Today's top news: Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Afghanistan, Yemen, Colombia, Somalia

#Lebanon

Displacement rises amid strikes as aid scale-up continues

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the UN and its humanitarian partners, in close coordination with the Government, continue to scale up assistance in Lebanon, providing food, shelter, water, medical care, and nutrition support to families forced to flee their homes.

As of last night, according to the Ministry of Public Health, 912 people have been killed in Israeli strikes, with more than 2,200 others injured. Overnight and into the early morning, Israeli strikes on central Beirut reportedly caused additional casualties. A multi-story building in the neighbourhood of Bashoura collapsed after being hit. Residential areas in the neighbourhoods of Zoqaq al-Blat and Basta were also struck.

More than one million people are now displaced, including 367,000 children –nearly one third of the displaced.

Today, the Israel Defense Forces instructed civilians to move north of the Zahrani River, after having issued displacement orders for the southern city of Tyre, including nearby Palestinian refugee camps.

Attacks on healthcare continue. Earlier today, authorities reported significant damage sustained by three government hospitals following Israeli strikes, injuring healthcare workers.

The UN Refugee Agency and its partners distributed thousands of mattresses, sleeping mats, blankets, solar lamps and other supplies across collective sites in all of Lebanon’s governorates.

UNICEF and its partners distributed thousands of hygiene and menstrual hygiene kits to shelters, as well as hundreds of thousands of litres of clean water.

More than 350,000 litres of fuel have been provided to sustain public water supply services.

On the nutrition front, partners have reached nearly 8,000 children under the age of five, adolescent girls, and pregnant and breastfeeding women with nutritional supplies for one month.

#Occupied Palestinian Territory

Aid workers deliver amid tightening restrictions

In Gaza, the UN and its partners continue to deliver critical assistance, despite shrinking supplies due to increased restrictions since the regional escalation began.

Yesterday, the UN Office for Project Services successfully collected more than 400,000 liters of fuel, while the UN and partners working in water, sanitation and hygiene collected seven truckloads of supplies from Kerem Shalom, which remains the only operational crossing into Gaza.

While the recent Israeli announcement that Rafah will reopen has not yet been implemented, the UN stands ready to resume medical evacuations and support people returning to Gaza as soon as these movements are allowed again. The UN will continue to call for more crossings to open for cargo.

Despite the limited supplies, over the past week, partners leading on shelter delivered to more than 2,200 families – over 11,000 people – across Gaza. These supplies included emergency shelter kits, which include rope, nails, measuring tape, pots, pans and plates.

However, humanitarians say that stocks of tents, bedding items, and other essential supplies are depleting rapidly. Some partners have turned to the local market to buy what they can – clothing, bedding, basic kitchen items – directly from vendors whose own capacity is already stretched thin. This is not a sustainable solution, as both the humanitarian and the commercial sectors are subject to the same bottleneck at Kerem Shalom.

OCHA and its humanitarian partners continue to call for safe, unhindered humanitarian access to ensure that those in need receive the support they urgently need.

#Afghanistan

Cross-border conflict drives displacement, strains essential services

Turning to Afghanistan, OCHA says that the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan has entered its third week, with no sign of abating. Between 6 and 17 March, airstrikes and cross-border attacks have affected at least ten of Afghanistan’s provinces, including Kabul.

Airstrikes on Monday struck multiple locations across Afghanistan, including a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul – the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital – with casualty figures still being verified.

Across Afghanistan, displacement is on the rise. Partners have reported 115,000 people have been forced to flee and more than 300 shelters have been destroyed or damaged. People who have been displaced need shelter, water, health services and food.

According to partners, around 160,000 people are facing deteriorating food security. The World Food Programme has distributed high-energy biscuits to more than 3,300 households, with plans to provide two months of food assistance, largely through cash-based transfers.

Health services are under severe strain. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 25 health facilities have closed or suspended operations, including ten damaged by airstrikes. WHO has deployed 4.5 metric tons of medical supplies and trauma kits, while UNICEF reports they have supplies sufficient to treat more than 50,000 emergency cases. Still, shortages persist, with more than 70 containers of health supplies delayed due to border closures.

The escalating conflict in Iran and the wider region has increased uncertainty for humanitarian logistics, effectively pausing the Iran transit route that humanitarians had explored as an alternative supply corridor.

Border crossings with Pakistan remain largely closed, disrupting supply chains and leaving humanitarian cargo stranded.

OCHA calls for safe and sustained humanitarian access, protection of civilians and respect for international humanitarian law. Additional humanitarian funding is also urgently required to sustain the response.

#Yemen

UN, partners call for $2 billion to reach millions with life-saving aid

The UN and humanitarian partners today released this year’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Yemen.

Humanitarian needs continue to be driven higher by conflict, economic decline, displacement, disease outbreaks and climate shocks. Overall, just over 22 million people – more than half the population – need humanitarian assistance.

This year’s plan seeks $2.16 billion to provide life-saving aid to 12 million people across Yemen, including just over 9 million people facing extreme hunger, severe malnutrition, displacement, disease risk or lack of basic services.

Hunger remains severe, with more than 18 million people facing acute food insecurity. More than 2 million children under five years old are acutely malnourished.

Essential services are collapsing, with nearly 40 per cent of health facilities only partly functioning or closed.

stress that to be able to do their work and support most vulnerable people, humanitarian access must be unhindered. Aid workers and assets must be protected.

OCHA says that humanitarian action alone is not enough. Progress will depend on restoring essential services, reviving livelihoods and strengthening resilience, underpinned by a Yemeni-led political solution. 

#Colombia

Violence, climate shocks deepen humanitarian needs

OCHA reports that the humanitarian situation in Colombia continues to deteriorate amid armed violence, severe movement restrictions and repeated climate shocks.

With up to a 70 per cent chance of above-normal rain fall in April, the risk of new emergencies is rising. Last year, disasters affected one million people, destroyed more than 3,000 homes, displaced over 20,000 people and left more than 330,000 people in need of aid.

In response to recent flooding in Córdoba, in Colombia’s north, the UN and humanitarian partners are coordinating with authorities on the Government-led response. Food, cash and hygiene supplies, among other items, have been distributed to people in the most affected areas.

Last year, more than 1.6 million people were impacted by violence – three times more than the previous year – including more than 150,000 people whose movements were restricted and nearly 100,000 people who were displaced, the highest levels recorded since OCHA’s monitoring began in 2008.

Also last year, humanitarian operations were increasingly hindered, with more than 400 such incidents affecting over 1.6 million people.

This year, partners are calling for $287 million to reach 1.2 million of the people most in need.

#Somalia

Price surge, drought worsens an already severe crisis

Recent surge in the prices of fuel and essential goods is worsening an already severe humanitarian crisis and hampering humanitarian operations in Somalia.

Fuel prices have doubled in recent days – from $0.60 to $1.50 per litre, or a more than 100 per cent increase – largely due to the impact of the escalation in the Middle East, according to authorities and partners.

These rising costs are driving up the prices of food and water, while transport costs for humanitarian operations have doubled. 

Somalia imports more than 90 per cent of its essential commodities. Shipments of nutrition items, medicine, water and sanitation materials, and other critical supplies are facing delays.

The country is already experiencing severe drought, with at least 6.5 million Somalis facing high levels of hunger and more than 1.8 million children facing acute malnutrition.

The drought, which has been ongoing since late last year and has affected nearly five million people – or a quarter of all people in the country.

Funding gaps are holding back the response, despite the UN and its partners having the capacity to do more.

The 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan seeks $852 million to support 2.4 million people this year but has so far received just 11 per cent – or $97 million.