Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine
UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Occupied Palestinian Territory
UN, partners help communities in Gaza prepare for winter
OCHA warns that hostilities continue to be reported in various parts of the Gaza Strip, causing destruction, displacement and casualties among civilians, including children. On Saturday, multiple Israeli strikes were reported in Gaza city, Deir al Balah and An Nuseirat. The strikes came after Israeli ground forces reportedly came under fire in Rafah.
The UN and its partners remain focused on preparing for the winter, as well as ensuring that the most vulnerable communities are able to receive essential assistance. Partners managing displacement sites note that living conditions are extremely dire across the Strip. The estimated 214,000 people living in coastal, flood-prone or structurally unsafe areas are among the most vulnerable.
The humanitarian community is working together to get aid to people safely, quickly and with dignity.
As part of the preparations ahead of winter, between Thursday and Saturday, partners reached 7,100 families with shelter assistance, including 900 tents, 5,100 tarps and 2,300 blankets. However, they note that they could only bring 32 trucks with shelter supplies into Gaza between Sunday and Wednesday last week, as NGO registration requirements continue to hamper partners' ability to bring in assistance.
Meanwhile, partners leading the malnutrition response in Gaza report that they continue to focus on early detection and treatment of acute cases. Last week, UNICEF dispatched 4,000 cartons of ready-to-use therapeutic food - enough to provide treatment for the current caseload of 10,000 patients for one month. Currently, total treatment stocks are sufficient to last through March of next year.
Work also continues on improving access to healthcare across Gaza. Partners leading the health response report that they managed to access the European Hospital in Rafah - which is not functional - in order to transfer vital equipment to functioning facilities in northern Gaza. This was the first successful attempt to access the hospital since October, as requests to reach it were repeatedly denied by the Israeli authorities.
To help people cope and supplement basic assistance, partners working on providing cash support note that since the ceasefire and as of last Wednesday, 93,000 families received cash distributions, with the support of more than a dozen partners.
Partners working on emergency telecommunications report that on Saturday, a team of technicians finally managed to access the area in northern Gaza near Erez crossing to repair a fibre optic cable that was severed in early November. Previous attempts to coordinate access to the site for repairs were denied by Israeli authorities.
OCHA continues to stress that civilians and civilian infrastructure must always be protected. OCHA also calls for unimpeded, safe and sustained access throughout Gaza, to reach civilians in need wherever they are.*
*Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Gaza and the West Bank with urgent support.
Ukraine
Deadly attacks imperil front-line communities, urban areas
OCHA says that hostilities in Ukraine continue to devastate front-line communities, harm civilians in major urban centres, and inflict further damage on energy infrastructure.
Authorities say that the cities of Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia came under attack over the weekend and this morning, with at least 20 civilians killed and more than 100 others injured, including children.
Humanitarians have also been impacted. On 23 November, a drone strike damaged the premises of a humanitarian organization in the city of Koriukivka, in the region of Chernihiv. No one was injured. Just a few days earlier, on 20 November, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, an aid worker from a national NGO was killed off duty in an air strike that claimed the lives of at least five civilians. According to partners, since September, three aid workers have been killed - including two in the line of duty - and 11 others have been injured.
Hostilities have also damaged critical services, and authorities report that rolling power outages continue nationwide due to cumulative damage to the energy infrastructure. Some parts of the Kharkiv region were left without electricity and water. The port and energy facilities in Odesa were also struck, including a ferry terminal on the border with Romania.
OCHA says that despite access and security challenges, humanitarian organizations continue to deliver assistance. On 21 November, OCHA coordinated a humanitarian convoy delivering winter supplies to the front-line community of Dariivska in the Kherson region, including dignity kits for older people, thermoses, solar lamps, a charging station, hygiene kits for people with disabilities and food.
This year, 27 inter-agency convoys delivered aid to some 30,000 people in front-line areas of the region.
Posted on 24 November 2025
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