13 May 2026

All information updated for 6 – 12 May 2026

Days 941 – 947 since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip

Highlights:

The Gaza Strip

  • Israeli forces continued to maintain a high level of activity, primarily in eastern Gaza City and Khan Younis, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to critical facilities.?OHCHR?reported that in April 2026 alone, at least 111 Palestinians, including at least 18 children and 7 women, were killed in attacks by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, amid continuing airstrikes, artillery and naval shelling, drone attacks, and gunfire.
  • The so-called ¡°Yellow Line¡± marking the Israeli-militarised zone in the Gaza Strip was significantly extended eastward in Gaza City and Khan Younis, with reports of tank advances by Israeli forces in both areas. As a result of the expansion, five Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA installations are now in proximity of the militarised zone, including two schools-turned-shelters hosting displaced families. The expansion of the militarised area is expected to affect humanitarian interventions and further squeeze the population, increasing the risks posed by violence in this area.
  • As??warned that ¡°the current spread of rodents and infections is not merely a health issue, but a clear sign of Gaza¡¯s vulnerability and near collapse of its health system.¡± ?The spread of disease-carrying rodents and insects is driving a growing public health crisis and undermining already precarious living conditions. Rodents are heavily infesting emergency shelters, displacement sites, and tents, biting people and contaminating living spaces.

 

Key points:

The Gaza Strip

Fatalities and injuries

  • Between 7 October 2023 and 6 May 2026, according to the Ministry of Health, as reported by?OCHA,?72,619 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip and another 172,484 injured.
  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA has recorded 391 colleagues killed in Gaza since the start of the war (310 Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA personnel, and 81 persons who were supporting Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA, up to 12 May.

Displacement, Site management

  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA continues to monitor the movement of displaced persons and displacement sites. An estimated 65,000 displaced people are living in 82 collective emergency shelters managed by the Agency.
  • Currently,?126?Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA facilities?are located within the Israeli-militarised zone behind the so-called ¡°Yellow Line¡±, as well as in areas within the ¡°Orange Line¡± where access is subject to Israeli approval or coordination.

Operational implications and humanitarian response

  • Around 11,000 Palestinian Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA personnel continue to provide services and assistance to people in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA also plays a central role with over 4,000 of the Agency¡¯s Palestinian personnel providing education, health, and other services to Palestine Refugees.
  • All Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA international staff are prevented from entering the Occupied Palestinian Territory – the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This follows the implementation of laws passed by the Israeli parliament on 28 October 2024 that purport to prohibit Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA¡¯s operations in areas that Israel considers its sovereign territory, including occupied East Jerusalem, and seek to bar any contact by Israeli officials with Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA. The Israeli authorities have not granted the Agency¡¯s international staff visas or permits to enter the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, since the end of January 2025.
  • Since March 2025, the Israeli authorities have been blocking Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA from directly bringing humanitarian personnel and aid into the Gaza Strip. Despite the huge needs on the ground, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA was therefore unable to distribute the aid it had pre-positioned outside Gaza, which included enough food parcels, flour, and shelter supplies for hundreds of thousands of people.

The occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem

  • According to?, between 7 October 2023 and 3 May 2026, 1,091 Palestinians ¨C at least 239 of them children ¨C were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. ?Forty-five of them have been killed since the beginning of 2026.
  • On 11 May, Israeli forces conducted an operation in and around Kalandia Camp, disrupting Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA services in the camp. They entered without authorisation and searched the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA Kalandia Training Centre, located in occupied East Jerusalem.
  • Settler violence and harassment continued across the West Bank, with Palestinians injured in attacks by Israeli settlers on communities including Beita, Deir Jarir, Adh Dhahiriya, and Khallet al Louza. Extensive property damage, including to agricultural crops and assets, was also reported.

Gaza Humanitarian overview and response:

1.1. Humanitarian access and armed conflict-related incidents

  • From 5 to 11 May, one significant armed incident impacted Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA facilities, personnel and persons supporting Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA¡¯s activities:
    • On 6 May, an Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA Health Centre in Maghazi Camp was reportedly struck by bullets due to shooting by Israeli forces in East Maghazi. Minor damage to the health centre and no casualties among the staff were reported.
  • Since the beginning of the war and up to 12 May,?973*?incidents impacting Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA premises and the people inside them have been reported.?312*?(or nearly all) Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA installations have been impacted by armed conflict-related incidents, some of them multiple times. Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA continues to verify and update the number of casualties caused by these incidents.

1.2 Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA response:

Health and nutrition

  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA has provided over 18.3 million health visits, including 12.3 million medical consultations since the start of the war.
  • From 16 to 30 April, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA screened 5,765 children aged between six and 59 months at its health centres and medical points, identifying 189 malnourished children.
  • By 3 May, six health centres and four additional Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA-rented facilities used as temporary health centres were operational in the Gaza Strip. In addition, by that date, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA was providing primary health services through 75 mobile medical teams working in 28 medical points inside and outside collective emergency shelters in the Middle Area, Khan Younis, Al Mawasi and Gaza City.
  • From 27 April to 3 May, an average of 1,066 Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA health personnel per day worked in the Agency¡¯s health facilities across the Gaza Strip, providing 73,558 medical consultations in total.
  • ?Between 27 April and 3 May, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA health teams provided 6,850 consultations for post-natal and pregnant women at high risk, 3,343 dental and oral health consultations in fixed and mobile clinics, and 2,640 physiotherapy rehabilitation services sessions in health centres and medical points. A total of 11,793 laboratory tests were conducted in Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA health centres and medical points.
  • From 27 April to 3 May, 2,447 vaccination sessions were provided at health centres and medical points. In addition, a total of 229 students received routine immunisations through school health services.
  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA¡¯s tele-medicine initiative began in March 2024 and has gradually expanded to include other services such as tele-dentistry, tele-physiotherapy, and tele-psychosocial counselling. Currently, following the establishment of the Centralised Telemedicine Centre, the team provides tele-consultations for curative outpatient care, non-communicable diseases, as well as maternal and cardiological consultations.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)

  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA remains one of the largest providers of emergency learning and psychosocial support (PSS) services across the Gaza Strip.
  • Between 7 October 2023 and 10 May 2026, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA¡¯s social work team provided services to 269,773 displaced persons, including psychological first aid, PSS services, family and individual activities, and case management. During the same reporting period, services were provided to 4,356 survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and 7,340 children, including 3,337 unaccompanied children. The team supported 35,988 persons with disabilities with PSS. Awareness sessions on GBV, child protection, disability inclusion, as well as managing social and psychological stressors, were conducted for 157,485 displaced persons.
  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA health teams, including 49 psychiatrists, psychosocial counsellors and supervisors, continued to provide MHPSS services in Gaza City, the Middle and Khan Younis areas, assisting special cases referred from Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA health centres and collective emergency shelters. From 27 April to 3 May, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA teams had 3,561 visits in health centres and at health points providing individual consultations, awareness sessions, and support for protection cases.

Learning

  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA provides learning services in the Gaza Strip in Temporary Learning Spaces (TLS) and through its distance learning initiative
  • Between 4 and 10 May, 64,523 children (28,888 boys and 35,635 girls), including 846 children with disabilities, took part in learning activities conducted across 678 classrooms in 77 Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA collective emergency shelters.
  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA also leverages digital tools to provide basic literacy and numeracy activities for over 280,000 children in Gaza, facilitated by approximately 7,500 teachers using self-learning material developed by Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA that is hosted on the Agency¡¯s digital learning platform.

Food security

  • From 7 October 2023 until the start of the previous ceasefire on 19 January 2025, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA reached over 388,000 families, or nearly 1.9 million people, with two rounds of flour deliveries; at least 374,000 of those families received three rounds. During that ceasefire, which lasted until March 2025, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA reached over 2 million people with critical food assistance.
  • Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA ran out of food at the end of April 2025. The Agency has been blocked by the Israeli authorities from directly bringing in any humanitarian assistance including food since 2 March 2025.?

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

  • Since October 2023, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA has carried out emergency WASH activities across the Gaza Strip, at Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA collective emergency shelters and informal displacement areas. Activities include operating and maintaining water wells and desalination systems and supplying water by truck. In addition, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA continues to maintain hygiene in its shelters and sites by distributing cleaning supplies, running community-based solid waste management, water tank disinfection campaigns, and pest control.
  • Between 16 and 30 April, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA teams collected around 3,300 tonnes of solid waste inside the Agency¡¯s Designated Emergency Shelters (DES) and surrounding areas. More than 2,200 cleaning campaigns were conducted, benefitting over 1,100,000 displaced persons. Activities included cleaning DES, cleaning and clearing 1,854 manholes as part of winterisation plans, as well as water desludging. Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA teams also conducted over 5,100 hygiene promotion sessions over the same period.
  • Between 16 and 30 April, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA distributed around 93,750 cubic metres of domestic and potable water in various areas and from different sources, reaching over 850,000 displaced people daily.
  • In 2025, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA distributed 970,000 cubic metres of drinking and domestic use water , and collected and disposed of 70,000 tonnes of solid waste. Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA estimates that around 1.7 million people benefitted from the Agency¡¯s water provision and solid waste collection services in 2025.