UN relief chief tells governments to stop delaying Gaza winter aid: ‘Fund the plan’

The UN's emergency relief chief has told governments and partners to stop delaying support for Gaza's winter response, warning that storms and freezing temperatures are collapsing or flooding the tents where thousands of people live.

Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said foreign ministers had argued that progress would be hard until after Israeli elections, and that partners now point to the formation of a new government. "This is not an acceptable excuse," he said, adding that the UN had a plan for supplies to reach Gaza "not in weeks, but weeks ago", and that each delay costs lives. "Fund the plan," he said.

What the UN plan includes

According to UN News, the plan covers durable shelter, warm clothing, blankets and bedding, safe heating, generators, fuel and spare parts, and equipment to pump out water, remove debris and clear explosive ordnance. Fletcher also called for all crossings to be opened, not just one, for aid groups to be allowed to work, for commercial markets to function, and for an end to what he called collective punishment.

Jobs and incomes

The same day, the International Labour Organization (ILO) urged partners to fund a jobs-led recovery plan for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It said Gaza lost 252,000 jobs between the third quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2025, that unemployment stands at 85.1%, and that labour-income losses total $2.77 billion. Women and young people face especially limited prospects.

The ILO's Decent Work and Recovery Programme has generated about 130,000 paid workdays over three years and paid social allowances to more than 30,000 older people and people with disabilities. "Humanitarian assistance alone cannot restore livelihoods," said UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov.

Recent conditions

UN News also noted that, according to the UN humanitarian office OCHA, heavy rain flooded tents across Gaza on 9 November, with an infant reportedly drowned and five people, including three children, killed when a sand dune collapsed on tents.