Gaza Welcomes the New Year with Worsening Humanitarian Tragedies

"After only 3 days of their marriage, the dream turned into a painful tragedy, after strong winds knocked down a dilapidated wall onto the couple's tent, which was not a choice, but a fate imposed by the occupation", with these words, the Palestinian journalist Huda Na'im recounted a part of the worsening humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip at the beginning of the new year.

And Na'im adds in a tweet on the X platform "The bride Yafa Akkar ascended in a cruel moment, because the Israeli occupation prevents the entry of reconstruction materials, and does not even allow temporary caravans to protect people from winds and death, as for the groom, he remained alive to bear alone the weight of the tragedy: a wife who departed before life began".

And the story of the bride Yafa is not an isolated incident, it is part of a "miserable human reality" according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which described the situation in Gaza saying: that "the humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain miserable, and the needs far exceed the capacity of the humanitarian community to respond".

In the meantime, the media advisor for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Adnan Abu Hasna warned that Gaza may return to square one if this situation continues, especially with no dramatic improvement in conditions as expected after the ceasefire.

And while the world celebrates the beginning of 2026 amid atmospheres of joy, merriment, and delight, Gaza entered its new year amid atmospheres of sorrow, misery, and worries, as a mother and her child were martyred due to a tent burning in an accommodation center in the middle of Gaza City, and a girl was martyred in the Nuseirat camp in the middle of the sector due to the bitter cold inside the tents, in addition to the injury of a number of people by occupation fire due to scattered targeting in the south of the Gaza Strip.

And amid the massive destruction left by the genocide war, hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents and their children face the cold, rain, and frost, and find nothing but dilapidated tents to shelter from the cold, while occupation forces continue to besiege the sector and prevent the entry of medicine, food, fuel, tents, and building materials, in a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement, amid international silence and neglect.

And in his comment on the situation, the director of the governmental media office in Gaza Ismail Al-Thawabta says: that "The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip welcome 2026 while suffering under the weight of deep wounds and accumulated pains, left by one of the ugliest crimes of genocide in modern history, committed by the Israeli occupation over two continuous years, amid widespread aggression, suffocating siege, systematic starvation, and comprehensive destruction of the means of life".

And Al-Thawabta adds, in a press conference that 2025 was one of the harshest years on the sector's residents, where more than 2.4 million people were subjected to policies of systematic killing, ethnic cleansing, and starvation, while the occupation turned Gaza's cities and towns into rubble, destroyed the infrastructure at an unprecedented rate, and razed entire residential neighborhoods to the ground, leading to the forced displacement of more than two million Palestinians.

And according to Al-Thawabta, the past year witnessed a near-total collapse of the humanitarian system in the Gaza Strip, as a result of the direct and deliberate targeting of hospitals and medical staff, educational institutions, places of worship, accommodation centers, ambulance and civil defense teams, and journalists, in addition to systematic policies to prevent the entry of food, medicine, and fuel, which led to the martyrdom of thousands of children, women, and the elderly, and the threat of hundreds of thousands with hunger and epidemics.

And he added saying: "We hope that 2026 will constitute a real turning point, through the complete cessation of aggression and the end of genocide, and the transition to a path of comprehensive humanitarian recovery, and the beginning of rebuilding the Gaza Strip on fair and sustainable foundations, ensuring the dignity of the Palestinian human being and his right to a safe and dignified life".

And Al-Thawabta confirms that the urgent priorities are represented in an immediate and permanent cessation of Israeli aggression, the complete lifting of the siege, the comprehensive withdrawal of occupation forces from the sector, the permanent opening of all crossings for humanitarian aid, relief, fuel, and medical supplies, and ensuring the free movement of citizens without restrictions.

And the office called for launching a serious path for reconstruction that includes rebuilding homes, infrastructure, health, educational, and service facilities, supporting the exhausted health sector, enabling relief institutions to perform their duties, securing the basic needs of the displaced, and ensuring their safe and dignified return to their areas.

And despite the deterioration of humanitarian conditions, Israel imposed at the beginning of the new year a series of illegal restrictions on the access of humanitarian aid, where 37 humanitarian organizations face a threat of banning activities in the Gaza Strip, including "Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE Organization, World Vision, and Oxfam", in addition to a complete ban on the work of UNRWA.

And the Israeli occupation authorities placed dozens of international non-governmental humanitarian organizations before two options with no third: either submit to their conditions or cancel their license and prevent them from working in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

And the Israeli conditions require the organizations to submit complete lists of their Palestinian employees for security checks, and to ensure that none of them has called for boycotting Israel, which some international organizations refused out of fear of exposing their Palestinian employees to persecution that endangers their lives and threatens the safety of their families.

The targeting of humanitarian work organizations prompted the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor to call on the international community, the United Nations, and its member states, especially the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, to take all necessary measures to pressure Israel to lift the ban on entering temporary housing (caravans) and basic shelter supplies into the Gaza Strip, and to ensure their entry and distribution without restrictions and without linking them to any political or security considerations.

And the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor said in a statement that Israel uses the siege as an executive tool for the ongoing crime of genocide and producing a lethal living reality, by preventing and disrupting repair and reconstruction and preventing the entry of necessary materials and equipment to remove rubble and repair homes, water and sewage networks, and electricity, in addition to obstructing the humanitarian response and undermining the ability of relief parties to provide the minimum protection.

And it clarified that the policy of "denying shelter" pursued by Israel targets the destruction of the residential environment for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and depriving them of their right to housing and safe living, as it is impossible to understand the destruction of entire cities and neighborhoods, preventing their repair and reconstruction, and preventing the entry of any temporary alternatives to shelter their residents, as a side effect of military operations, but as a deliberate pattern aimed at emptying the place of its original inhabitants by turning housing into a practical impossibility and pushing families into continuous forced uprooting.

And the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor emphasized that the continuation of these catastrophic conditions in the absence of any serious movement to find urgent solutions to the crisis multiplies health and humanitarian risks and takes a toll on the most vulnerable groups, especially children, the elderly, and the sick, and at the same time raises the possibilities of collapsing homes and destroying tents, exposing the displaced to multiple dangers including floods and the spread of diseases related to water pollution and sewage overflow, which turns daily life into a continuous suffering that threatens their dignity and lives together.

And it confirmed that it is not permissible, under any pretext, to subject the basic humanitarian needs of civilians to any security conditions or political bargains, as protecting the right to life and personal safety and providing adequate shelter are binding legal obligations under the rules of international humanitarian law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and do not accept suspension or derogation or use as a pressure card, noting that any deliberate restrictions on entering and providing basic shelter supplies represent a serious violation of these obligations, and directly contribute to deepening the harm inflicted on residents who are already living under conditions that continuously threaten their lives and dignity.