Fear And Uncertainty Are Daily Staples For Gaza’s Most Vulnerable

9 April 2025

That’s the message from the UN World Health Organization, WHO, which said on Wednesday that mothers are going into labour amid dire conditions, putting their health and their babies’ lives at risk.

It is now five weeks since Israeli authorities stopped all commercial and humanitarian relief supplies from reaching Gaza.

Medicines and other medical provisions “are rapidly running out”, with blood units and other supplies for maternal and child health at critically low levels, UN aid teams report.

Unexploded weapons are also a major threatacross Gaza and have added to the hardships caused by the total ban on relief entering the Strip, said Luke Irving, Chief of the Mine Action Programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

“People are scared” and focusing on day-to-day survival, “how they stay fed, how they stay watered – this is the reality in Gaza at the moment,” he told UN News.

Guterres appeal

At UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, UN chief António Guterres issued a strong appeal for guaranteed aid access to the enclave.

He also repeated his call for a renewed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and for the release of all hostages still held inside Gaza.

The Secretary-General highlighted how the truce between the warring parties had resulted in the release of hostages and the distribution of lifesaving aid.

Today however, “as aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have re-opened,” Mr. Guterres insisted.

Malnutrition fears are real

Latest updates from UN agencies and partners issued confirmed that no aid has entered Gaza since 2 March. “Malnutrition, disease and other preventable conditions are expected to surge, increasing the risk of preventable child deaths,” UNICEF warned.

Mass displacement has also returned to the enclave, with a full two-thirds of the Gaza Strip now designated as “no-go” zones by the Israeli military or placed under displacement orders. At least 390,000 people have been forced to move in the past three weeks.

Escalating Israeli bombardment of Gaza between 3 and 8 April has killed 287 Palestinians and injured 912, according to Gazan health authorities.

Between 7 October 2023 and 8 April 2025, the same authorities say that at least 50,810 Palestinians have been killed and 115,688 Palestinians injured.

The UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) meanwhile reported that rockets were fired from Gaza on 3 and 6 April towards Israel including one which struck the city of Ashkelon, injuring at least 12 Israelis.

Aid workers under attack

The number of aid workers killed since October 2023 has now risen to 412. In recent weeks, Israeli forces targeted and killed 14 staff on duty in Rafah from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Palestinian Civil Defence and one from the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, prompting widespread condemnation from UN senior officials.

“It is a very, very, very challenging time and evidence would show me that we're not protected at the moment,” said Luke Irving, Chief of the Mine Action Programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Speaking to UN News, he appealed for stronger protection measures for colleagues trying to work in an active combat zone “because the people need it, civilians need it.”

Relief supplies run down

Aid partners continue to warn that the nutrition situation is growing more dire by the day as stocks run low. Malnutrition screenings continue across Gaza but “supply shortages and movement restrictions – coupled with active hostilities and other challenges – are hampering their operations”.

In March, for instance, only 50,000 children were screened for malnutrition, a decrease of more than a third, compared to February.

Relief teams are also struggling to access remaining stocks of ready-to-use complementary food in North Gaza governorate, amid ongoing hostilities and displacement orders. “In March, the distribution of these supplies was half of February’s levels,” OCHA said.

Fresh evacuation orders have pushed more families to Al Mawasi and areas west of Gaza City.

“Shelters for displaced people are overstretched: hygiene and sanitation conditions are collapsing, with water lacking and reports of flea and insect infestations,” OCHA reported.

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