HAMILTON, Canada

The UN on Monday warned that humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip remain constrained by ongoing impediments, even as the ceasefire agreement passes the 100-day mark.

Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said at a news conference that "the ceasefire agreement, which has crossed the 100-day mark, must hold so that more civilian lives can be saved."

"As we have been telling you, the scale-up of humanitarian work continues to be held back by restrictions and impediments, with recent harsh weather also setting back some of the progress," he added.

Pointing to a statement issued by the World Food Program (WFP), Haq cautioned "of how fragile the situation remains," even as the agency reaches "more than one million people every month through food parcels, bread bundles, hot meals and school meals, making real progress in pushing back famine."

WFP called for "additional safe humanitarian corridors from Egypt and Jordan, and along the Salah Ad Din Road inside Gaza, to increase volumes and reduce insecurity," Haq said.

He also announced the launch of the second round of a routine immunization catch-up campaign, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

The campaign "aims to further protect children under three from vaccine-preventable diseases" and is being delivered by "170 teams at nearly 130 health facilities, with seven mobile teams deployed to hard-to-reach areas", he said, adding that a third round is planned for April.

On the occupied West Bank, Haq said Israeli forces have placed "an estimated 25,000 Palestinians under curfew" in parts of Hebron's H2 area, citing "a heavy deployment of military vehicles and snipers on rooftops, as well as the closure of six internal roads."

According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, an official body, illegal Israeli settlers carried out nearly 4,723 attacks against Palestinians and property in the occupied West Bank in 2025, killing 14 Palestinians and forcing the displacement of 13 Bedouin communities of 1,090 people.

The number of illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank reached 770,000 in more than 180 settlements and 256 settlement outposts by the end of 2024, official Palestinian data showed.

The UN said Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, undermine prospects for a two-state solution and have for decades called for a halt to settlement activity.