Gaza Humanitarian Response Update | 13-26 April 2025

A child being screened for malnutrition in Khan Younis, 15 April 2025. Photo by OCHA/Olga Cherevko

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Period: 13 - 26 April 2025

The information below is provided every other week by Clusters and select Technical Working Groups operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). For an overview of priority needs and activities by cluster, please see the Flash Appeal.

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Food Security Sector (FSS)

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Response

As of 25 April, over 25 humanitarian partners were supporting the preparation and delivery of about one million meals a day through some 170 community kitchens. With cooking gas either unavailable or too expensive, many kitchens turned to burning donated wooden pallets for fuel to keep operating.
Partners were working to sustain local vegetable production in the few remaining accessible areas by providing agricultural inputs. Most of these activities took place in Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis and in parts of Deir al Balah governorate.
Partners have pre-positioned over 171,000 metric tons (MT) of food in the region, ready for delivery as soon as restrictions on the entry of supplies, imposed by the Israeli authorities since 2 March, are lifted. This amount is enough to sustain the entire population of about 2.1 million people for three to four months.
As an emergency measure, partners conducted a one-off food distribution, starting the week of 13 April, using the last remaining stocks. These included contingency items such as high-energy biscuits, date bars, vegetable oil and mixed, cooked meal supplies. The distribution reached about 642,000 people across the Gaza Strip – except in Rafah governorate, which is inaccessible – with priority given to newly displaced and large families.
The joint Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis of acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip began on 28 April. More than 50 trained analysts from UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), both from the Gaza Strip and from abroad, will take part in the one-week exercise.

Challenges

The depletion of food parcels, flour stocks and cooking fuel due to the ongoing Israeli blockade on the entry of any supplies since 2 March continued during the reporting period. All of WFP’s food stocks was depleted by the end of the reporting period, and at least 10 community kitchens had to shut down or were forced to adjust meal contents and reduce production to stretch dwindling resources.* Before the reporting period, all 25 UN-supported bakeries had to close (as of 31 March) as flour stocks and cooking fuel had run out, and food parcel distribution halted (as of the first week of April). Depletion of supplies at warehouses of most FSS partners has meant that community kitchens are now operating with the last remaining stocks and are closing, one after the other.
While cooked meals remain a lifeline for most families, the single meal provided daily is not enough to meet the daily caloric intake and diet diversity required for children and adults. It also only reaches about half those in need.
Since hostilities escalated again on 18 March, the volatile operating environment has severely limited partners’ ability to use the last remaining food stocks. Ongoing airstrikes, displacement orders, and deterioration in public order and safety make operations increasingly difficult.
Dwindling supplies and rising prices have severely restricted people’s access to essential food, increasing the risk of hunger and malnutrition each day amid worsening public health conditions, extreme overcrowding and rising temperatures. According to the WFP market monitor and food security analysis conducted in April, food consumption in Gaza has sharply deteriorated, undoing the modest recovery observed in February, during the ceasefire. This significantly undermined dietary diversity during the first week of April.
People’s coping strategies have been stretched to the limit. Widespread displacement has forced many people to abandon food supplies and emergency stocks secured during the ceasefire. Affordable bread from UN-supported bakeries is no longer available, and most people cannot bake for themselves due to acute shortages of cooking fuel and the soaring cost of the little wheat flour still available on the market. With severe shortages of cooking fuel, families have also been forced to burn waste and scrap wood, increasing health risks (such as respiratory diseases) as well as environmental hazards. Moreover, according to recent FSS partners’ field visits and community discussions, families are increasingly resorting to mixing crushed macaroni with flour to make bread, reducing the size and frequency of meals, and limiting bread consumption to children or allocating just one piece per family member per day.
Food production and food systems in Gaza have been severely weakened by the lack of safe access of farmers, breeders, and fishers to their lands, livestock and the sea. Since 18 March, farming areas have further diminished, with about 70 per cent of the Gaza Strip designated as “no-go” zones or placed under displacement orders. Fresh produce remains scarce and unaffordable while some wholesalers, fishers and farmers are forced to take grave risks to reach areas near or within the "no-go" zones.
Cash liquidity shortages remain a pressing issue for both shop owners and consumers, further limiting access to markets. Monitoring visits by FSS partners in the last weeks of April found shop shelves to be largely empty and staple food items either unavailable or beyond people’s purchasing power.
Parasite infection, including fleas and mites, pose a significant public health risk, as they can be transmitted to people, especially in overcrowded conditions. This further exacerbates the ongoing health crisis, which is compounded by lack of hygiene supplies and veterinary kits for treatment.

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Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

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Response

Between 18 and 24 April, the Palestinian Water Authority and Coastal Municipalities Water Utility reported an average daily production of 105,047 cubic metres of water across the Gaza Strip. On 16 April, the Al Muntar water line from Israel was repaired, after being out of service since 3 April 2025. Of the total amount of water production, 35 per cent (36,575 cubic metres) was produced by operating seawater desalination plants and through Mekorot pipelines from Israel. The remaining 65 per cent (68,472 cubic metres) were produced by municipal groundwater wells that have high levels of salinity. The WASH Cluster estimates that 50 to 65 per cent of the water produced is lost due to leaks in the damaged distribution network before it reaches people.
As of 24 April, WASH Cluster partners report that over 1,492 water collection points are operational across the Gaza Strip. More than 97 per cent of these points support water trucking activities by 28 partners, where 20,401 cubic metres of drinking water and 10,787 cubic metres of domestic water are delivered daily on average.
During the reporting period, UNRWA significantly expanded cleaning activities at about 50 displacement sites. These activities included spraying to control insects and pests, running environmental and health awareness campaigns, and engaging with communities to address the spread of insects, fleas, rodents, solid waste and sewage. Furthermore, one partner reported distributing 450 basic hygiene kits across five displacement sites in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah governorates.
WASH Cluster partners have over 9,000 pallets of items ready to enter Gaza as soon as restrictions are lifted. These include hygiene supplies as well as materials for the construction of latrines, water treatment and network repairs.

Challenges

The full blockade and movement restrictions imposed within Gaza limit access to fuel, forcing partners to ration supplies more tightly. As a result, water production and distribution have decreased, solid waste collection has been reduced, and sewage is only being pumped in the most hazardous situations.
The blockade and movement restrictions have also reduced the ability of WASH partners to maintain and repair facilities or restore the functionality of damaged water and sewage infrastructure. This is compounded by the near depletion of stocks of critical chemicals, such as chlorine, which is necessary for water disinfection to decrease the risk of water-borne diseases.
Market supplies of pesticides have been depleted, and UNRWA’s supply is also expected to run out soon, leaving no effective alternative method to control the proliferation of pests and rodents once these supplies are exhausted. With hundreds of thousands of tons of trash accumulating, there are increasing concerns about the risk of disease outbreaks.
As of mid-April 2025, over 50 per cent of WASH facilities (334 out of 615) have been rendered inaccessible by displacement orders and the imposition of a “no-go” zone.
Over 30 bulldozers and other heavy equipment vehicles, some donated during the ceasefire, were bombed by Israeli forces in Gaza city, North Gaza and Khan Younis on 21 and 22 April. This includes critical equipment for waste removal, sewage maintenance, and water supply further limiting waste removal, maintenance of sewage infrastructure, and water services and raising serious public health concerns amid the ongoing crisis.

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