Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory

The World Health Organization helped with medical evacuation of 24 children from Gaza to Jordan on 26 January.

The World Health Organization (WHO) helped with the medical evacuation of 24 children from Gaza to Jordan on 26 January 2026. Photo: WHO

#Occupied Palestinian Territory

Thousands require medical evacuation outside of Gaza

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that despite ongoing impediments, the UN and its humanitarian partners in Gaza continue to scale up to save lives and meet existing and emerging needs.

Partners working on cash continue scaling up assistance to help families improve food consumption and diversify their diets. Nonetheless, based on post-distribution monitoring, nearly 97 per cent of children between 6 and 23 months old remain below the minimum dietary diversity threshold, indicating continued vulnerability to micronutrient deficiencies.

Regarding health, the World Health Organization facilitated the medical evacuation of 24 children from Gaza to Jordan, accompanied by 36 caregivers, on 26 January. This brings the total number of patients evacuated since the October 2025 ceasefire to 377, including 310 children, along with 1,032 companions. Yet over 18,500 people, including 4,000 children, still urgently require medical evacuation to receive care not available in Gaza.

Between 4 and 17 January, health partners carried out nearly 500,000 consultations, with every fourth consultation being related to communicable diseases. This includes more than 88,600 acute respiratory infection cases and about 11,000 acute watery diarrhoea cases, of which 80 per cent were among children.

On the education front, UNICEF – which is leading on education services – has secured the entry of critical supplies into Gaza this week. Hundreds of school-in-a-carton kits – including notebooks, pencils, chalk, teaching aids and other items – have been brought into Gaza for distribution. Thousands more kits have been approved and are lined up for entry. These supplies help restore the quality of education, which has been severely affected by prolonged shortages of essential materials.

*Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Gaza with urgent support.