Despite Ceasefire Gains, Gazans Trapped in Humanitarian Nightmare, Briefers Warn, as Security Council Speakers Demand Unhindered Aid Access, Respect for Peace Plan
While a limited ceasefire has improved life in Gaza somewhat, millions of its residents still face tremendous daily difficulties, the Security Council heard today, as speakers underscored the need to provide immediate humanitarian help to a population that can ill afford to wait.
In November 2025, the Council endorsed the United States-backed “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” through the adoption of resolution 2803 (2025), approximately a month after a precarious ceasefire was announced. However, the Council has repeatedly heard in the ensuing months that Israeli strikes and armed activities by Hamas and other groups have continued. Most recently, during an open debate on advancing peace in the Middle East, the UN Secretary-General told the Council that violence is on the rise in the Gaza Strip.
Recalling the adoption of resolution 2803 (2025) seven months ago, Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that this text — and the peace plan it endorsed — “has brought results”. It has reduced civilian harm from Israeli military strikes on Gaza, brought the return of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas and removed some barriers to humanitarian access.
Gaza ‘Most Dangerous’ Place to Deliver Aid, Area Held Together by Palestinian Perseverance
“That progress should be recognized,” he said, also pointing to reduced hunger, expanded basic services and partially resumed education. He underscored, however, that the resolution and United States-backed peace plan are “meant to deliver much more than that”. These fragile gains, he said, “reflect movement away from a catastrophic baseline, not the fulfilment of fundamental needs”. He added: “Gaza is being held together by humanitarian workarounds and Palestinian perseverance.”
Stressing that this is “unsustainable”, he reported that Palestinians in Gaza remain deprived of safety, shelter, clean water, healthcare and education. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began, and he declared that Gaza remains “the most dangerous place on earth to deliver aid”. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that no hospital is fully operational, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns that water is a daily uncertainty for 1.1 million children.
Funding Must Match Scale of Gaza Crisis
“It is not enough to silence the weapons — we must restore dignity,” he declared. To this end, he urged the Council to ensure that civilians are protected, that humanitarians have safe, sustained and unhindered access to civilians across Gaza and that funding to address this crisis is timely and commensurate with its scale. While the world’s attention has been on other crises in the region, he stressed that civilians in Gaza “cannot wait for a more convenient diplomatic moment to receive the basics for survival”.
Concluding, he underscored that the international community cannot allow the “summit of our ambition and our will” to be a world where children — despite having sufficient calories to survive and not facing constant bombing — “remain hungry, bitten by rats, homeless and out of school”.
“For years, my son knows his family through separation, forcible displacement and loss,” said Bushra Khalidi, Head of Humanitarian Policy at Oxfam International, noting that her relatives are trapped in Gaza. She also stressed that the ceasefire is failing, underscoring that “Israeli forces continue to kill Palestinians”. Peace, she stressed, cannot be measured by declarations — “it must be measured by whether people can live”.
Atrocities Must Stop Now: Gazans Cannot Wait for Future Reckoning
While there may be basic products available at the market, she pointed out that “availability is not access when most families have no income and can’t afford food”. Wheat and eggs are about five times their pre-war price and, since March 2025, Israel has blocked Oxfam and other humanitarian actors from bringing goods into Gaza. Limited entry through a handful of approved channels is no match for the scale of need and credible humanitarian actors are still being blocked from doing their jobs.
“History”, she said, “will not remember how many reports were filed or how many meetings were convened.” Rather, it will judge whether, when confronted with the obliteration of lives and futures, the Council acted with urgency, courage and humanity. “These atrocities must be stopped”, she implored. People in Gaza cannot wait for “some future reckoning”, as they are trapped in the present — “surviving it, or being killed in it”.
Aid Must Never Be a Bargaining Chip
Acknowledging the “stark” picture painted by the briefers, Denmark’s representative joined others in both noting the “largely insufficient” amount of aid entering Gaza and stressing that humanitarian assistance “cannot be conditional”. While Hamas must disarm pursuant to the peace plan, she emphasized that other elements of that accord are also crucial, which includes the full, immediate delivery of aid.
While noting that Hamas’ refusal to disarm is unacceptable, the representative of France, too, spotlighted persistent obstacles to aid delivery and stressed that Israel must respect its obligations under international law and resolution 2803 (2025). The representative of the United Kingdom, also stating that Hamas must disarm and that Israel must remove unjustifiable aid restrictions, concluded: “Humanitarian assistance must never be used as a political lever.”
Greece’s representative agreed on that point, stressing that children in particular “must remain at the forefront of all relief efforts”. Latvia’s representative underscored that the “tangible restoration of decent daily life for the people of Gaza” is a “matter of urgency”. Without immediate action, stressed the representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the collapse of basic services and persistent humanitarian restrictions “are liable to result in an even greater disaster”.
Civilians a Priority above All
In light of all of this, Panama’s representative stressed that civilian protection must be an “absolute priority”. Yet, the representative of Colombia, Council President for June, spoke in her national capacity to stress that protecting civilians will be impossible so long as ceasefire violations persist. “The ceasefire must be respected,” she underscored.
For her part, the representative of the United States said that her country will continue “all efforts” to increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza. “We recognize that the needs are great, and we are committed to continuing the tremendous work required to meet those needs,” she emphasized. However, doing so is more than a “logistical” problem. “The problem is a terrorist group that is holding the population of Gaza hostage, hoping they can escape from their own commitment to disarm,” she said, adding that “Hamas is listening today”.
However, Pakistan’s representative stressed that, by controlling access and movement, the occupying Power is perpetuating the suffering of 2 million Palestinians. Nevertheless, there is a political solution to end the crisis, and that is to end the occupation and establish a sovereign, independent State of Palestine. Somalia’s representative agreed, also joining his counterpart from Bahrain in rejecting the settler violence that has surged in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began in 2023.
“What we have heard confirms the obvious”, said the representative of the Russian Federation, pointing to a “deteriorating humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip. While the ceasefire has yielded certain improvements, the key humanitarian provisions of resolution 2803 (2025) are being implemented in a “piecemeal manner”. It is hard, she stressed, to “imagine how Palestinians are managing to surmount their day-to-day tragedies”.
China’s representative, similarly, observed that “peace did not come as expected” in the wake of the October 2025 ceasefire. He joined others in expressing concern over Israel’s continued military expansion and threats to take control of 70 per cent of the Strip, adding that “Israel’s draconian restrictions are keeping more than 2 million people in Gaza in what amounts to an open-air prison.”
The “peace projected on paper” — and intended to improve both living conditions and security — “is anything but on the ground”, observed Liberia’s representative. Citing his nation’s experience with civil collapse, complex disarmament and transitional administrations, he offered the following lesson: “Communities cannot be expected to embrace peace while deprived of the basic essentials for living.” This, he underscored, is “simply a reality”, adding: “Human survival must never be treated as a secondary political reward.”
Speaking for the Arab Group, the representative of Saudi Arabia similarly rejected the use of humanitarian assistance as political pressure, calling this the collective punishment of civilians. While welcoming international efforts to end the war in Gaza and achieve a permanent ceasefire, he also underlined the need to fully implement all aspects of resolution 2803 (2025).
State of Palestine Demands End to Occupation, as Israel Blames Hamas
While noting that the current ceasefire has saved many lives, the killing has continued, said the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine. Further, Israel is denying humanitarian access and manufacturing a humanitarian catastrophe, which is “unacceptable under any pretext”. Urging the Council to act, he said: “Palestinians in Gaza have waited long enough, suffered far too much and cannot be asked to wait any longer.”
Israel’s representative, while acknowledging that assistance is needed in Gaza, said — “Israel knows this, Israel is acting on it” — and urged the Council to “deal with the facts”. Hamas is the greatest obstacle to Gaza’s recovery, and Israel has not prevented aid from flowing into Gaza, he stressed. He emphasized that Hamas wants the Council to “talk about trucks, but not weapons [and] crossings, but not tunnels”, adding that reconstruction in Gaza “cannot begin while they remain armed”.