UNRWA in the context of "Humanitarian aid during the Gaza war"

Burj el-Shamali (Arabic: مخيم برج الشمالي) is a municipality located some 86 km south of Beirut and 3 km east of the Tyre/Sour peninsula, merging into its urban area. It is located in the Tyre District of the South Governorate of Lebanon.

It is particularly known for hosting the second-largest of the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in the country as a de facto autonomous exclave effectively out of the reach of Lebanese officials: The camp is ruled by Popular Committees of Palestinian parties under the leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) which is de facto recognised by the municipality through some degree of coordination and cooperation. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has the mandate to provide basic services, assisted by local and international NGOs. The Lebanese Armed Forces control entry and exit through the camp's main gate.

The All-Palestine Protectorate (Arabic: محمية عموم فلسطين; 22 September 1948–1959), also known as All-Palestine or the Gaza Protectorate, was a short-lived client state with limited recognition, corresponding to the area of the modern Gaza Strip, established in the areas of former Mandatory Palestine captured by the Kingdom of Egypt during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Protectorate was declared on 22 September 1948 in Gaza City, and the All-Palestine Government was formed. The President of the Gaza-seated administration was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, while the Prime Minister was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha. In December 1948, just three months after the declaration, the All-Palestine Government was relocated to Cairo and was never allowed to return to Gaza, making it a government in exile. With a further resolution of the Arab League to put the Gaza Strip under the official protection of Egypt in 1952, the All-Palestine Government was gradually stripped of its authority. In 1953, the government was nominally dissolved, though the Palestinian Prime Minister, Hilmi Pasha, continued to attend Arab League meetings on its behalf. In 1959, the protectorate was de jure merged into the United Arab Republic, while de facto turning Gaza into a military occupation area of Egypt.

While a de facto Egyptian puppet state since its inception, there are differences of opinion as to whether the All-Palestine Protectorate represented an abortive but genuine attempt at an independent Palestinian Arab state, or if it was simply a façade for an Egyptian occupation of part or all of former Mandatory Palestine right from the get-go. Though the All-Palestine Government claimed jurisdiction over the entire territories of the former British Mandatory Palestine, at no time did its effective jurisdiction extend beyond the Gaza Strip, with the West Bank annexed by Transjordan and Israel holding the rest. The All-Palestine Protectorate relied entirely on the Egyptian government for funding and on UNRWA to relieve the plight of the Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip. During most of its existence, the All-Palestine Protectorate was under de facto Egyptian administration, though Egypt never made any claim to or annexed any Palestinian territory. Egypt did not offer the Gazan Palestinians citizenship. Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and Egypt were issued All-Palestine passports, and those living in the Gaza Strip were not permitted to move freely into Egypt. However, these passports were only recognized by six Arab countries.

As of 19 November 2025, over 72,500 people (70,525 Palestinians and 2,109 Israelis) have been reported killed in the Gaza war according to the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including 248 journalists and media workers, 120 academics, and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, a number that includes 179 employees of UNRWA. Scholars have estimated 80% of Palestinians killed are civilians. A study by OHCHR, which verified fatalities from three independent sources, found that 70% of the Palestinians killed in residential buildings or similar housing were women and children.

The majority of casualties have been in the Gaza Strip. The GHM total casualty count is the number of deaths directly caused by the war. The demographic breakdown is a subset of those individually identified. On 17 September 2024, the GHM published the names, gender and birth date of 34,344 individual Palestinians whose identities were confirmed and continues to attempt to identify all casualties. The GHM count does not include those who have died from "preventable disease, malnutrition and other consequences of the war". An analysis by the Gaza Health Projections Working Group predicted thousands of excess deaths from disease and birth complications.

Dekwaneh (or Dekweneh; Arabic: دكوانة) is a suburb north of Beirut in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon. The population is predominantly Maronite Christian. Tel al-Zaatar, an UNRWA administered Palestinian refugee camp housing approximately 50,000-60,000 refugees, and the site of the Tel al-Zaatar massacre were located on the outskirts of the town.

On 9 October 2023, Israel intensified its blockade of the Gaza Strip when it announced a "total blockade", blocking the entry of food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity after the October 7 attacks and the ensuing Gaza war. The blockade has been credited with contributing significantly to the Gaza genocide. Israel has conditioned its lifting of the blockade with the return of the hostages abducted by Hamas, which has been criticized as collective punishment and an apparent war crime. As of August 2025, 27 European countries and over 100 international aid organizations have called for an end to Israel's blockade of aid into Gaza.

A few weeks after 9 October 2023, Israel eased the complete blockade, but still continued to severely restrict the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip. The first supplies entered on 21 October 2023. The blockade exacerbated Gaza's humanitarian crisis. In January 2024, Israeli authorities blocked 56% of humanitarian aid to northern Gaza. On 9 February 2024, UNRWA's director Philippe Lazzarini said that Israel had blocked food for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza.