The fragile ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October 2025, has offered a moment of hope, yet the scale of devastation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic. The area is now nearly uninhabitable, with an estimated 90 percent of homes destroyed. Nine in ten of Gaza's 2.1 million population remain displaced. Families returning to their communities are met with piles of rubble and a complete lack of water, electricity, or the essentials needed to sustain life.
Women and girls have endured unimaginable suffering. Nearly a quarter of a million women and girls are starving. An estimated 55,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are suffering from acute malnutrition, significantly increasing health risks for both mothers and newborn. Premature and low-birth weight babies now account for approximately 70 percent of newborns, and one in three pregnancies is classified as high risk. Gaza’s healthcare system is in ruins with only 14 out of 36 hospitals functioning at all, and no fully operational hospitals. This severely limits women’s access to life-saving maternal health care.
Displacement, food scarcity, and economic stress are fueling a rise in gender-based violence. Women and girls face increased risks of intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, and early marriage as families struggle to survive. Two years of violence, loss, and constant fear has also created a profound mental health emergency with deep psychological scars that will persist for years.
UNFPA is rapidly scaling up life-saving operations in Gaza, focusing on the immediate expansion and stabilization of essential health and protection services, and laying the groundwork for recovery. Our immediate priority is to increase access to emergency obstetric and newborn care, outpatient reproductive health services, and re-establish safe spaces and referral systems for women and youth subjected to, or at risk of gender-based violence
In the West Bank, daily life is ringed by barriers and checkpoints, which impact every aspect of life, restricting movements, plans and aspirations for women and youth. Frequent military incursions and settler violence have deepened insecurity, displacing nearly 40,000 people. Access to essential services, including maternal health care for an estimated 73,000 pregnant women, is significantly disrupted.
UNFPA-supported mobile clinics are delivering vital health services to remote and underserved communities in the West Bank. Emergency centres have been set up for those women who cannot reach hospital to give birth due to movement restrictions. Women and girls’s safe spaces are providing gender-based prevention and response with a particular focus on northern governorates where needs are most severe.
