The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip has far exceeded the capacity of aid organizations, amid suffocating restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation and ongoing obstacles blocking relief efforts.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the office said that the United Nations Children’s Fund and its partners were able to partially restore access to clean water in southern Gaza, after an Israeli airstrike on March 25 targeted a seawater desalination plant and reduced its operational capacity to less than 20 percent of its normal output.
As a result, around 500,000 Palestinians in Deir al-Balah and al-Mawasi in Khan Younis have been left without adequate access to drinking water, despite UN attempts to compensate through water trucking.
OCHA stressed the urgent need to enable humanitarian operations, calling for the entry of larger quantities of essential supplies into Gaza through available crossings.
The office pointed out that the situation is driven by the near-total collapse of basic services, particularly water, sanitation, and hygiene systems, reflecting the scale of destruction caused by the ongoing assault.
Severe water shortages, combined with a lack of cleaning and disinfection supplies, have made it nearly impossible to maintain even minimal hygiene standards, significantly increasing the risk of disease outbreaks—especially in overcrowded displacement sites sheltering the wounded and the sick.
OCHA described the situation in Gaza as unprecedented, with overlapping health, environmental, and humanitarian crises unfolding at once, while the international response remains far below what is needed.
It also warned that the accumulation of waste around homes and shelters, along with the spread of sewage among the rubble, has turned large parts of Gaza into unlivable environments—creating fertile ground for the spread of insects, pests, and disease.
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