 2025, 15·8% (1213 of 7668) of screened children were acutely wasted, including 3·7% (280 of 7668) severely wasted, equating to more than 54 600 children in need of therapeutic care.

Interpretation

After nearly 2 years of war and severe restrictions in humanitarian aid, tens of thousands of preschool-aged children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from preventable acute malnutrition and facing an increased risk of mortality.

Funding

UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Source: The Lancet, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673625018203?dgcid=rss_sd_all

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#Gaza: Top independent #rights #probe alleges #Israel committed #genocide

 

16 September 2025 

Senior independent rights investigators appointed by the Human Rights Council alleged on Tuesday that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, a charge flatly rejected by Tel Aviv.

In a new report published against the backdrop of intensifying Israeli military operations in Gaza City, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, urged Israel and all countries to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” and punish those responsible.

“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” insisted Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

At a press conference in Geneva, the panel’s members - who are not UN staff but instead appointed by the Human Rights Council’s 47 Member States - explained that their investigations into the war in Gaza beginning with Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023 had led to the conclusion that Israeli authorities and security forces “committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

These acts are:

-- killing,

-- causing serious bodily or mental harm,

-- deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians, and

-- imposing measures intended to prevent births.

Ms. Pillay maintained that responsibility for the atrocity crimes “lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons”, amid “explicit statements” denigrating Palestinians by Israeli civilian and military authorities.

The Commission also analysed conduct of Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces in Gaza, “including imposing starvation and inhumane conditions of life for Palestinians in Gaza…genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be concluded from the nature of their operations”, the panel said.

Methodical examination

The Commission’s assertion follows its review of Israeli military operations in Gaza, “including killing and seriously harming unprecedented numbers of Palestinians” and the imposition of a “total siege, including blocking humanitarian aid leading to starvation”, it said.

According to the UN aid coordination wing, OCHA, nearly one million people remain in Gaza City, famine has been confirmed there, and residents face daily bombardment and “compromised access to means of survival after the Israeli military placed the entire city under a displacement order”.

For its latest report, the panel also examined what it called the “systematic destruction” of healthcare and education in Gaza and “systematic” acts of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians. 

Justice call

In addition, the Commission of Inquiry reviewed the alleged “direct targeting” of children and Israel’s “disregarding [of] the orders of the International Court of Justice, which issued an order in March 2024 that Israel should take ‘all necessary and effective measures to ensure…the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza’”.

“The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” said Ms. Pillay.

“When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” she added.

“All States are under a legal obligation to use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza.”

Qatari dimension

In a related development on Tuesday, the Human Rights Council shuffled its schedule to make way for an urgent debate on last week’s Israeli strike on Hamas’s political leadership in Qatar.

The strike targeted a neighbourhood of the Qatari capital, Doha, reportedly killing six people including five members of Hamas and prompting widespread condemnation including from the Security Council and Secretary-General.

In a statement, António Guterres spoke out against what he called a “flagrant violation” of Qatari sovereignty and territorial integrity.

And at a Security Council meeting called in response to the strike, the UN’s political affairs chief told ambassadors the attack in violation of Qatar’s sovereignty was a serious threat to regional peace and security. It also undermined international mediation efforts to end the war in Gaza and return the hostages, said Rosemary DiCarlo.

Source: United Nations, https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165856

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Public #Health #Situation #Analysis - occupied #Palestinian territory-September (#WHO, Sept. 10 '25)

 

Overview

Starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels ever since the conflict began almost two years ago. 

Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives.

Malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July. 

As of 5 September 2025, 361 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition, including 130 children. 

As of 15 August 2025, Famine (IPC Phase 5)—with reasonable evidence—is confirmed in Gaza Governorate. 

After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death. 

Another 1.07 million people (54%) are in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), and 396 000 people (20%) are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).

More broadly, since 7 October 2023, as reported by Ministry of Health (MoH), the number of casualties include 63 746 fatalities and 161 245 injuries.7 

As of 5 September 2025, there have been 2 339 reported fatalities among aid seekers near militarized distribution sites and along convoy routes since 27 May.

Ongoing attacks and resource shortages have severely weakened the health system – damaging or destroying 94% of hospitals, overwhelming remaining partially functional ones, and disrupting essential health service delivery. 

The Health Cluster reports that hospitals are overwhelmed by mass casualty incidents, with an average of eight incidents per day. 

Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals, in Gaza city, are operating at nearly 300% over capacity, with a constant influx of complex trauma injuries. 

Every hospital is overrun. If the Israeli-announced offensive on Gaza city goes ahead, the Gaza Strip could lose half of its hospital bed capacity. 

On 20 July, the WHO’s main warehouse in Deir Al-Balah was destroyed due to attacks, amid MoH reports that 52% of essential drugs and 68% of medical disposables are at zero stock.

In the West Bank, escalating settler violence, with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces, has worsened the coercive environment in the occupied West Bank, resulting in several Palestinian casualties and the forcible displacement of Palestinian communities in the last month.

Source: World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/public-health-situation-analysis---occupied-palestinian-territory-September

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