Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Global Humanitarian Overview
UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Hunger deepens in Gaza, with acute malnutrition among children hitting record high
OCHA says that starvation and malnutrition, especially among children, continue to deepen in Gaza.
Nutrition partners report that acute malnutrition among children in Gaza has reached the highest levels recorded to date. In July alone, nearly 12,000 children aged 6 to 59 months were identified as acutely malnourished out of 136,000 screened. Of these, over 2,500 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition - the most life-threatening form. Forty children required hospitalization in stabilization centres.
The proportion of children with severe acute malnutrition is rising. In June and July, 18 per cent of all acutely malnourished children had severe acute malnutrition, compared with 12 per cent between March and May.
Humanitarian access constraints are adding to the malnutrition crisis. In July, our partners were only able to reach three per cent - or 8,700 - of the 290,000 children under the age of five who require feeding and micronutrient supplements. This is due to the severe shortage of lipid-based nutrient supplements entering Gaza.
This marks a dramatic collapse in the malnutrition prevention programme. From April to June, an average of 76,000 children - or a quarter of those in need - were reached each month.
The distribution of other key nutrition supplies - for children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers - has also declined sharply.
Partners reiterate that the overall volume of nutrition supplies entering Gaza remains far below what is needed to prevent a further deterioration of the nutrition situation.
More than 1 million shelter items and 2.3 million items such as tents, tarps, and sealing-off materials have been procured and are currently stranded in Jordan and Egypt, as Israeli authorities have not approved their entry. No shelter materials have entered Gaza since 2 March, despite the immense needs.
Existing stocks are fully depleted, and the shelter crisis continues to worsen. Most families in Gaza are living in severely overcrowded, unsafe, and undignified conditions, some with no shelter at all.
An assessment in July of 44 displacement sites in Gaza city found that 43 sites - almost all - had families with no shelter. Eleven per cent of more than 6,500 surveyed households were reported to be living out in the open.
The shelter situation is also further deteriorating due to ongoing bombardment, displacement orders and insecurity, which continue to displace families and disrupt humanitarian operations.
Overall, since the Israeli announcement of the tactical pause to allow safe passages for our convoys, OCHA says that realities on the ground remain largely the same. Aid that has entered remains by far insufficient and UN convoys continue to face impediments on their way to delivering aid.
While fewer humanitarian movements have been denied outright, missions that are approved still take hours to complete. Some of the missions have taken more than 18 hours to be completed, and teams have been compelled to wait on roads that are often dangerous, congested or impassable.
Yesterday, five out of 11 missions requiring coordination with Israeli authorities were facilitated. These included collection of food from Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.
Another four missions were impeded but were eventually fully accomplished. These included collection of fuel from Kerem Shalom crossing and transfer of fuel from southern to northern Gaza. While limited quantities of fuel have been entering Gaza over the past week, fuel supplies remain critically limited and unpredictable, significantly undermining the ability of humanitarian partners to deliver and sustain lifesaving services.
One of these four missions was the medical evacuation of 15 children to Jordan, accompanied by 42 people, with support from the World Health Organization. While this is a positive step, the agency still reminds us that there are more than 14,800 patients in Gaza who still urgently need specialized medical care.
With regard to commercial goods, several trucks carrying food items have been entering Gaza over the past days. The UN will continue to monitor the situation, but as it has been said repeatedly, what is needed is unimpeded and predictable humanitarian access into and within Gaza is essential, in parallel with the flow of commercial goods.
These entries have resulted in different types of food returning to markets and a slight decrease in prices.
OCHA stresses again that unimpeded and predictable humanitarian access into and within Gaza is imperative. Without it, time and resources are wasted, lives are lost, and the response cannot match the scale of the needs.
Sudan
More civilians at risk amid deteriorating humanitarian situation
OCHA warns that the humanitarian situation in Sudan continues to deteriorate, putting even more civilians' lives at risk.
OCHA's Director of Operations and Advocacy, Edem Wosornu, who is currently in the country, said in a social media post today that the suffering is immense, with people trapped, displaced or returning to ruin. She called for unimpeded access and urgent support to reach those on the frontlines of hardship.
A new report released yesterday by the Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab confirms that El Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, is fully encircled by armed actors, with checkpoints at every major road out of the city.
Satellite imagery from the Yale report also indicates a significant increase in burials at civilian cemeteries in El Fasher between early May and the beginning of this month, indicative of increased fatalities in the besieged city.
The report further confirms that two markets, three schools and two mosques have been bombarded since the end of June, with some of these sites understood to have been serving as civilian shelters or community kitchens.
With increasingly alarming food shortages and spiraling prices, people in El Fasher are reported to be resorting to eating animal feed in what is an increasingly catastrophic situation. Engagement around the calls from the Secretary-General, António Guterres, and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, for a pause in the area is more important than ever.
El Fasher also has the highest cost of basic goods nationwide - nearly US$1,000 per household per month - far beyond the reach of most families. This includes more than $700 for food alone, more than eight times the cost of basic food items in other parts of the country. These steep costs, coupled with the siege and lack of aid delivery by road for over a year, have left thousands facing starvation.
In an effort to curb public health risks in North Darfur, humanitarian partners and local authorities launched a sanitation campaign on 5 August targeting 11,000 people in the localities of El Fasher and Dar As Salam. The campaign includes the distribution of critical cleaning supplies such as brooms, shovels, waste barrels and wheelbarrows. The initiative aims to prevent disease outbreaks in overcrowded displacement sites during the ongoing rainy season.
Humanitarian partners are also scaling up the response to the cholera outbreak in the locality of Tawila, which has absorbed 330,000 displaced people fleeing conflict in Zamzam and El Fasher since April. They are increasing treatment centres and oral rehydration points.
In Blue Nile State, cholera cases have surged to nearly 2,800 since late June, with over 40 new infections recorded yesterday alone. Fourteen deaths have been reported.
Humanitarian funding/Global Humanitarian Overview update
Humanitarian funding landscape remains dire, leaving millions of vulnerable people without aid
OCHA says that more than halfway through the year, the humanitarian funding landscape remains dire. As of now, less than 17 percent of the $46 billion required to meet global humanitarian needs in 2025 has been received. This marks an alarming 40 per cent drop compared to the same time last year.
This funding shortfall is a stark reminder that millions of vulnerable people will go without the aid they desperately need. The UN and its humanitarian partners are being forced to do more with less - at tremendous cost to people.
In June, facing the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian system, OCHA launched a hyper-prioritized global appeal to help 114 million people by targeting the most urgent needs within the broader 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview.
Posted on 7 August 2025
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