UN News Today 26 March 2025 |

Gaza: No aid has reached war-torn enclave for more than three weeks

It has now been three and a half weeks since Israel imposed a complete blockade on all aid into Gaza, despite daily efforts by UN humanitarians to secure fresh access, they said in an update from the shattered enclave.

And as supplies of food, medicine and other aid runs low, they’re increasingly concerned about growing anxiety in bread lines outside the enclave’s remaining bakeries.

Most attempts by humanitarian organizations to coordinate access with Israeli authorities within Gaza are being denied, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said in an online post.

Medical teams in Gaza are also exhausted “and urgently need protection and reinforcement” from ongoing strikes following the collapse of the ceasefire, OCHA, said on Wednesday.

It cited new reports of attacks against health workers, ambulances and hospitals and warned of “hundreds of casualties, a severe drop in medical stocks and a lack of equipment, blood units and personnel.”

Syrians surviving on less than $2 a day: UN independent investigators

To Syria, where top independent human rights investigators expressed deep concern for the country’s people now surviving on less than $2 a day.

The alert from the Human Rights Council-mandated Commission of Inquiry follows its latest mission to Damascus, where rights experts met senior members of the caretaker authority.

They described seeing “entire districts shattered” by 14 years of warfare and pillaging by forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al Assad, who was overthrown last December.

Amid the ruins of Syria, lead investigator Paolo Pinheiro said that those who’d returned were determined to restore their homes and lives.

The UN’s top aid coordinator, Tom Fletcher, warned however that critical funding shortages for humanitarian work will make it difficult to help more than half of those Syrians in need of assistance.

Here he is now, addressing the Security Council on Tuesday:

“We are also making brutal choices, including to focus our current appeal on the most vulnerable – about half the total people in need. Last year’s humanitarian appeal was only 35 per cent funded – causing us to reduce our humanitarian response by more than half.”

Mr. Fletcher said the UN has completed needs assessments for the whole of Syria and that aid will be focused on the most vulnerable.

Deadly impacts of childhood stunting can be prevented, WFP insists

Childhood stunting from malnutrition is a global problem but it can be prevented with adequate investment and political will, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) insisted on Wednesday, amid chronic funding shortages that threaten essential programmes.

Child wasting is the deadliest form of malnutrition and it’s often seen in places of conflict, economic instability and climate crisis, the UN agency told the fourth Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris.

In the 15 countries most affected by malnutrition, 33 million children suffer from wasting.

In a message to the summit, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain urged action on child malnutrition “before it ever takes hold”. “If we fail to act,” she said, “we are condemning millions of children to a lifetime of suffering”.

The UN agency’s successful nutrition programme involves providing pregnant women with additional food support, because malnutrition often begins during pregnancy, causing half of all deaths among children under five.

Those who survive face impaired physical and brain development, weakened immune systems, stunted growth and limited brain development. 

In 2024, WFP prevented wasting in nearly 14 million mothers and children by providing fortified foods, nutrition-rich supplements, cash or vouchers for meals and food baskets.

In Yemen, where up to one-third of under-fives suffer from wasting, WFP’s only prevention programme implemented in the last 12 months will end in May, without additional funding.  

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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