UNRWA Situation Report #170 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. All information updated for 30 April

UNRWA

9 May 2025

Highlights

• Since the collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza on the night between 17 and 18 March 2025, intense Israeli Forces activities escalated, resulting in thousands of civilians killed and injured, further damage and destruction to civilian infrastructure, and new waves of forced displacement.
• Humanitarian aid and supplies have not entered the Gaza Strip for over nine weeks now (since 2 March 2025), when the Israeli authorities imposed a siege. As a result, basic humanitarian supplies, including food, fuel, medical aid and vaccines for children, are rapidly running out; UNRWA flour and food parcels have run out and over one third of essential medical supplies are already out of stock. This is having a devastating impact on the population, particularly on vulnerable groups including children, women and the elderly.
• On 7 May, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on X (previously known as Twitter) that another UNRWA school turned shelter home to 2,000 displaced people had been hit twice in the previous day by Israeli Forces, resulting in the reported killing of at least 30 displaced people – including women and children.
• The Israeli Forces operation in the northern West Bank that started on 21 January 2025 is ongoing. On 1 May, two demolition orders were issued for a total of 106 houses in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugees camps. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini issued a statement on 2 May saying: “This practice constitutes collective punishment, categorically prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention”.
• On 8 May, heavily armed Israeli Forces entered three UNRWA schools in Shu’fat Camp in occupied East Jerusalem, with the intent to enforce the illegal closure orders issued on 8 April 2025, forcing over 550 children out of their schools. The Israeli Security Forces harassed UNRWA teachers and detained one UNRWA staff member, ordering them to dismiss the students. As a result, UNRWA was forced to evacuate all children across the six schools it runs in East Jerusalem. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on X (previously known as Twitter) that “Storming schools and forcing them shut is a blatant disregard of international law. These schools are inviolable premises of the United Nations. By enforcing closure orders issued last month, the Israeli authorities are denying Palestinian children their basic right to learn.”