NEARLY two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 94 per cent of the population, urgently need shelter assistance and essential non-food items.
UNRWA said in its latest situation report that about 1.98 million people require immediate shelter support, and that 58 per cent of the population faces critical or catastrophic shelter needs.
An assessment of 113 sites identified 18 unsafe emergency shelters, including some at extremely high risk of structural collapse.
The agency also reported that 84 per cent of residents suffer frequent, irregular disruption to clean water supplies and that 89 per cent of households face severe shortages of hygiene supplies as winter approaches.
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks continued yesterday. Two Palestinians died of wounds sustained in earlier airstrikes on Gaza City. Sarah Abu Jiyab, a medical student at the Islamic University of Gaza, succumbed to injuries from an Israeli strike on the university campus in late October.
Nabil Hamad died of wounds sustained several days earlier in an attack on al-Balahiya area of al-Shati refugee camp.
An airstrike hit the Falouja area west of Jabalia refugee camp, wounding several people, one seriously. Israeli gunfire wounded a man and a woman in the al-Satr and Hamad areas north of Khan Younis, and an Israeli drone attack critically wounded another Palestinian south of Deir al-Balah.
Warplanes struck al-Karama neighbourhood northwest of Gaza City, and Israeli forces carried out a demolition operation east of Khan Younis.
On Thursday, Israeli attacks killed five Palestinians, including a woman and a child. Mohammed al-Qishawi was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a group of people near Martyrs’ Square in Shati refugee camp on Thursday evening, and Fadl Abdullah Salman Abu Mazyad was killed in a drone attack near az-Zawayda in central Gaza.
Abdul Rahim Walid Matar, 27, died at dawn when a drone struck a tent sheltering displaced people west of az-Zawayda.
Medical sources at Al-Awda Hospital said 12-year-old Adnan Tariq Adnan al-Qarnawi was shot dead by Israeli forces east of Bureij camp.
Noura Suleiman Mohammed Sheikh al-Eid, 54, was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Bir 19 area of southern Gaza.
The attacks came despite the ceasefire that took effect in October 2025.
Gaza’s health ministry says Israeli attacks have since killed 1,602 Palestinians and wounded 5,799. The cumulative toll since 7 October 2023 is 74,618 killed and 175,925 wounded.
