The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) assessment about climate impact in Gaza

Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the UN and humanitarian partners continue to assess and respond to the impact of recent winter storms.  Dozens of families in Deir al-Balah and the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis have been affected, with makeshift shelters and tents reportedly damaged.  One of our partners has distributed tents and tarpaulins to affected families in Deir al-Balah.

Meanwhile, humanitarians continue to expand their presence in areas that were off-limits during the past 15 months of hostilities. Our partners supporting water, sanitation and hygiene services report that as of yesterday, 63 public water and sanitation facilities were operational in Northern Gaza, three times as many as at the start of the ceasefire.  Meanwhile, more than 540 water delivery points in the two northern governorates have been established, doubling capacity in just a week.

In Khan Younis, one of our partners launched an initiative to collect waste and clean bathrooms through a cash-for-work programme at six United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)-managed collective centres for internally displaced people, benefiting more than 2,800 people.  Another partner has installed four latrines, as well as water taps, on the road crossing the Netzarim corridor to support people returning home.

Meanwhile, partners are scaling up the distribution of bread and cooked meals in different parts of Gaza.  Since yesterday, an additional 20 retail shops in Khan Younis and the Middle Area have been supplying bread.  Over the past two days, one of our partners successfully distributed 1,100 one-month food rations to returnees in Khuza’a in Khan Younis, an area that was inaccessible prior to the ceasefire.  Partners are also working to address urgent shelter needs.  Between 24 January and 7 February, they distributed 25,000 tarpaulins to 12,500 families who recently returned to northern Gaza.

Education partners report that between 4 February and yesterday, more than a dozen new temporary learning spaces have opened in Deir al-Balah, Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza Governorates.  These sites are currently supporting more than 1,700 school-aged children who have returned or relocated.  Overall, there are more than 400 temporary learning spaces across the Gaza Strip, serving some 152,000 children, almost half of them girls.  This is still less than a quarter of school-aged children in the Gaza Strip.

And turning to the West Bank, OCHA reports that operations by Israeli forces continue in northern areas, causing further death, destruction and displacement among the civilian population.  Partners estimate that tens of thousands of people, particularly those living in refugee camps, have been displaced due to these ongoing operations, depriving them of access to basic shelter and other public services.

OCHA’s latest reporting also indicates that there has been a significant increase in the number of Palestinian children killed due to Israeli violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, over the past two years, compared with the preceding 18 years since OCHA began systematically documenting casualties in 2005.  Since January 2023, 224 children have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers — accounting for nearly half of the total 468 child fatalities in the West Bank documented by OCHA since 2005.  These include 11 children killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of 2025, including 6 killed in air strikes.