On 3 December, the UNRWA Commissioner-General issued a statement on the continued challenges facing people in Gaza, as well as how UNRWA colleagues assist the population – including by supplying 90,000 cubic metres of water to communities and disposing of 9,000 tons of solid waste in November 2025.
UNRWA has expanded by 40 per cent its provision of domestic water supply in Gaza City and the northern area, thanks to the rehabilitation of water well no. 3 in Jabalia (repaired on 5 November). The restored well now enables the Agency to provide clean water to an additional 20,000 residents, including returnees in the north.
UNRWA operations in Gaza City have faced severe disruptions due to the intensification of Israeli military operations, displacement orders, and the large-scale displacement of personnel and their families. Nevertheless, nearly 1,600 UNRWA personnel continue to provide critical services in the area, including through 11 emergency shelters and one medical point, operating at minimum capacity.
The security situation in Palestine refugee camps across Lebanon remained tense during the reporting period, with sporadic incidents of armed violence as well as increased security measures maintained by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).
Today, children across the occupied West Bank will be starting the new school year, including nearly 46,000 Palestine Refugee children attending UNRWA schools.
If there is political will to allow airdrops - which are highly costly, insufficient and inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings.
This protection brief focuses on the heightened risks older persons face as a result of ongoing hostilities in Gaza. Older people have had essential roles in Gaza— leading communities, caring for relatives, and helping sustain collective memory.
Since the collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza on the night between 17 and 18 March 2025, intense military activities and hostilities have continued to escalate, resulting in hundreds of civilians killed and injured, further damage and destruction to civilian infrastructure, and new waves of forced displacement.
Displaced individuals crowd outside the medical point, awaiting their turn for treatment: pregnant women, the elderly, asthma sufferers, children with burns, and those wounded by the war. They mingle with doctors and caregivers, some turned away without medicine, others fortunate enough to receive treatment.
Since the collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza on the night between 17 and 18 March, intense military activities and hostilities have continued, killing and injuring hundreds of people and further damaging and destroying what remains of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.