Along the battered central coast of Gaza, makeshift tents now line the sand, a stark testament to the relentless upheaval forced upon Palestinians by the ongoing conflict. On September 30, 2025, thousands—displaced by heavy Israeli attacks and evacuation orders in the north—found themselves seeking shelter in these impromptu encampments, their lives upended yet again. The following day, the Israeli army announced the closure of the Al-Rasheed coastal road, the critical artery linking southern and northern Gaza, effective from noon. The closure, according to Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee, was intended to prevent the return of displaced Palestinians to the north. Only southward movement would be permitted for those still in Gaza City.
This decision, reported by VCG and corroborated by multiple humanitarian organizations, was not the first time access between the north and south had been blocked. Since October 2023, the route has been repeatedly closed, briefly reopening in January 2025 during a fragile ceasefire, only to be shut again as fighting intensified. The isolation of northern Gaza has deepened the humanitarian crisis, making it nearly impossible for aid to reach those most in need. Humanitarian groups warn that the latest closure will further hinder the delivery of essential supplies, leaving northern residents even more cut off from lifesaving assistance.
As the Israeli military’s ground offensive in Gaza City ramped up in September 2025, described by the army as the heaviest fighting since the operation began, the stated goal was to target Hamas fighters and secure the release of remaining Israeli hostages. Yet the toll on civilians has been catastrophic. The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced multiple times since the conflict erupted. The sheer scale of this displacement is almost impossible to fathom: nearly every family has been uprooted, many more than once, forced to navigate a landscape of destruction, uncertainty, and dwindling resources.
The human cost of these military operations is perhaps most heartbreakingly illustrated by the story of Jana Ayed, a nine-year-old girl from Gaza City. According to UNICEF, Jana’s life was a struggle against hunger and deprivation—a struggle she ultimately lost on September 17, 2025, when she relapsed and died from acute malnutrition. Her plight, and that of her two-year-old sister Jouri, who succumbed to hunger just weeks earlier, has become a symbol of Gaza’s broader tragedy. Tess Ingram, UNICEF’s Communication Manager, shared the harrowing details: “The world failed Jana so many times, failed her on food, twice. A little girl forced to endure so much pain because of deliberate decisions that were made to restrict the entry of food into the Gaza Strip.”
Jana’s story is far from unique. Since the war began on October 7, 2023, at least 151 children have died from acute malnutrition in Gaza, with the majority of these deaths occurring in 2025, according to the Palestinian health authorities. In July 2025 alone, 13,000 children under five were identified as acutely malnourished—the highest monthly figure ever recorded, representing a staggering 500 percent increase since the start of the year. UNICEF warns that every child under five in Gaza, more than 320,000 in total, is now at risk of acute malnutrition.
The crisis is compounded by the collapse of Gaza’s health system. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that just 14 hospitals remain operational in the entire Strip, after four more in the north were forced to close in October 2025. Hospitals that are still standing are overwhelmed, unable to cope with the flood of trauma cases and malnutrition. Humanitarian agencies have been forced to suspend operations in some areas; the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders both withdrew staff from Gaza City in late September, citing the encirclement of their facilities and unmanageable security risks.
The Israeli military has insisted that humanitarian infrastructure in southern Gaza is prepared for the influx of displaced people. In a statement on September 25, the military body responsible for coordinating aid, COGAT, asserted that “the transfer of food, medical equipment and shelter supplies has been increased,” and that “steps have been taken in the fields of water and medical response in the southern Gaza Strip.” But on the ground, the picture painted by aid workers and displaced Gazans is far bleaker. Olga Cherevko, a United Nations humanitarian office spokeswoman, described seeing “hundreds of people just sitting on the side of the road looking shellshocked, without anything.”
For many, the so-called humanitarian zones in the south—like Khan Younis and Al-Mawasi—have become overcrowded and under-resourced. Khitam Ayyad, who fled Gaza City barefoot, found no shelter, food, or water upon arrival. “We are exposed to the sun and the heat,” she said. “No proper food or water.” The influx of some 780,000 people from Gaza City since the evacuation order on September 9, 2025, has overwhelmed already strained services. Hospitals are overflowing, water production is at historic lows, and disease is rampant.
Efforts to deliver aid to those still trapped in northern Gaza have been stymied by road closures and security risks. The United Nations says that the Israeli military has denied or impeded about half of its attempts to move aid from the south to the north in recent weeks. Community kitchens in the north now prepare only a third of the meals they managed before the offensive, and UNICEF has been able to deliver specialized malnutrition treatment just once since the ground assault began. The Zikim crossing, a vital entry point for aid, was closed by the Israeli military on September 12, further choking the flow of supplies.
The chaos has also led to widespread looting. The United Nations reported that 73 percent of aid entering Gaza in September was stolen from trucks by desperate civilians or armed gangs, with some of it resold at exorbitant prices in local markets. In many neighborhoods, markets have been picked clean or shuttered entirely. Amani al-Hessi, a journalist sheltering in Gaza City, lamented, “I went yesterday to what used to be the market in Shati, but no one was selling a thing there. We have food enough for one more week at best.”
Medical evacuations offer a faint glimmer of hope for the sickest. WHO has coordinated the evacuation of 7,841 patients—including over 5,330 children—since the war began, but approximately 15,600 patients still need to leave Gaza for treatment. The process is arduous, requiring a seven-step protocol and approval from Israeli authorities. On September 29, 2025, WHO managed to evacuate 14 patients and 38 companions to Jordan, and 15 patients and 65 companions to Italy, but Dr. Athanasios Gargavanis, WHO’s acting Gaza Team Lead, called these efforts “just the tip of the iceberg.”
The conduct of the war, and its devastating impact on civilians, has drawn fierce international criticism. A U.N. commission recently accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians—a charge Israel strenuously denies. In August 2025, a U.N.-backed panel declared Gaza City and its surroundings officially under famine, with more than half a million people facing starvation and acute malnutrition. Israeli officials reject these findings, arguing that sufficient aid is allowed in and blaming distribution failures and theft for the shortages.
Yet the stories of Jana, Jouri, and the countless families living in tents or sleeping on the streets point to a crisis that is both immediate and profound. As Tess Ingram of UNICEF put it, “This war must end now. Aid must be allowed into the Gaza Strip, including food and nutrition supplies. Humanitarians must be allowed to do their jobs. The children of Gaza are being punished by these decisions and it’s killing them.”
With each passing day, the humanitarian disaster in Gaza deepens, and the world’s failure to protect its most vulnerable grows ever more stark.
