Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Haiti, South Sudan, Humanitarian Reset
#Occupied Palestinian Territory
Gaza: continued widespread bombardment, shelling and shootings kill and injure scores of civilians
OCHA says that widespread bombardment, shelling and shooting continue, resulting in reports of scores of fatalities and even more injuries, including among those seeking aid in Gaza.
Yesterday, a UN team visited Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which is struggling to stay operational under relentless pressure and severe shortages. The World Health Organization (WHO) and OCHA were in the Medical Complex following the arrival of hundreds of casualties, including many who were reportedly attacked while waiting for food.
In a social media post yesterday, WHO’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said the hospital was hosting twice as many patients as it can handle. A WHO-supported tent originally set up for pediatric and surgical care is now being used as an overcrowded trauma ward with 100 beds crammed into a space built for 88.
Dr. Tedros said the hospital cannot expand its capacity because it lacks ventilators, monitors and beds, as well as the staff needed to run them. Yesterday, WHO was able to deliver a minimum amount of fuel to the hospital, to power backup generators.
Nasser Medical Complex is in an area that Israeli authorities have placed under a displacement order last Thursday. While it was not required to evacuate, access to the facility has been challenging because there isn’t enough fuel for transportation, and health workers and patients fear for their safety.
OCHA says that no fuel has entered the Strip for 110 days. Yesterday, the UN was able to retrieve about 280,000 litres from the Al Tahreer station in Rafah and transferred it to a more accessible location in Deir al Balah.
While this buys a bit of time, it is far from enough. OCHA says that to keep life-saving operations going, fuel purchased outside must be allowed to enter Gaza. Unless this happens very soon – hospitals, ambulances, water desalination, phone networks and other services critical to survival will grind to a halt.
Meanwhile, OCHA reports that efforts to repair a fibre-optic cable that was damaged are being hindered, causing a major telecommunications outage for the third day in a row. Today, Israeli authorities initially approved but then impeded the movement of a team set to identify where the line had been cut. This is affecting central and southern Gaza. Until the issue is resolved, OCHA warns that people are cut off from life-saving information about where to find help, and humanitarian teams are unable to properly coordinate or move safely.
No shelter materials have entered Gaza since 1 March, before the Israeli authorities imposed a full blockade on aid and any other supplies for nearly 80 days. While some commodities have subsequently been allowed in small quantities, but tents, timber, tarpaulins and any other shelter items remain prohibited.
Nearly everyone in Gaza has been displaced multiple times during the war, and every third person has been displaced at least once again since the collapse of the latest ceasefire, and shelter conditions are quickly deteriorating. Makeshift accommodations are concentrated in bombed-out schools, public lots and urban rubble, often far exceeding site capacity and without basic infrastructure.
The UN and its humanitarian partners have some 980,000 shelter items, including almost 50,000 tents, ready for prioritization and dispatch as soon as access is granted.
#Haiti
Atlantic hurricane season begins with stocks at lowest level ever
The Humanitarian Country Team in Haiti is sounding the alarm on the need for enhanced preparedness ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season. Amid severe funding shortfalls, contingency stocks at their lowest levels ever.
Despite forecasts indicating an above-average season – with up to 19 tropical storms and five major hurricanes – Haiti begins the season with no pre-positioned food supplies and no available funding to launch a rapid response. This comes as 5.7 million people in the country face severe food insecurity and more than 230,000 displaced people are living in makeshift shelters, highly exposed to extreme weather. Haiti is one of only five countries worldwide with people in famine-like conditions.
With support from national and international partners, humanitarian partners have pre-positioned limited stocks of hygiene kits, tarpaulins, trauma supplies and nutrition support – and plan to deliver anticipatory cash transfers to vulnerable households. However, additional funding for relief efforts is urgently needed. Haiti’s Humanitarian Response Plan remains only 8 per cent funded, with just $75 million received of the $908 million required for this year.
Meanwhile, OCHA has been leading missions with UN agencies and our partners to see how aid operations can be resumed in areas of high need following the suspension of UN operations on 26 May due to insecurity. Missions have been carried out in Canaan, Croix-des-Bouquets, and Cité Soleil in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, with further deployments planned along Route Nationale 1, which connects the city capital to the north of the country. These efforts aim to secure safety guarantees and enable the safe resumption of humanitarian operations in severely affected zones.
#South Sudan
UN, partners scale up response to address soaring acute malnutrition and cholera
OCHA is deeply concerned about an increase in acute malnutrition and cholera.
Between July of 2024 and June of this year, the number of children under the age of five needing urgent treatment for acute malnutrition climbed 10 per cent from 2.1 million to 2.3 million.
This is happening against the backdrop of the world’s worst cholera outbreak this year, with nearly 74,000 cases and at least 1,362 deaths reported across nine states as of 16 June. The onset of the rainy season, combined with declining immunity levels, could trigger a sharp rise in new infections.
Despite access constraints, the UN and its humanitarian partners have scaled up the response – including vaccinations – to prevent the further spread of the disease and protect vulnerable people. As today, approximately 6.9 million doses of oral cholera vaccine have been administered.
The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is only 20 per cent funded, with $338 million received out of the $1.7 billion required. We need funding urgently to expand food assistance, nutrition and health services to those most vulnerable people.
UN Relief Chief unveils next phase of ‘Humanitarian Reset’
Following a meeting this week of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which brings together UN agencies and NGO partners, Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, says that we are in a doom loop, with a transactional, inward-looking and less generous era making it a tough time to be a humanitarian, while our finances and values are under sustained attack. Meanwhile, political polarization, the climate crisis and conflict are on the rise and will drive humanitarian needs even higher.
He stressed that the Humanitarian Reset – a bold agenda to regroup and reform the aid system – is in its next phase, which includes the hyper-prioritization of our appeals to support humanitarian work. It also includes increasing efforts to protect women and girls – including survivors of sexual violence – and to ensure their voices are heard in decision making.
We will save as many lives as we can, with the resources we have, Mr. Fletcher said, stressing that we need just 1 per cent of what the world spent on defense last year to reach millions of people in direst need around the world.