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Gaza: After Security Council vote humanitarians urge aid scale-up as winter rains hit families hard

Following the UN Security Council’s Monday endorsement of a US peace plan for Gaza, UN humanitarians urged prioritizing aid access under the scheme as severe rains and flooding deepened Palestinian suffering.

“We're very optimistic that the peace plans will improve the situation,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Ricardo Pires said, briefing reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. “But again, the reality for children on the ground continues to be very tragic.”

“We’re still in the hypotheticals,” UN aid coordination office (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke cautioned regarding the Security Council resolution, stressing that it “needs some meat on the bones” but recalling that the UN Secretary-General had welcomed the development.

The resolution endorsing the “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” announced by US President Trump on 29 September authorizes a transitional administration, the “Board of Peace”, to establish a temporary international force in the enclave following two years of war. In an overnight statement, the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General called it an “important step in the consolidation of the ceasefire”. The statement also underscored the UN’s commitment to scaling up humanitarian assistance in the Strip.

Echoing the call for increasing aid access, UNICEF’s Ricardo Pires stressed this was “part of the deal and we need to see more humanitarian corridors open”.

According to OCHA, more than 5,400 metric tonnes of aid were collected between Thursday and Sunday, including shelter, medical and food items. The Zikim border crossing has reopened after staying shut for two months, bringing the number of open crossings to three.

Mr. Pires highlighted the importance of Zikim opening and said that recently UNICEF managed to bring in 96 pallets of high energy biscuits destined for the famine-stricken north of Gaza.

While hailing this as a “positive development”, he stressed that the needs are huge following two years of deprivation.

“We need more, a lot more,” he said. “Hopefully with the new plan, that will become a reality for children and families.”

The humanitarian situation has become particularly dire after heavy rains and flooding have made life even more unbearable for thousands of displaced families.

“We're seeing heartbreaking stories of desperate families feeling completely lost and exhausted after their tents got flooded,” UNICEF’s Mr. Pires said. “Most of them have been displaced multiple times and lost everything in the past two years… When children are sleeping in flooded tents without warm clothing or dry bedding, many lacking the required nutrition, with very low immunity and already traumatized by conflict, winter becomes extremely dangerous.”

The UNICEF spokesperson highlighted the risk of hypothermia, respiratory infections and death.

He also stressed that because Israeli forces occupy more than 50 per cent of Gaza’s territory, many of the coastal areas where Palestinians have been forced to evacuate to “are also the most flood-prone”.

Mr. Pires concluded by saying that children should be at the centre of any new plan moving forward.

“Ensuring that their safety, education, healthcare, mental well-being and family unity is not only a legal and moral imperative – it's actually a practical investment in long-term stability and recovery for Gaza,” he said.

-ENDS-

Gaza update UNICEF - OCHA

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