Since the start of 2025, 859 trucks carrying aid from seven UN agencies have crossed from Türkiye to Syria—more than eight times the number during the same period last year.
As of March 20, the situation along the Lebanese-Syrian border continues to evolve, centered on the town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali. Days of clashes and shelling led to casualties, displacement, and lingering tension, prompting Beirut and Damascus to undertake renewed diplomatic and military coordination.
In February, humanitarian partners in South Sudan faced 25 reported access challenges, including active hostilities among armed groups, bureaucratic impediments, and violence targeting humanitarian personnel, facilities, and assets.
Phase One of the Gaza ceasefire, from 19 January to 1 March 2025, allowed the humanitarian community to rapidly implement a prepared scale-up of its response. It enabled the daily entry of a large volume of humanitarian supplies and a steady stream of fuel.
Against the backdrop of 16 months of active hostilities and a fragile situation in Gaza, protection actors note a steady deterioration of the protection environment in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
In 2025, children in Lebanon are bearing the profound toll of the conflict that escalated across the country in 2024. A new UNICEF report exposes the deterioration of key support systems for children — such as safe learning environments, and access to healthcare, nutrition, and clean water — leading to heightened risks of exploitation, barriers to processing emotional trauma, and significant challenges to their cognitive and social development.
For the past 10 days Israel has blocked all entry of food, fuel, medicine and other vital supplies for civilians, and is now shutting off electricity – yet another cruel act of collective punishment and a flagrant violation of international law.
Ongoing military activities and the widespread destruction of homes, infrastructure, and essential services—both during the conflict and after the cessation of hostilities—continue to hinder the safe return of displaced individuals.
Following the second deadline for the cessation of hostilities on 18 February 2025, the country to the south of Lebanon withdrew from population centres in southern Lebanon while maintaining a military presence in five strategic locations along the Blue Line.
The Israeli military’s repeated unlawful attacks during the war in Lebanon on health facilities, ambulances and health workers, which are protected under international law, must be investigated as war crimes, Amnesty International said today.
On 2 March, Israeli authorities announced a halt to humanitarian aid entering Gaza, jeopardizing progress made in delivering vital, lifesaving assistance since the ceasefire took effect on 19 January.
Among key priorities for the Government identified by the Prime Minister in his statement upon the occasion were implementation of Resolution 1701, ensuring a complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, asserting the state’s sovereignty over all its territories exclusively through its forces and securing post-conflict reconstruction.
In 2024, Syrian children continued to endure the effects of the ongoing conflict, economic collapse, and displacement, culminating in the fall of the government on 8 December. The humanitarian situation remains fluid and unpredictable.
The security situation in Syria remained volatile with sporadic security escalations. Hostilities continues to impact Northeast Syria (NES), particularly in eastern Aleppo and around the Tishreen Dam, as well as in Al-Hasakeh and ArRaqqa governorates.
Over 586,000 children under the age of 10 have been vaccinated for poliovirus across Gaza, reaching 99 per cent of the target population since the campaign began on 22 February.
Since the ceasefire, WFP has provided emergency cash and in-kind food assistance to 580,500 people in addition to its regular programmes- bringing the total people assisted in January to 1.41 million, across both regular and emergency programmes.
On 18 February, the Israel Army withdrew from remaining population centres in southern Lebanon, while maintaining presence in five strategic positions along the Blue Line. The Lebanese Armed Forces deployed into vacated areas, supporting population returns.
For almost 500 days, Gaza has been subject to one of the most intense bombing campaigns in history. The extensive and widespread harm, largely caused by the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas, has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.1 million inhabitants and damaged more than 66 percent of Gaza’s structures.
