Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan
UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Supplies entering Gaza not enough to meet people's needs
OCHA says that people in Gaza continue to struggle to survive.
With starvation on the rise, the volumes of supplies that are entering Gaza remain insufficient to meet people's needs. The UN and its humanitarian partners also continue to face many impediments preventing them from bringing in aid at scale and distributing it to communities.
Partners working on food assistance warn that massive food shortages continue to impact people's chances for survival.
As malnutrition levels are rising, children are more likely to have weakened immune systems, hindering their development and growth far into the future.
Last Thursday, 71 kitchens prepared and delivered more than 270,000 hot meals across Gaza. These included 10,000 meals delivered to health facilities, most of which are struggling to operate as mass casualties, widespread destruction and shortages of basic necessities continue to overwhelm the healthcare system.
The number of meals being provided is far below the minimum required to reach more than 2 million people in Gaza. There is a need for an urgent scale-up of supplies, as well as an environment that allows humanitarians to reach people in need safely, rapidly and efficiently.
Health partners say that some quantities of medicine have managed to reach Gaza in recent days. Medicine shortages place an additional strain on healthcare workers who continue to work under immense pressure and with very limited resources.
The World Health Organization (WHO) noted that the number of people diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome - a rare, potentially deadly condition in which the body's immune system attacks the nerves - has reached 46 cases and two deaths in July, with 38 per cent requiring intensive treatment. This syndrome can be caused by a compromised immune system, poor nutrition and hygiene-related infections. WHO is working with the Health Ministry to continue surveillance of cases and address the gaps related to diagnostics and treatment.
Yesterday, the UN was able to bring three fuel tankers to Gaza city. The fuel was offloaded in a UN Office for Project Services-managed fuel station and will be used to power the most critical health, water and sanitation and emergency telecommunication facilities.
OCHA once again stresses that much more fuel is needed daily to run life-saving and emergency operations. Current levels of fuel are only allowing the UN and its humanitarian partners to function at the bare minimum.
The UN and its partners working on water, sanitation and hygiene underscore that access to clean water remains limited, putting people's health and wellbeing at risk.
Ninety-six per cent of households across Gaza surveyed by partners in July face moderate to severe challenges in accessing clean water -to drink, bathe their children or wash dishes.
Sudan
UN Humanitarian Chief warns time is running out as starvation surges in El Fasher
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, said in a social media post today that with the risk of starvation on the rise in El Fasher in North Darfur State, Sudan, time is running out. OCHA continues to push for a humanitarian pause to rush aid in at scale - and for the return of a full UN presence.
OCHA warns that escalating humanitarian needs in Sudan are being driven by a insecurity, disease, hunger, flooding and displacement.
In El Fasher, reports indicate that sporadic shelling continues. The situation remains deeply unstable, with civilians bearing the brunt of recent clashes between armed groups and families being trapped in one of the country's most besieged urban centres.
Cholera continues to spread across Darfur. In North Darfur alone, humanitarian partners have reported more than 3,600 cases since late June. In South Darfur, over 1,200 suspected cases and 69 deaths have been recorded. However, partners warn that underreporting may be masking the true scale of the outbreak. The UN and our partners are responding to the outbreak, but limited access to clean water, sanitation and medical supplies is compounding the crisis.
Nutrition needs are rising fast. Recent surveys show global acute malnutrition rates above emergency thresholds in all surveyed areas of North Darfur, reaching 34 per cent in the locality of Mellit and nearly 30 per cent in At Tawaisha. These figures underscore an alarming deterioration, not just in famine-risk zones, but also in broader conflict-affected regions.
The UN and its humanitarian partners are scaling up outpatient therapeutic services and planning new stabilization centres in hard-hit areas, but urgent funding is needed to sustain and expand this work.
OCHA once again urges all parties to allow humanitarian access across the country and calls on donors to scale up flexible funding to meet Sudan's soaring humanitarian needs.
Posted on 5 August 2025
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