Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Ukraine
UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Occupied Palestinian Territory
In Gaza, relentless hostilities put civilians at risk as malnutrition worsens
OCHA warns that people in the Gaza Strip continue to be killed and injured due to bombardments and while trying to access food.
Yesterday, in a briefing to the UN Security Council, the Director of OCHA's Coordination Division, Ramesh Rajasingham, warned that "humanitarian conditions are beyond horrific." He also expressed deep concern over the prolonged conflict and reports of atrocities and further human toll that is likely to unfold following the Government of Israel's decision to expand military operations in Gaza - describing it as a "grave escalation in a conflict that has already inflicted unimaginable suffering." Mr. Rajasingham said that whatever lifelines remain in Gaza are collapsing under the weight of sustained hostilities, forced displacement, and insufficient levels of life-saving aid.
Some 2.1 million Palestinians continue to endure relentless air and ground attacks. Yesterday, Israeli forces struck a tent in front of Al Shifa Hospital and killed six journalists inside. Since October 2023, more than 240 journalists have been killed.
The UN reiterates that all civilians, including journalists, must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Today, the Ministry of Health confirmed that the number of children who have died from malnutrition in Gaza since October 2023 has now surpassed 100. As partners have stressed, this is a "devastating milestone that shames the world and demands long overdue urgent action."
As the World Food Programme (WFP) noted late last week, more than a third of the population is not eating for days at a time and acute malnutrition is spiking, with over 300,000 children at severe risk. Additionally, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned last week that a mere 1.5 per cent of cropland in Gaza is both accessible and undamaged, signaling a near-total collapse of the local food system.
Yesterday, the UN and its partners collected food and hygiene kits from the Kerem Shalom crossing. However, supplies were offloaded directly from these trucks before reaching their destination, given the extreme desperation pervasive in Gaza today.
People need a predictable lifeline - not a trickle of aid - so they do not feel they need to take desperate measures to survive. WFP says that just to cover basic humanitarian food assistance needs, more than 62,000 metric tons are required every month. So far, humanitarians have not been permitted to bring in enough supplies to support the survival of people in Gaza.
The UN also collected fuel from the Kerem Shalom crossing yesterday. The Israeli authorities are allowing, on average, the entry of about 150,000 litres of fuel daily. However, this remains far below the minimum required to sustain life-saving operations. For example, the Palestine Civil Defense warned yesterday that more than half of their ambulances have stopped operating across Gaza, due to the shortage of fuel and spare parts.
Israeli authorities must allow aid to enter through all crossings and via all available corridors so that humanitarians can deliver - at scale, in a safe and dignified manner - to reach the most vulnerable, including women, children and older people.
A ceasefire is urgently needed to save lives. This would allow and speed up delivery of food for the hungry, health services for the sick and wounded, and shelter materials for displaced people who have been forced to flee repeatedly since the onset of hostilities.
Sudan
Dozens of malnutrition deaths reported in El Fasher
OCHA warns that civilians in Sudan are enduring a deepening crisis marked by ongoing attacks, acute hunger and starvation.
OCHA's Director of Operations and Advocacy, Edem Wosornu, who is expected to visit West Darfur State this week, today expressed alarm over reports from the besieged city of El Fasher in North Darfur State that more than 60 people - most of them women and children - died from malnutrition in just one week.
In a social media post, Wosornu once again called for an immediate humanitarian pause to allow life-saving food and other supplies to reach the people trapped in the city.
Famine was first detected in North Darfur State in the Zamzam displacement camp about a year ago and is expected to have expanded to other areas since.
Meanwhile, OCHA is also gravely concerned by ongoing violence in the Kordofan region - including reports last week of an attack on the villages of Markaz al-Ziyadiya and Lamina al-Ziyadiya in North Kordofan State. Eighteen civilians were reportedly killed, with dozens more wounded. OCHA stresses once again that civilians must never be targeted, and all parties must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.
On the health front, the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to scale up the response to the cholera outbreak in Sudan, where nearly 100,000 cases have been recorded since July 2024.
In Khartoum State, a new vaccination campaign began yesterday, targeting 1.1 million people, with support from the World Health Organization.
In North Darfur State, more than 5,300 suspected and confirmed cases - and 84 related deaths - have been reported by local partners since 21 June, most of them in Tawila locality, where 330,000 people displaced from Zamzam and El Fasher are sheltering in dire conditions.
Partners on the ground are responding through cholera treatment centres, but overcrowding, poor sanitation, limited access and the ongoing rainy season are accelerating the spread of the disease and hampering the delivery of aid.
The UN and its partners are also working to take advantage of the main planting season, which is currently underway in Sudan. In Blue Nile State, FAO and local authorities are distributing over 400 metric tons of seeds to 48,000 farming households. They are also carrying out a livestock vaccination and treatment campaign to reach 55,000 pastoralists and protect the health of 247,000 animals across all localities in the state.
Ukraine
Attacks in front-line regions reportedly kill 20 civilians in recent days
OCHA reports that between 8 August and this morning, hostilities in front-line regions of Ukraine killed 20 civilians and injured more than 110, including four children, according to local authorities.
The Kherson Region in the south - and the Dnipro, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions in the east and south-east - were most affected.
In the Kherson Region, a drone strike on a public bus on Saturday reportedly killed two people and injured 16. Across the region, dozens of casualties were reported, including a child, along with damage to multiple residential buildings and civilian vehicles.
In the Zaporizhzhia Region, about two dozen casualties were reported after a glide bomb strike damaged a central bus station, a health facility and more than 20 apartment blocks.
In the Kharkiv Region, two dozen civilians, including three children, were injured when a preschool and multiple homes were hit.
And in the Dnipro Region, attacks caused casualties and damaged multiple houses, a school and other civilian facilities. In Synelnykove Town, strikes hit homes near a planned transit site for evacuees. The Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, who visited the site, said this has prompted authorities and partners to reconsider the location and identify alternatives.
Authorities also reported that mine incidents in the Odesa, Kharkiv and Sumy regions killed three civilians and injured three others, underscoring the ongoing threat that mines continue to pose across Ukraine, including in coastal areas.
As the security situation worsens, authorities expanded mandatory evacuations for families with children in parts of the Donetsk and Dnipro regions. Over the past three days, 4,600 people, including more than 240 children, were evacuated from front-line areas in the Donetsk Region.
Aid workers in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions provided medical, psychological, legal and emergency shelter support, along with meals and blankets, to people affected by the recent attacks.
Posted on 11 August 2025
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