Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
The UN Security Council held a session focused on the precarious situation in Gaza and the West Bank amid ongoing regional tensions and a fragile ceasefire established in October 2025 between Israel and Hamas. The Council reviewed updates on violence and humanitarian conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where Israeli military activities, settlement expansion, and settler violence persist, leading to displacement and restricted access to essential services, according to the UN relief agency OCHA.
Since the ceasefire, 1,180 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 59 in a one-week period in July, while deaths in the West Bank caused by settler attacks and other incidents have totaled 18 as of 20 July. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also reported that 1.2 million people in Gaza, about 59 percent of the population, are facing crisis-level hunger, with expectations of worsening food insecurity in the coming months.
Health assessments by the UN Population Fund reveal concerning maternal health trends in Gaza during the first half of 2026, including nearly 4,000 miscarriages, a high rate of severe maternal morbidity, and more than 57 percent of pregnant women suffering from anemia. A study by the agency seeks to identify contributing factors and barriers to care.
Efforts supported by the UN Development Programme have resulted in the removal of nearly 630,000 tonnes of debris from roads and essential infrastructure in Gaza. However, this is only a fraction of the estimated 60 million tonnes remaining after extensive damage caused by Israeli strikes and demolitions since 2023.