Personal sanitario y salud en Palestina

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Suffering cancer in Gaza

Thousands of Palestinian cancer patients are living without treatment as they await medical evacuation

24 January 2026

Photo: Aya Abu Hani with her son Ismail Abu Naji, who has been diagnosed with blood cancer and has been unable to leave Gaza for treatment. Photograph: Amjed Tantesh/The Guardian

Ismail Abu Naji was just 18 months old last 7 October 2023, his small body covered in swollen, bleeding lesions. Months earlier, doctors had diagnosed him with a rare blood cancer, one that, if untreated, is often a death sentence.

 

In the weeks before the war, Ismail’s family had arranged for him to be transferred to Al-Makassed hospital in Jerusalem, a charitable institution for Palestinians, for specialised care. But the blockade Israel imposed on Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that triggered the genocide meant Ismail could not leave the territory.

 

He is now one of thousands of cancer patients in Gaza who the UN says require medical evacuation for urgent treatment.

 

Cancer patients trapped in Gaza, where doctors say cancer-related deaths have tripled since 7 Oct 2023, as Israel continues to hinder patients from leaving and restricts the entry of chemotherapy drugs. While some patients have left, they are far outnumbered by those deemed in medical need who have not. 

 

The Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) says evacuation routes to third countries have become “near impossible” to operate, especially since the closure of the Rafah crossing in May 2024, and that Israel is failing to meet its obligation to provide medical care to populations under its control. The crossing between Gaza and Egypt is due to open for traffic next week, the Palestinian technocratic committee leader, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday, although Israel did not immediately confirm that would be the case.

 

With even basic painkillers having become unattainable under the blockade, there is little else Ismail’s mother, Aya Mohammed Abu Hani, who is living in a tent in a school, can do but try to ease his pain, gently dabbing the wounds with a cloth soaked in salt water.

“Ismail’s life before the war was already difficult, and it has become even harsher since. He cannot sleep due to severe pain, high fever and cries constantly”. “We were displaced many times from one place to another, which worsened his condition. I could not even provide him with enough clothing. Before the war, hospitals were able to offer antibiotics and painkillers. But now, they can’t even provide a single painkiller.”

 

Israeli airstrikes on hospitals have reduced the Palestinian healthcare system to ruins. In March 2025, Israel destroyed Gaza’s only specialised cancer treatment hospital, the territory’s sole provider of oncology care. Since then, doctors have been pushed into makeshift clinics, operating with almost no resources, including the tools needed for diagnosis.

 

“As for cancer diagnosis, we have reached an extremely critical stage,” said Dr Saleh Sheikh al-Eid, a specialist physician in haematology and oncology at Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis. “Basic diagnostic tools, such as biopsy needles, are unavailable. Patients come to us with obvious cancerous masses, yet we lack the means to take samples and examine them. As a result, we have lost many patients without even being able to properly diagnose or treat them.”

 

Israel Will Not Allow Gaza Residents to Receive Medical Treatment in West Bank, East Jerusalem Due to 'Security Risks'

In response to High Court petitions, the government stated that medical treatment could be exploited to help 'establish ties with terrorist activity, including recruitment, transfer of information and the establishment of terrorist infrastructure'
‘I wish I had the power to ease his suffering’: Gaza’s cancer patients trapped by war and blockade.

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Demolition of UNRWA premises is symbolic of Israel’s attack on the United Nations system

23 January 2026

GENEVA – The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, today expressed grave concern about the ongoing, systematic attack against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN system and the Palestinian people, after Israeli forces forcibly entered and began demolishing the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem this week. Albanese is calling on the General Assembly to convene a special session to consider next steps after these unprecedented attacks on UNRWA and the wider UN. She issued the following statement:

“I am horrified by the Government of Israel’s relentless destruction, carried out with total impunity. Israel is dismantling the United Nations and international law brick by brick in full view of the world. Attacking UNRWA is tantamount to bulldozing the world’s efforts to sustain Palestinian life. Genocidal rhetoric by Israeli officials that has accompanied these demolitions leaves no room for doubt.

On 20 January, Israel forces forcibly entered the UNRWA headquarters compound in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem and demolished it with bulldozers and heavy machinery.

Israel Interior Minister Ben Gvir proudly appeared on camera while supervising the destruction and once again propagating false accusations against UNRWA.  Even more appalling was the public call made in front of the UNRWA building by the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem to “kill and annihilate UNRWA staff”.

This constitutes yet another instance of genocidal incitement that has become disturbingly normalised in Israel.

This outrageous attack by a UN member State against a UN General Assembly-mandated organisation is unprecedented, dangerous, and should spur the international community into action, especially in view of the Provisional measures of the ICJ in the case brought by South Africa and the recent ICJ opinion, confirming that Israel has no right to interfere with UNRWA’s work.

This attack constitutes a grave violation of the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, and an apparent international crime which adds to the long list that Israel continues to commit in the Palestinian territory it illegally occupies.

These actions are part of Israel's genocidal strategy that will not pause of its own volition; it must be stopped through tangible actions from States that must ensure accountability and cut ties with Israel.

I call on the Secretary General to request that the General Assembly convene a special session and consider next steps following these unprecedented attacks on UNRWA and the wider UN.

It is time for the General Assembly to suspend Israel’s credentials, pursuant to Article 6 of the UN Charter, and authorise sanctions and embargoes against Israel, especially on the arms trade.” 

Francesca Albanese is the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967

Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organisation, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.

Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/

UN Human Rights, country page –  OPT

For more information and media requests, please contact: hrc-sr-opt@un.org

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts, please contact Maya Derouaz (maya.derouaz@un.org) or Dharisha Indraguptha (dharisha.indraguptha@un.org)

Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on X: @UN_SPExpert

 

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Destroying Hope for the Future: Reproductive Violence in Gaza
January 14, 2026 Reproductive Justice, Palestine

By Physicians for Human Rights and the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School
Download Full Report

Executive Summary

After Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, subsequent Israeli military operations in Gaza have caused devastation and displacement. Beginning early in the conflict, humanitarian actors and civil society raised significant concerns about the likely impact on the health and survival of pregnant women and infants – two groups granted specific protection during armed conflict.

The UN Independent International Commission of lnquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (UN COI) reviewed evidence through July 2025 and found that Israel’s attacks on facilities providing reproductive health care and restrictions on food and medical supplies were intentional and systematic and resulted in devastating harm to the reproductive capacity of people in Gaza.

This report affirms the UN COI’s findings and presents new evidence of the continued and worsening harms of the conflict on pregnant and postpartum women and infants from January through October 2025. The report analyzes how the health impacts of (i) attacks on health care facilities, (ii) restrictions on humanitarian aid, and (iii) acute malnutrition have translated into violations of the rights of women and infants in Gaza and constitute reproductive violence in violation of international law. Finally, drawing on this evidence, the report outlines urgent recommendations to ensure that people in Gaza receive adequate medical care and nutrition assistance, accountability, and justice.

Despite these reports, throughout early 2025, Israel continued to restrict access to humanitarian aid in Gaza. This occurred through a complete humanitarian aid blockade from March to May 2025, the subsequent introduction of the humanitarian aid distribution mechanism, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). which was widely critiqued as “engineered scarcity”, and despite the ceasefire reached in October.

Following repeated warnings issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). famine ‘with reasonable evidence’ was finally determined in Gaza in August 2025.

Between May and June 2025, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported a 41 percent decrease in birth rate in Gaza compared to the same time period in 2022; there was a significant increase in miscarriages that affected more than 2,600 women, and 220 pregnancy-related deaths that occurred before delivery.

The ministry also reported a sharp increase in premature births and low birth weight cases; over 1.460 babies were reported to be born prematurely, while more than 2,500 were admitted to neonatal intensive care. Newborn deaths also increased, with at least 21 babies reported to have died on their first day of life.

However, due to the near-complete collapse of Gaza’s health information system after October 7, 2023, systematic data collection was severely limited, making it likely that these numbers represent a significant undercount. Even since the ceasefire was reached these conditions continue; in October 2025, UNICEF reported that they identified 9,300 children under five years of age with acute malnutrition and that 8,300 pregnant and breastfeeding women were admitted to health facilities for treatment for acute malnutrition.

In this study, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School (GHRC) assess the foreseeable risks to pregnancy and neonatal health posed by these developments and examine the impact of attacks on health and restrictions on food and medical supplies on women of reproductive age, including those trying-to-conceive as well as pregnant, postpartum, and lactating women, and newborns from January to October 2025 when a ceasefire was signed.

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Israel: Ban on 37 aid groups makes life unbearable for genocide survivors in Palestine, say UN experts
15 January 2026

GENEVA – Israel’s suspension of dozens of associations in the occupied Palestinian territory is a flagrant violation of the law, UN experts* said today.

“By blocking aid, Israel is worsening life-threatening conditions, and heightens potential criminal responsibility for its leaders,” the experts said.

“Banning life-saving organisations from operating in Gaza marks a new phase in a policy that renders life unbearable for a population already devastated by genocide,” the experts said. “This strategy will create conditions that force Palestinians into chronic deprivation, threatening their very survival as a group and further violating the Genocide Convention – it must be stopped.”

Announced as a national security measure on 30 December 2025, the new regulation bans 37 international NGOs from operating in Gaza and the West Bank. It grants Israeli authorities broad discretionary power to deny status to INGOs based on an organisation’s previous support for international legal proceedings against Israeli citizens, engagement with boycotts, or failure to characterise Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

“The ban is not an isolated act, but part of a systematic assault on humanitarian operations in the occupied Palestinian territory and another step in the deliberate dismantling of Gaza’s lifeline,” the experts said. “In Gaza, genocide survivors are battling winter, severe food insecurity, malnutrition and the collapse of the healthcare and education systems in the context of severe environmental harm impact caused by Israeli aggression. “

“This collective punishment of survivors comes amid sustained attacks on humanitarian personnel and premises and obstruction of aid convoys,” they said.

“Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed over 500 humanitarian workers and at least 1,500 health workers and intimidated, harassed and conducted smear campaigns targeting humanitarians. UNRWA has been the most visible target, but it is far from the only one,” the experts said.

“These measures must be seen in legal and factual context: as a strategy to create conditions in Gaza that force Palestinians into chronic deprivation, threatening their survival as a group and further violating the Genocide Convention.”

As of 31 December 2025, nearly USD 50 million in life-saving aid remained blocked amid repeated ceasefire violations, including the expansion of Israeli forces into over half of Gaza, continued airstrikes and shelling that has killed over 400 Palestinians in under three months.

“We have entered a new phase in which Israel and its supporters have reached the genocide without witness stage,” the experts said. “With journalists being killed, denied access, or forced out, humanitarian organisations paralysed or expelled, and a misleading global sense of ‘ceasefire’, atrocities are being committed without public scrutiny.”

In early December, UN agencies and NGOs were only able to deliver 14,600 tents for 85,000 people, leaving 1.3 million Palestinians without adequate winter shelter. Several people, including six children have already died from hypothermia, drowning or cold-related injuries.

“There are no words left to describe what Gaza has become,” the experts said.

“Israeli occupying forces have no legal right to block aid or impose coercive requirements on humanitarian organisations,” the experts said. “The occupation is and remains unlawful under international law. The only way to remedy this legal defect is to decolonise Palestine and end Israel’s control over Palestinian lives and land.”

They urged States, particularly those with influence, to take immediate action to ensure unconditional entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. “It is unacceptable for a State accused of international crimes and maintaining an unlawful occupation to block access to life-saving aid in occupied territory.”

The experts warned that other state leaders could incur responsibility if they fail to take all steps in their power to prevent further acts of genocide.

“While ending Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid practices remains the only way to ensure sustained peace in the region, States must work to remove all obstacles to humanitarian action and guarantee safe, sustained and unrestrained access through UN-supervised land and sea corridors,” they said.

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Israel: La prohibición de 37 grupos de ayuda humanitaria hace insoportable la vida de los supervivientes del genocidio en Palestina, según expertos de la ONU

15 de enero de 2026

GINEBRA – La suspensión por parte de Israel de decenas de asociaciones en el territorio palestino ocupado constituye una flagrante violación de la ley, según declararon hoy expertos de la ONU*.

“Al bloquear la ayuda, Israel está empeorando las condiciones que amenazan la vida y aumenta la posible responsabilidad penal de sus líderes”, declararon los expertos.

“Prohibir a las organizaciones que salvan vidas operar en Gaza marca una nueva fase en una política que hace insoportable la vida de una población ya devastada por el genocidio”, declararon los expertos.

“Esta estrategia creará condiciones que obligarán a los palestinos a una privación crónica, amenazando su propia supervivencia como grupo y violando aún más la Convención sobre el Genocidio; debe detenerse”.

Anunciada como medida de seguridad nacional el 30 de diciembre de 2025, la nueva regulación prohíbe a 37 ONG internacionales operar en Gaza y Cisjordania.

Otorga a las autoridades israelíes un amplio poder discrecional para denegar el estatus a las OING basándose en su apoyo previo a procedimientos legales internacionales contra ciudadanos israelíes, su participación en boicots o su negativa a caracterizar a Israel como un Estado judío y democrático.

“La prohibición no es un acto aislado, sino parte de un ataque sistemático a las operaciones humanitarias en el territorio palestino ocupado y un paso más en el desmantelamiento deliberado del sustento de Gaza”, afirmaron los expertos.

“En Gaza, los supervivientes del genocidio luchan contra el invierno, la grave inseguridad alimentaria, la desnutrición y el colapso de los sistemas sanitario y educativo en el contexto del grave impacto ambiental causado por la agresión israelí”.

“Este castigo colectivo a los supervivientes se produce en medio de ataques constantes contra el personal y las instalaciones humanitarias, así como de la obstrucción de los convoyes de ayuda”, declararon.

Desde octubre de 2023, las fuerzas israelíes han asesinado a más de 500 trabajadores humanitarios y al menos a 1500 trabajadores sanitarios, además de intimidar, acosar y llevar a cabo campañas de desprestigio contra el personal humanitario. UNRWA ha sido el objetivo más visible, pero no es el único, afirmaron los expertos.

Estas medidas deben considerarse en un contexto jurídico y fáctico: como una estrategia para crear condiciones en Gaza que someten a los palestinos a una privación crónica, amenazando su supervivencia como grupo y violando aún más la Convención sobre el Genocidio.

Al 31 de diciembre de 2025, casi 50 millones de dólares en ayuda vital seguían bloqueados en medio de reiteradas violaciones del alto el fuego, incluyendo la expansión de las fuerzas israelíes a más de la mitad de Gaza, continuos ataques aéreos y bombardeos que han matado a más de 400 palestinos en menos de tres meses.

Hemos entrado en una nueva fase en la que Israel y sus partidarios han llegado a la etapa de genocidio sin testigos, afirmaron los expertos.

Con periodistas asesinados, a quienes se les niega el acceso o se les obliga a irse, organizaciones humanitarias paralizadas o expulsadas, y una engañosa sensación global de 'alto el fuego', se están cometiendo atrocidades sin escrutinio público.

A principios de diciembre, las agencias de la ONU y las ONG solo pudieron entregar 14.600 tiendas de campaña para 85.000 personas, dejando a 1,3 millones de palestinos sin refugio adecuado para el invierno. Varias personas, incluidos seis niños, ya han muerto por hipotermia, ahogamiento o lesiones relacionadas con el frío.

“No hay palabras para describir en qué se ha convertido Gaza”, afirmaron los expertos. “Las fuerzas de ocupación israelíes no tienen derecho legal a bloquear la ayuda ni a imponer requisitos coercitivos a las organizaciones humanitarias”, afirmaron.

“La ocupación es y sigue siendo ilegal según el derecho internacional. La única manera de remediar este defecto legal es descolonizar Palestina y poner fin al control de Israel sobre las vidas y el territorio palestinos”. Instaron a los Estados, en particular a aquellos con influencia, a tomar medidas inmediatas para garantizar la entrada incondicional de la ayuda humanitaria a Gaza.

Es inaceptable que un Estado acusado de crímenes internacionales y de mantener una ocupación ilegal bloquee el acceso a ayuda vital en territorio ocupado. Los expertos advirtieron que otros líderes estatales podrían incurrir en responsabilidad si no toman todas las medidas a su alcance para prevenir nuevos actos de genocidio.

Si bien poner fin a la ocupación ilegal y las prácticas de apartheid de Israel sigue siendo la única manera de garantizar una paz duradera en la región, los Estados deben trabajar para eliminar todos los obstáculos a la acción humanitaria y garantizar un acceso seguro, sostenido y sin restricciones a través de los corredores terrestres y marítimos supervisados ​​por la ONU, afirmaron.

During Gaza’s Ceasefire, Children Keep Being Killed
Summary of what was said by UNICEF Spokesperson, James Elder, to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva
13 January 2026

Photo: UNICEF/UNI901367/Nateel

“More than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire of early October. That is roughly one girl or boy killed every day. During a ceasefire".

“Life in Gaza remains suffocating. Survival is still conditional. Whilst the bombings and shooting have slowed during the ceasefire, they have not stopped.

“What the world now calls “calm” would be considered a crisis anywhere else. Unfortunately, the ceasefire has had an unintended effect: Palestinian children in Gaza have disappeared from view.   

“Since the ceasefire UNICEF has recorded reports of at least 60 boys and 40 girls killed in the Gaza Strip. The 100 figure only reflects incidents where sufficient details have been available to record, so the actual number of Palestinian children killed is expected to be higher. Hundreds of children have been wounded.

“I sat with one such victim a few days ago. Nine-year-old Abid Al Rahman was collecting wood with his friends in Khan Younis when an airstrike hit. Shrapnel ripped into his eye —that shard of explosive metal is still lodged there.”

“At the same time, as strikes continue, severe restrictions remain on many essentials in Gaza – from some essential medical supplies to cooking gas, fuel to parts for lifesaving water and sanitation systems.

“It is important to note that the ceasefire has allowed genuine progress in areas:

    “In health, UNICEF and partners have expanded primary healthcare services, including immunisation, in particular to the completely unserved north, as people try to move home.
    “To improve hygiene and sanitation, UNICEF is using everything from donkeys to bulldozers, and removing one thousand tonnes of solid waste every month.
    “It has been raining and bitterly cold recently in Gaza, but the preparations UNICEF started for winter mean we have supplied almost one million thermal blankets & hundreds and hundreds of thousands of winter clothing kits for children.
    “Remarkably, we have made urgent and lifesaving repairs to water pipelines, pumping stations and sewerage networks, all on the back of Palestinian ingenuity more than spare parts being allowed in.
    “And in nutrition, we have added more than 70 nutrition facilities across Gaza. Famine has retreated.

“Even with modest gains, two years of war have left life for Gaza’s children unimaginably hard. Children still live in fear, and their psychological damage remains untreated—becoming deeper and harder to heal the longer this goes on.

“A ceasefire that slows the bombs is progress — but one that still buries children is not enough. It is a warning, and it demands enforcement, humanitarian access, and accountability".

“This is the time to turn reduced violence into real safety: open access for aid, massively increase medical evacuation, and make this the moment when the killing of children in Gaza truly ends.”

 

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A University of Cambridge-led analysis of how war has affected education and children’s lives in Gaza calls for an urgent increase in international aid to address both severe learning losses and the conflict's psychological effects. 

Children’s lives are on the brink of a complete breakdown

Prof Pauline Rose

More than two years of war in Gaza have left many Palestinian children too weak to learn or play and convinced they will be “killed for being Gazans”, a new report warns.

The Cambridge-led study also includes the first analysis of education in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 7 October 2023.

The study says there is an urgent need for more international aid for education across Palestine, whether or not the present ceasefire in Gaza holds. In Gaza itself, it adds, conflict has come close to erasing children’s right to education, and with it, their very identity.

The report, which follows a similar study in 2024, provides a thorough analysis of how war in Gaza has devasted children’s lives. Alongside evidence of a shattered school system, it describes how violence, starvation and trauma have eradicated any sense of ‘normal’ childhood.

It describes children collapsing from exhaustion and being told not to play to conserve energy. Until the recent ceasefire, it suggests, many parents and teachers had to choose between maintaining children’s education and survival, with some living on as little as a bowl of lentils a day.

One of the most striking findings is that war has eroded young Palestinians’ hope for the future and belief in the international system. Eyewitnesses spoke of children’s mounting anger and collapsing faith in values such as peace and human rights. “Students are asking about the reality of those rights. They feel they are killed just for being Gazans,” one international organisation staff member told the research team.

Professor Pauline Rose, Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, University of Cambridge, said: “A year ago we said education was under attack – now children’s lives are on the brink of a complete breakdown.”

“Palestinians have shown extraordinary desire for education during this terrible war but the loss of faith and hope that young people are expressing should be a massive red flag for the international community. We must do more to support them. We cannot wait.”

The study was conducted by researchers at the REAL Centre and the Centre for Lebanese Studies, in partnership with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). It draws on data from UN agencies, charities and NGOs, alongside interviews with aid organisation staff, government officials, teachers and students.

It warns that there is a severe risk of a ‘lost’ generation emerging in Gaza, through a combination of the war’s educational, physical and psychological impacts.

As of 1 October 2025, the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported 18,069 school students and 780 education staff killed in Gaza and 26,391 students and 3,211 teachers injured. During the fighting, Save the Children estimates that 15 children suffered life-altering injuries every day.

The report found evidence of widespread despair. Teachers recounted parents asking: “Why should I care about education for my kids if I know they will die from famine?” One focus group discussion found that children were “afraid of everything”; another report, cited in the study, described Gazan children feeling “like the living dead”.

The study estimates that children in Gaza will have lost the equivalent of five years’ worth of education due to repeated school closures since 2020, first through COVID-19, and then war. Although temporary and distance learning measures have been implemented by UNRWA and the Palestinian Ministry of Education, these have been impeded by ongoing violence, damaged infrastructure and chronic resource shortages.

The learning loss calculation incorporates the compounding effects of trauma and starvation, using established studies of how these impede learning. As of October 2025, almost 13,000 children in Gaza had been treated for acute malnutrition, 147 of whom died.

Given these same compounding effects, the authors calculate that if schools remain closed until September 2027, many teenagers will be a full decade behind their expected educational level.

The situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was also found to be dire. Here, 891 students and 28 teachers have been killed or wounded by settlers or Israeli forces since October 2023 and hundreds more arrested, often on grounds that the UN Human Rights Office considers “arbitrary”. Schools have been sporadically closed, or in some cases shut down. The authors estimate that children in these areas have lost a minimum of 2.5 years of education.

 

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Una infancia devastada por el genocidio en Gaza: hambruna, desesperanza y cinco años de educación perdidos

Un informe dirigido por la Universidad de Cambridge describe las dramáticas repercusiones para la vida y educación de los niños en Gaza.

Más de dos años de genocidio en Gaza han dejado a muchos niños palestinos demasiado débiles para aprender o jugar, convencidos de que serán asesinados por ser gazatíes, advierte un nuevo informe, dirigido por la Universidad de Cambridge (Reino Unido). El trabajo también incluye el primer análisis de la educación en Cisjordania y Jerusalén, realizado desde el 7 de octubre de 2023.

El estudio señala la urgente necesidad de proporcionar mayor ayuda internacional para la educación en toda Palestina, independientemente de si se mantiene o no el actual alto el fuego en Gaza. En la propia Gaza, según el texto, el conflicto ha estado a punto de borrar el derecho de los niños a la educación y, con él, su propia identidad.

El informe, que sigue a un estudio similar de 2024, ofrece un análisis exhaustivo de cómo el genocidio en Gaza ha devastado la vida de los niños. Junto con la evidencia de un sistema escolar destrozado, describe cómo la violencia, el hambre y el trauma han erradicado cualquier sensación de infancia normal.

El trabajo describe a niños que se desploman de agotamiento y a quienes se les dice que no jueguen para conservar energía. Hasta el reciente alto el fuego, sugiere, muchos padres y maestros tenían que elegir entre mantener la educación de los niños y su supervivencia, y algunos sobrevivían con tan solo un plato de lentejas al día.

Uno de los hallazgos más impactantes es que la guerra ha erosionado la esperanza de futuro de los jóvenes palestinos y su fe en el sistema internacional. Testigos presenciales hablaron de la creciente ira de los niños y el desmoronamiento de la fe en valores como la paz y los derechos humanos. "Los estudiantes preguntan sobre la realidad de esos derechos. Sienten que los matan simplemente por ser gazatíes", declara un miembro del personal de una organización internacional al equipo de investigación.

La profesora Pauline Rose, directora del Centro de Investigación para el Acceso y el Aprendizaje Equitativo (REAL) de la Universidad de Cambridge, expone: "Hace un año dijimos que la educación estaba bajo ataque; ahora las vidas de los niños están al borde de un colapso total. Los palestinos han demostrado un deseo extraordinario de recibir educación durante esta terrible guerra, pero la pérdida de fe y esperanza que expresan los jóvenes debería ser una gran señal de alerta para la comunidad internacional. Debemos hacer más para apoyarlos. No podemos esperar", cita la experta en el informe.

El estudio fue realizado por investigadores del Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre de Cambridge y el Centro de Estudios Libaneses, en colaboración con el Organismo de Obras Públicas y Socorro de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados de Palestina en el Cercano Oriente (UNRWA). Se basa en datos de agencias de la ONU, organizaciones benéficas y ONG, junto con entrevistas con personal de organizaciones de ayuda, funcionarios gubernamentales, docentes y estudiantes.

Al 1 de octubre de 2025, la Oficina de Coordinación de Asuntos Humanitarios de las Naciones Unidas informó de la muerte de 18.069 estudiantes y 780 miembros del personal educativo en Gaza, y de que 26.391 estudiantes y 3.211 docentes resultaron heridos. Save the Children estima que, durante los combates, 15 niños sufrieron lesiones que les cambiaron la vida cada día.

El estudio estima que los niños en Gaza habrán perdido el equivalente a cinco años de educación debido a los repetidos cierres de escuelas desde 2020, primero por la COVID-19 y luego por el genocidio. Aunque la UNRWA y el Ministerio de Educación palestino han implementado medidas de aprendizaje temporales y a distancia, estas se han visto obstaculizadas por la violencia continua, los daños en la infraestructura y la escasez crónica de recursos.

Fotografía: Un niño en bicicleta en el campo de refugiados de Jabalia, en la Franja de Gaza EP / Rizek Abdeljawad

 

MSF Médicos sin Frontera, España

Gaza: "El Gobierno de Israel hace uso de acusaciones infundadas y trabas burocráticas para restringir el acceso de los palestinos a atención médica vital"

Médicos Sin Fronteras denuncia que la denegación del registro a las organizaciones internacionales responde al intento, por parte de las autoridades israelíes, de impedir que se siga dando testimonio de lo que ocurre en Gaza y Cisjordania

Gaza, 9 de enero de 2026.- Médicos Sin Fronteras denuncia que la denegación del registro a MSF y otras ONG internacionales no es más que un intento cínico de Israel para restringir aún más los servicios humanitarios en Gaza y Cisjordania, lo que supone una violación de sus obligaciones en virtud del derecho internacional humanitario.

"Al atacar a las ONG, Israel está haciendo uso de obstáculos burocráticos y acusaciones infundadas para restringir arbitrariamente el acceso de los palestinos a una atención médica que en estos momentos resulta esencial. El objetivo de Israel no es otro que el de limitar el testimonio de organizaciones humanitarias independientes como la nuestra. Rechazamos de manera firme y tajante las recientes acusaciones de las autoridades israelíes. Si la realidad que nuestros equipos presencian en Gaza, que no es otra que la muerte, la destrucción y el coste humano de la violencia, resulta incómoda para algunos, la responsabilidad recae en quienes cometen estas atrocidades, no en quienes las denuncian", afirma Paula Gil, presidenta de Médicos Sin Fronteras España.

En un momento como el actual, en el que las necesidades humanitarias son enormes, estas acusaciones y la amenaza de retirar el registro ponen en peligro la capacidad de MSF para trabajar y dejan en el aire la atención médica vital que precisan cientos de miles de palestinos.

"El Gobierno israelí está tratando de bloquear la poca ayuda y los servicios que quedan en Gaza, pero en MSF seguimos dispuestos a colaborar con las autoridades para mantener en marcha nuestras operaciones y poder seguir prestando apoyo a un sistema sanitario que ha quedado prácticamente destruido. La ayuda humanitaria no es un favor, es una obligación legal en virtud del derecho internacional", concluye Gil.

Los equipos de MSF siguen prestando asistencia médica en 20 centros de salud y puntos médicos de Gaza.

MSF desempeña un papel vital en la Franja, donde presta apoyo a una de cada cinco camas de hospital y asiste uno de cada tres partos. Sus equipos gestionan clínicas para personas con lesiones traumáticas y enfermedades crónicas, tratan a niños desnutridos y prestan atención médica a miles de pacientes. Solo en 2025, MSF distribuyó 700 millones de litros de agua a la población gazatí.

Y a pesar de todo ello, la cantidad de ayuda que proporciona la organización no es ni mucho menos suficiente para paliar las abrumadoras necesidades que hay en Gaza. Desde que entró en vigor la denegación del registro, el pasado 1 de enero, Israel ha denegado la entrada a Gaza de todo tipo de suministros y de personal internacional de la organización. 

Lesiones traumáticas en Gaza durante el conflicto armado. Evidencia clínica de un ataque indiscriminado a la población civil.

El-Taji O, Ali A, Alser O, et al. Patterns of war related trauma in Gaza during armed conflict: survey study of international healthcare workers. BMJ. 2025;390:e087524

 

El manuscrito de El-Taji et al.  tiene un valor excepcional para documentar un patrón de lesiones traumáticas en población civil que no tiene precedentes en los conflictos armados recientes. Los autores emplean con gran rigurosidad una metodología muy ingeniosa para obtener información sobre lesiones traumáticas y su localización en un contexto hostil donde los datos primarios son extremadamente escasos, tanto por el bloqueo israelí como por la destrucción de los centros sanitarios, sus sistemas de información y los historiales clínicos.

El método empleado (encuesta a sanitarios internacionales que han abandonado recientemente la zona de conflicto, contabilización de sólo los casos que sobrevivieron lo suficiente para llegar al hospital) probablemente infraestima, y mucho, el número de casos, pero las más de 23.000 lesiones traumáticas reportadas, casi 7.000 directamente vinculadas a armas, con predominio de politraumatismos, quemaduras profundas, lesiones craneales y amputaciones, son más que suficientes para mostrar la magnitud de los daños en población civil y la insuficiencia de los servicios sanitarios bajo asedio.

Las cifras mostradas van más allá de un registro sanitario.  Decenas de miles de personas con traumatismos y heridas, quemaduras que atraviesan hueso y músculo, niños con fracturas abiertas de cráneo o con las extremidades destrozadas, etc. No son los datos esperables de un conflicto “convencional” ni los reportados en conflictos recientes (Irak, Afganistán, Siria) que parecían especialmente crueles.

Este patrón de lesiones traumáticas no puede interpretarse aisladamente de la destrucción sistemática del propio sistema sanitario. Un análisis geoespacial publicado en PLOS Global Public Health documentó -entre octubre y noviembre de 2023, cuando todavía estábamos lejos de los niveles actuales de destrucción de infraestructuras- que el 83% de los hospitales de Gaza se encontraban dentro del radio de daño (800 m) y el 25% dentro del radio letal (360 m) de las detonaciones de bombas de alta potencia (2.000 lb), en algunos casos con  distancias mínimas de apenas 15 m respecto a las instalaciones hospitalarias.

La exposición de hospitales, personal sanitario y población refugiada en sus inmediaciones a munición de gran capacidad destructiva ha sido generalizada, comprometiendo gravemente, incluso sin impactos directos,  la funcionalidad asistencial. En este contexto, las lesiones descritas por El-Taji et al., no solo reflejan el efecto de armas de alta energía sobre cuerpos humanos, sino también las consecuencias inevitables de una guerra librada directamente sobre infraestructuras sanitarias que gozan de protección específica bajo el derecho internacional humanitario.

En resumen, los datos muestran un escenario, sin precedentes recientes, en el que de forma generalizada se ha usado munición de alta energía y con efecto de área (bombas termobáricas, incendiarias, proyectiles de dispersión) en entornos urbanos densamente poblados. Y es ahí donde, pese al tono académico que intenta mantener el artículo, la mera descripción de las lesiones y sus tipos se transforma en indignación y denuncia.  

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Israeli prisons have become sites of torture, slow death

30 Dec 2025

Palestinian prisoner rights organizations said Israeli prisons have effectively turned into arenas of torture and slow death, revealing that 32 Palestinian detainees died in custody during 2025, including a child, bringing the total number of detainees killed since the start of the current phase to more than 100.

In a joint report, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said dozens of detainees from Gaza remain subjected to enforced disappearance, while Israeli authorities continue to withhold the bodies of 94 martyred prisoners.

The organizations said testimonies and documented evidence confirm a deliberate policy of physical and psychological abuse against detainees, including torture, starvation, denial of medical care, solitary confinement, and other life-threatening practices.

According to the report, Israeli occupation forces have continued mass arrest campaigns across the West Bank, including Jerusalem, recording around 21,000 arrests since the start of the genocide. Those detained include children, women, journalists, medical workers, former prisoners, and Palestinian activists.

In 2025 alone, the groups documented more than 7,000 arrests, including 600 children and 200 women, reflecting what they described as an unprecedented escalation in the use of detention as a tool of repression and retaliation.

 

ESPAÑOL

Las prisiones israelíes, centros de tortura y muerte 

ENGLISH

‘Treated as criminals’: Gaza fishermen risk everything at sea
Facing starvation, Palestinians turn to the sea to feed their families, risking imprisonment or death.

Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza on 7 October 2023, the Israeli military has killed at least 230 Palestinian fishermen, according to the Palestinian Fishermen Syndicate.

By Maha Hussaini in Gaza City and Mohammed al-Hajjar in Nuseirat
22 December 2025 

Even after Israeli bombardments destroyed his fishing boat and equipment, Ismail Farhat returned to the sea. Fishing was not a choice for him; it was how he kept his family fed.

On the morning of 8 October, he set out from the shore of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on a small punt he had built himself. Shortly after, an Israeli naval vessel approached and ordered him to “surrender”.

Farhat was then detained, tortured, and threatened with arrest if he returned to fishing, before being released more than two months later, on Tuesday.

“I was fishing with another fisherman when we were suddenly approached by an Israeli naval vessel. They ordered us to remove our clothes, jump into the sea, and swim towards their vessel,” Farhat told Middle East Eye one day after his release.

“Once we were on board, they began interrogating us, asking where we lived, where we had been before we were displaced, and requesting personal details such as our ID numbers, age and mobile phone numbers. One of the soldiers photographed me with his phone.”

Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza on 7 October 2023, the Israeli military has killed at least 230 Palestinian fishermen, according to the Palestinian Fishermen Syndicate.

Farhat was taken to a port he could not identify, before being transferred to Sde Teiman, a notorious Israeli detention facility where Palestinian detainees are subjected to severe torture.

“Throughout this entire period, I was wearing only shorts, without anything else, and the weather was extremely cold. But I wasn’t allowed to say a word,” he added.
Palestinian prisoners speak out about how they were raped in Israeli jails
Read More »

“When I arrived at Sde Teiman, they forced me to take off the shorts, searched me, and gave me prisoner clothing. There were around 150 Palestinian detainees in the prison with me, including fishermen and truck drivers, some of whom transported aid or goods.”

For the first 50 days of his detention, Farhat was kept in handcuffs at all times.

“You live 24 hours a day with your hands cuffed. We were forbidden from speaking, forbidden from leaning to either side, and forbidden from sleeping. We were not allowed a mattress. I slept on an iron mesh,” he added.

“Sometimes, due to extreme exhaustion, I would fall asleep or lean unintentionally, and they would immediately punish me, forcing me to stand for two or three hours.”

Over more than two months in custody, Farhat said he and his fellow fishermen were “treated as criminals”, despite never being formally charged.

During this period, he encountered numerous fellow fishermen held in the same facility. Many had been detained for fishing amid Israel’s imposed starvation of the Strip since March.

“On some nights, a unit they called the 'commando' would enter the prison and throw stun and smoke grenades on the prisoners. Most of the time, they forced us to remain kneeling,” Farhat said.

“When we became ill or suffered pain, we would ask for a painkiller, but they would completely refuse, leaving us for days without any medication. On rare occasions, they would photograph us and put us through lengthy procedures just to give us a single dose of painkillers.”
Ruined livelihoods

New fishermen were brought into the prison every couple of days during his imprisonment, according to Farhat.

The youngest among them were two children aged 16, and the oldest was around 56. None of them have been released to this day.

“Before my detention, we were constantly subjected to harassment and attacks by the Israeli occupation, but the harsh living conditions, especially during the war, forced us to return to the sea each time,” he said.

“We risked our lives simply to provide food for our families. We know that this profession usually leads to detention, injury, or death.”

Photo: Fishermen pull their nets to retrieve their catch on a beach in the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on 30 August 2025 (Eyad Baba/AFP)

 

ESPAÑOL

ENGLISH

“Pregnancy and delivery. Born vulnerable. At least 165 children have died, painful, preventable deaths related to malnutrition during the genocide in the Gaza Strip”

Gaza's babies 'scarred by war before first breath' by malnutrition

Born into danger

 

The Lancet 23 Aug 2025

In the first 6 months of 2025, the Palestinian Ministry of Health logged only 17 000 livebirths, a 41% decline from the same period in 2022. In addition to pregnancies carried to term, 2600 pregnancies ended in miscarriage, 220 resulted in intrauterine fetal deaths, and 21 newborns died within 24 h. Premature births, congenital malformations, and low birthweight have become commonplace, as pregnant mothers face malnutrition and repeated forced displacement.

 

UNICEF, 9 Dec 2025

She warned that a far less reported crisis is unfolding among pregnant and breastfeeding women, with devastating consequences for newborns.

➤ The pattern: Malnourished mothers are giving birth to premature or underweight babies who die in neonatal units or survive with severe, lifelong health risks.

➤ Before the war (2022): About 250 babies per month were born underweight, roughly 5% of births.

➤ First half of 2025: Underweight births doubled to 10%, about 300 babies per month, despite fewer total births.

➤ July–September 2025: The figure surged to 460 babies per month, around 15 per day, nearly double pre-war levels.

Ingram said she met newborns weighing less than one kilogram, their chests heaving as they struggled to breathe. Low-birth-weight babies are 20 times more likely to die, yet Gaza’s hospitals lack the equipment needed to save them due to the destruction of the health system, the death and displacement of staff, and Israeli restrictions blocking essential medical supplies.

➤ First-day deaths: Babies dying within 24 hours rose 75%, from 27 per month in 2022 to 47 per month between July and September 2025.

➤ Maternal malnutrition: 38% of pregnant women screened had acute malnutrition. In October alone, UNICEF admitted 8,300 pregnant and breastfeeding women, about 270 per day, in a population with no discernible malnutrition before October 2023.

➤ Child treatment: UNICEF said 9,300 children under five were admitted for malnutrition treatment in October, with over 14,000 children currently enrolled.

“This domino effect from mother to child should have and could have been prevented,” Ingram said, adding that the crisis was caused by the conflict and exacerbated by Israeli aid restrictions, in violation of international humanitarian law.

 

ESPAÑOL

 

ENGLISH

Nov 22, 2025
UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said that since the ceasefire agreement entered into force on October 11 in Gaza, an average of two children are being killed every day in the strip as a result of Israeli attacks.

Speaking during his weekly press briefing at the United Nations office in Geneva on Friday, Pires said that despite the ceasefire, a young girl was killed on Thursday in an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza, while seven children were killed the day before in Gaza City.

He added that since the truce came into effect, at least 67 children have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, with dozens more injured, noting that this translates into an average of two child deaths per day since the ceasefire began.

He noted that UNICEF is carrying out large-scale interventions in Gaza, but that the current efforts remain insufficient, adding, “If the required aid and support had reached more quickly, we would have been able to do more.”

Pires also said that hundreds of thousands of children are living in tents and facing harsh winter conditions, explaining that children in Gaza spend nights without heating, insulation, or blankets, leaving them exposed to extreme cold.

8 Oct 2025
“For nearly two years now, chil­dren have paid the heav­iest price in this crisis,” UNICEF spokes­per­son Ricardo Pires told a UN press brief­ing in Geneva. He said ‘an aver­age of one child (is) either killed or maimed every 17 minutes,” call­ing the fig­ure ‘unac­cept­able’ and ‘stag­ger­ing’.

 

ESPAÑOL

ENGLISH

Gaza’s health sector suffers from critical deficit in medical supplies

Sunday 7-December-2025
GAZA

Gaza’s health ministry has reported a catastrophic shortage of medical supplies, noting that 52 percent of essential medicines are out of stock.

In a statement on Sunday, the health ministry added that 71 percent of medical consumables and 70 percent of laboratory items are also completely out of stock in the Gaza Strip.

“As the need for medical interventions for the wounded and sick continues to rise, the crisis is worsening. Primary care, surgical procedures, intensive care, oncology, and hematology are among the services facing severe shortages of vital medicines,” the health ministry said.

“Departments including orthopedics, nephrology, dialysis, ophthalmology, general surgery, and intensive care also face dire challenges due to critical shortages of medical supplies,” the ministry added.

The ministry called for providing the Gaza Strip with its medical needs to ensure that specialized departments can continue operating effectively.”

 

ESPAÑOL

ENGLISH

Changes in psychological distress during conflict escalation in an adult population-based cohort in the Gaza Strip (2020–2025): a longitudinal analysis

This study employs a longitudinal design to follow the mental health of adults in the Gaza Strip across three time points, including baseline data collected before the outbreak of the current war in October 2023, up to January 2025. To our knowledge, it is the first population-based study to track individual-level changes in psychological distress in Gaza over multiple years.

Our findings demonstrate a threefold increase in the prevalence of severe distress by 2025 compared to 2020. This temporal perspective adds critical new insight by building on pre-war data to quantify the mental health impact of war, a study design rarely available in Gaza or other war-affected regions.

While our study cannot establish causality, the recent tripling of severe psychological distress evolved from a background of an exceedingly high mental health burden before October 2023. Our findings underscore the relevance of providing long-term psychosocial and mental health services, including strengthening resilience, to prevent long-term consequences for the current and next generations in Gaza and other conflict-affected populations. Future research should examine the long-term mental health trajectories and resilience, including intergenerational impacts.

 

ESPAÑOL

ENGLISH

Gaza, Palestine – Beirut, Lebanon – The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) has released a detailed report titled "Women Facing Genocide: Health and Care Challenges in Gaza." Based on extensive research, in-depth analysis, and meticulous fieldwork, the report highlights the devastating impact of the ongoing war on women in Gaza. It underscores the war's classification as a crime of genocide against Palestinians, with women being among the most profoundly affected groups.

Gaza women suffering: Alarming statistics

Casualties: Over 10,000 women have lost their lives due to ongoing attacks, with a dramatic rise in the number of widows and displaced individuals. Women and children make up nearly 70% of the victims.

Pregnant Women and Mothers: More than 49,000 pregnant women are enduring dire conditions, including 17,000 at risk of starvation, while 155,000 others face severe challenges in accessing essential medical care.

Hygiene Crisis: Approximately 690,000 women and girls lack access to sanitary pads, heightening the risks of infectious diseases.

 

Israeli occupation's crimes against women

Direct Targeting: Displaced women are being directly targeted by airstrikes and assaults while seeking refuge.

Arbitrary Detention: Israeli forces have arrested over 142 women, including young girls and infants, under brutal and inhumane conditions.

Women with Disabilities: The number of women with disabilities has increased significantly due to the occupation’s use of internationally prohibited weapons.

 

Women in Gaza: victims of grave violations

The report highlights that women in Gaza are facing severe violations of international law, with breaches of the 1949 Geneva Convention and the 1977 Additional Protocol I, particularly through the lack of protection and the deliberate targeting of hospitals. They are also being denied basic rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), including access to healthcare and reproductive rights. The report further asserts that the systematic policies targeting women may constitute a crime of genocide under Article 6 of the Rome Statute, through the imposition of living conditions that lead to destruction and forced sterilization.

 

Research Efforts to Document Violations

This report is the result of extensive efforts, including daily monitoring of the field situation, analysis of firsthand testimonies, and a review of official data and international human rights reports. Its objective is to reveal the alarming realities of the targeting of Palestinian women—not only through death and destruction but also by obstructing access to healthcare and reproductive services, which constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law. The report emphasizes that the targeting of Palestinian women is part of a deliberate, systematic policy aimed at dismantling the Palestinian community.

 

Urgent Recommendations for Protecting Women in Gaza:

Immediate action to protect women in Gaza, beginning with the deployment of international monitors to ensure their safety and the establishment of secure humanitarian corridors.

International investigations by the International Criminal Court into the systematic crimes committed against women.

Providing medical supplies to support reproductive health and emergency services, as well as launching comprehensive rehabilitation programs for women survivors of the war, addressing both their psychological and social needs.

Global awareness campaign to highlight the suffering of women in Gaza, aiming to rally global solidarity and pressure the occupation authorities to halt the ongoing violations.

 

ESPAÑOL

ESPAÑOL

Tortura y complicidad del personal sanitario en centros de detención israelíes.

No hay lugar para el abuso de la medicina como instrumento de represión y violencia estatal. Estas prácticas representan una abominable afrenta a nuestros valores y responsabilidades profesionales y constituyen graves violaciones del derecho fundamental a la vida, la salud y la dignidad de nuestros colegas palestinos. La tortura no solo destruye la vida de sus víctimas, sino que la participación y complicidad del personal sanitario en estos actos socava la integridad de las profesiones sanitarias y de todas las personas e instituciones que la hacen posible. Ante tales violaciones, tenemos la obligación moral y legal no solo de denunciar, sino también de actuar.

Para saber más: 

Torturas en Israel. Participación médica: torturadores (Israel) y torturados (Palestina). ¿Dónde está el médico? Si hay torturas sistemáticas, el médico está con los torturadores.

 

ENGLISH

Torture and health worker complicity in Israeli detention sites.

There is no place for the misuse of medicine as an adjunct to state repression and violence. Such practices represent an abhorrent derogation of our professional values and responsibilities and are gross violations of our Palestinian colleagues’ basic right to life, health, and dignity. Torture not only destroys the lives of its victims but health worker participation and complicity in such acts corrodes the integrity of the health professions, and all those individuals and institutions that enable it. In the face of such violations, we have a moral and legal obligation, not only to speak out, but to act.

To know more: 

Torture in Israel. Medical participation: torturers (Israel) and tortured (Palestine). Where is the doctor? If there is systematic torture, the doctor is with the torturers.

ENGLISH

Over 3 million life-years lost in Gaza

As of July 31, 2025, we estimated a total of 3 082 363 (95% CI 2 962 715–3 206 048) life-years lost in Gaza.

The division of total life-years lost by the count of deceased people (60 199) gives 51·2 years of life lost per death (49·2–53·3).

When calculated by sex, 1 075 984 (1 023 952–1 130 142) female life-years and 2 006 379 (1 938 762–2 075 906) male life-years have been lost. 

More than 1 million life-years involving children under the age of 15 years (95% CI 1 027 262–1 112 087) have been lost.

 

ESPAÑOL

Más de 3 millones de años de vida perdidos en Gaza

Al 31 de julio de 2025, estimamos un total de 3 082 363 (IC del 95%: 2 962 715–3 206 048) años de vida perdidos en Gaza. Al dividir el total de años de vida perdidos entre el número de fallecidos (60 199), se obtiene una pérdida de 51,2 años de vida por cada muerte (49,2–53,3).

Por sexo, se han perdido 1 075 984 (1 023 952–1 130 142) años de vida de mujeres y 2 006 379 (1 938 762–2 075 906) años de vida de hombres.

Se han perdido más de 1 millón de años de vida de niños menores de 15 años (IC del 95% 1 027 262–1 112 087).

ENGLISH

West Bank under occupation 26 Oct 2025

We are not seeing enough news about what's happening in the West Bank every single hour. I worked on this summary as an example:

1- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Qasrah, south of Nablus.
2- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Deir Abu Mashaal, west of Ramallah.
3- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Beit Ommar, north of Hebron.
4- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Sureif, north of Hebron.
5- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Imatin, east of Qalqilya.
6- The Israeli occupation forces raided homes in the Old City of Nablus.
7- The Israeli occupation forces raided al-Zawyah town in Salfit.
8- The Israeli occupation forces raided people’s homes in al-Jalazon Camp, north of Ramallah, abducting four people — one of them a 13-year-old child.
9- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of al-Issawiyyah in occupied Jerusalem.
10- A Palestinian was shot by the Israeli occupation forces north of occupied Jerusalem.
11- The Israeli occupation forces raided the city of Al-Bireh.
12- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus.
13- The Israeli occupation forces assault the families of the village of Kobar, north of Ramallah, abducting some, even after “permitting” them to harvest their olives. 
14- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Arura, northwest of Ramallah.
15- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah.
16- The Israeli occupation forces are bulldozing Palestinian farms in the al-Buaira area, east of Hebron. (Ongoing)
17- The Israeli occupation forces raided the German neighborhood in Jenin.
18- The Israeli occupation police raided the town of al-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem. (Ongoing)
19- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Deir Abu Daeef, east of Jenin.
20- The Israeli occupation forces raided al-Kassarat neighborhood near Qalandia Camp, north of Jerusalem.
21- Israeli settlers opened fire on residents of the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah. 
22- The Israeli occupation forces forced families to shut down their shops while raiding the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus.
23- Four Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire in al-Bireh. One of the casualties is in very critical condition.
24- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Qifin, north of Tulkarem.
25- The Israeli occupation forces set fire to a house in Nur Shams Camp, east of Tulkarem. 
26- The Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Burqin, west of Jenin.
27- The Israeli occupation forces wounded a Palestinian in the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah.
28- (Now) The Israeli occupation forces are raiding the town of Qabatiyah, south of Jenin. Two people were critically wounded.
29- (Now) The Israeli occupation forces are raiding the town of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah.
30- (Now) The Israeli occupation forces are raiding the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah.
31- Israeli settlers have cut down 80 olive trees in the town of Wadi Sa’eer, northeast of Hebron.

UN Human Rights in Occupied Palestinian Territory
Ramallah
27 October 2025
Israeli settler attacks surging: displacement and steps to annex intensify in the occupied
West Bank

Ongoing attacks by illegal Israeli settlers, often supported and joined by Israeli security
forces, continue to instil fear, destroy homes and livelihoods, and force Palestinians out of
their lands in the occupied West Bank. These actions advance Israel’s stated policy to
consolidate annexation in clear violation of international law.

Several attacks over the weekend reflect the persistent Palestinian precarity in the face of
Israeli settler violence.

The olive harvest
On 24 October, a video verified by the UN Human Rights office in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory shows an Israeli settler, joined by Israeli security forces , together severely assaulting
a 58 -year-old olive farmer in Nahhalin , Bethlehem.

The Israeli military said the incident is being investigated. However, settlers and Israeli
security forces have so far enjoyed complete impunity for attacks against Palestinians, even
deadly ones.

Attacks against Bedouin communities
Settler violence is escalating far beyond the olive harvest season, making life impossible for
Palestinians in many communities across the occupied West Bank and leaving them with no
genuine choice but to leave their homes.

In another grave incident on Saturday, 25 October, a mob of masked Israeli settlers first
attacked Palestinians picking olives in Mikhmas, then set fire to six Palestinian homes in the
nearby Khallet As Sidra, a Bedouin Palestinian community northeast of occupied East
Jerusalem.

According to monitoring by the UN Human Rights office, the community, like many others in
the West Bank, has been repeatedly attacked by Israeli settlers over the past two years to
force residents to leave and expand illegal outposts in the area.

Recently, all Palestinian women and children relocated from Khillet As Sidra for safety
reasons, and the men stayed to prevent seizure of their homes by settlers. The Saturday
arson reportedly engulfed several of the homes held by the remaining men.

 

During the attack, settlers also injured five Palestinian men and two Israeli women solidarity activists.
As Israel escalates its campaign of forced transfer to clear large swaths of the occupied West
Bank from Palestinian residents, entire Bedouin communities have been displaced over the
past two years.

 

According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) , about 3,200 Palestinians from dozens of Bedouin and herding communities have
been forcibly displaced by settler violence and movement restrictions since 7 October 202 3,
mostly from Area C .

Consolidating annexation
Over the past year , there have been 84 new settler outposts compared to 49 the year before ,
according to data from the Israeli NGO Peace Now. This marks a rapid escalation
compared to the yearly average of eight outposts in the past decade.

In association, settler violence is also surging with 757 attacks recorded in the first half of
2025 alone - 13 per cent higher than the same period last year. Most attacks have been
recorded in Area C , which is increasingly being emptied of Palestinians. However , the UN
Human Rights office has also been increasingly documenting attacks in Area B, indicating
an ever-shrinking space for Palestinians.

The International Court of Justice concluded that the occupation must end, and Israel must
withdraw from all the Occupied Palestinian Territory, both the West Bank and Gaza. This
includes immediately dismantling all settlements and evacuating all settlers.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact:
Mayy El Sheikh – mayy.elsheikh@un.org

 

Humanitarian Situation Update #335 | West Bank
31 Oct 2025

Key Highlights

    1/ Three Palestinian men were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces and by an Israeli airstrike in Jenin. The UN Human Rights Office emphasizes that the use of airstrikes in the occupied West Bank is unlawful.

  2/  Over the past week, 60 Israeli settler attacks were recorded across the West Bank, more than half in relation to the olive harvest, resulting in the injury of 17 Palestinians and extensive property damage.

  3/  The 2025 olive harvest season has so far witnessed the highest level of damage and number of affected communities due to settler attacks since 2020, with 126 attacks recorded in 70 towns and villages and over 4,000 olive trees and saplings vandalized.
   

  4/ Israeli settlers from newly established settlement outposts in the West Bank have increasingly imposed restrictions on Palestinians’ access to their olive groves, including in areas that were previously accessible without ‘prior coordination’ with Israeli authorities.

 

ESPAÑOL

 

 

 

Reported impact snapshot | Gaza Strip (15 October 2025)

 

PROTECTION

• >1 million children in need of mental health and psycho-social support (source: UNICEF).

• 62% of people don't have access to legal documents proving property ownership (source: IRDNA, issued in February 2025).

• At least 575* aid workers killed since October 2023 (567 nationals, 8 foreigners; incl. at least 187 women and 388 men), some in the line of duty. The total includes:
• 384 UN staff - UNRWA: 378; WHO: 1; UNDP: 2; UNOPS: 2; UNDSS: 1 (source: OCHA).
• 54 PRCS staff and volunteers, including 29 while on duty.
• 4 ICRC staff.
• At least 133 other aid workers.

• >1,700 health workers killed, including some also counted under aid workers above (source: MoH, as of 7 October 2025).

• 140 Civil Defence staff killed while on duty (source: PCD).

• 252 journalists and media workers killed (source: PJS).

 

HEALTH*

• 39% (14 out of 36) of hospitals are functional, all partially, including: 8 in Gaza city, 3 in Deir
al Balah, 3 in Khan Younis and none in North Gaza and Rafah.

• 63% (10 out of 16) of field hospitals functional, all partially, including: 1 in Gaza, 4 in Deir
al Balah, 4 in Khan Younis, 1 in Rafah and none in North Gaza.

• 35% (64 out of 181) of primary health care centres are functional, all partially.

• 32 Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) deployed by 20 international and two national organizations, as of 5 October.

• Over 15,600 critical patients, including 3,800 children, require medical evacuation abroad.
Between 1 January and 29 September 2025, 2,405 patients and 4,017 companions have been evacuated outside Gaza. *Source: Health Cluster as of 12 October 2025, unless otherwise noted.

 

NUTRITION*

• An estimated 132,000 cases of children aged 6 to 59 months and 55,500 pregnant and
breastfeeding women are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition through June
2026, including 41,000 severe cases of children.**

• 25,000 infants are at risk of acute malnutrition and require urgent nutrition support
between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026.**

• >90% of children under two years consume fewer than two food groups per day, with
high-protein foods and micronutrient-rich items extremely scarce (as of September
2025).

• 290,000** children between six months and five years and 150,000 pregnant and
breastfeeding women require feeding and micronutrient supplements (monthly
caseload, January-December 2025)

 

WATER AND SANITATION

• 89% of the WASH sector assets have been either destroyed or damaged (source: IRDNA, issued in February 2025).

• 49%** of people in Gaza access less than the minimum emergency standard of 6 litres of drinking water per day, for drinking and cooking.

• 28%** access less than the minimum emergency standard of 9 litres of domestic water per day, for hygiene and cleaning.

• 64%** of households experience infestations of lice and mites, while 57% are affected by skin conditions such as rashes and scabies due to poor hygiene and overcrowding.

*Source: WASH Cluster unless otherwise noted.
**Source: Joint WASH assessment, 17 August - 5 September 2025

 

20 Oct 2025. Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, Director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, has issued an urgent plea on behalf of amputees and cancer patients in Gaza, calling on the international community and global institutions to act immediately to save lives.  In press statements, Dr. Abu Salmiya confirmed that nearly 2,000 amputees and over 5,000 cancer patients are in urgent need of medical treatment abroad.

 

ESPAÑOL

ENGLISH

The Burden of Imprecision: on the limitation of statistics 

The death toll in Gaza remains unknown, and statistics have become a contested tool to understand the scale of the genocide. But even if we had an accurate number of deaths, we still wouldn’t understand the depth of its meaning.

The Zionist entity has killed between 65,000 and 680,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7. The range is staggering, although the larger number is not necessarily the ceiling; it is simply the one we know of.

The first number comes from the Gaza Ministry of Health, which collates data on every single martyr, including their full name, ID number, age, place of residence, birthday, and gender. In a Drop Site interview with Dr. Zaher al-Wahaidi, the Director of the Information Center, he describes how the identity of each martyr is corroborated and counted by every hospital that receives the injured. Not included in the number are those trapped underneath the rubble of collapsed buildings or those who die “indirect deaths.” These include children who are starved to death, cancer patients who can’t access treatment, or those who are killed by disease because of a collapsed healthcare system. The only ones they count in the official toll are those killed by the impact of a missile. 

680,000 is the new projected death toll, based on the rate, longevity, and intensity of Zionist brutality. Many have now assumed that number in their vocabulary, rightfully arguing that 65,000 is such a severe undercount that reciting it is itself a form of genocide denial.

The only confirmed fact is that there is no confirmed death toll in Gaza.

Photo:  Palestinians returning to the Al-Nafaq area in Gaza City are met with scenes of widespread destruction and devastation, on October 14, 2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images) 

 

 

ESPAÑOL