Deadly sectarian violence has displaced more than 145,000 people in the southern city, some of whom have fled to neighbouring Dar’a and Rural Damascus governorates. 

The convoy carried a range of critical support, including food, wheat flour, fuel, medicines and health supplies. 

OCHA coordinated with the SARC to prepare the convoy, which included supplies from UN agencies.  

Engagement and support

The Office continues to engage with authorities and partners to facilitate an inter-agency UN mission to Sweida as conditions allow.

The UN is also working with partners to deliver a range of assistance to people displaced to Dar’a and Rural Damascus, including food, water, and health and protection services.   

Mobile medical teams have so far provided more than 3,500 consultations, including trauma care, maternal health and psychosocial support while nearly 38,000 people have received food aid. 

Additionally, over 1,000 kits containing non-food items were distributed in Dar’a and Rural Damascus, helping more than 5,000 people. 

OCHA said UN inter-agency missions to assess needs and provide assistance to both governorates are planned for the coming days. 

The first convoy to Sweida arrived on Sunday. The 32 trucks brought food, water, medical supplies and fuel provided by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners. 

These abuses include threats, cases of torture, mistreatment and arbitrary arrest and detention, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The report said these violations were committed against Afghans “based on their profile” and targeted women, media workers and civil society members as well as individuals affiliated with the former government that fell in 2021 and its security forces, despite the Taliban’s claims that such individuals benefit from an amnesty.

“No one should be returned to a country where they are at risk of being persecuted because of their identity or personal history,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“In Afghanistan, this situation is even more pronounced for women and girls, who are subjected to a series of measures that amount to persecution solely on the basis of their gender.”

Since 2023 and the start of large-scale deportation campaigns launched by Iran and Pakistan, millions of Afghans have returned to their country. In 2025 alone, more than 1.8 million people have returned to Afghanistan, 1.5 million of them from Iran.

Women under house arrest

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, recently estimated that the total could reach three million by the end of the year, returning to a country facing a severe humanitarian crisis.

The situation of women forcibly returned is particularly dire. A former television journalist, who left the country after the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, described how, after being involuntarily returned to Afghanistan, she saw her prospects vanish.

“I am very worried for my personal safety and feel immense frustration with the current situation imposed on women in [my province]. I can unequivocally say that I am effectively under house arrest. There are no job opportunities, no freedom of movement and no access to education – whether to learn or to teach – for women and girls,” she testified.

Many people are also forced to live in hiding since returning to Afghanistan due to real or feared threats from the de facto authorities. This is the case for individuals affiliated with the former government and its security forces, who have had to go into hiding for fear of reprisals, despite the public amnesty announced by the de facto authorities.

Living in hiding

A former official described how, after returning in 2023, he was detained for two nights in a house where he was severely tortured, beaten with sticks, cables and wood, subjected to water torture and faced a mock execution.

Other refugees returned from Iran must frequently change locations to avoid being identified, such as one former judge.

“I try to stay hidden because I know that the prisoners who were detained because of my decisions are now senior government officials and are still looking for me. If they find me, I’m sure they’ll kill me. They already threatened me when I was a judge,” they said.

Faced with these serious abuses, the UN is urging States not to return anyone to Afghanistan who faces a real risk of serious human rights violations.

“Member States should expand resettlement opportunities for at-risk Afghans and ensure their protection, giving priority to those most likely to suffer human rights violations if returned to Afghanistan, including women and girls, individuals affiliated with the former government and security forces, media professionals, civil society activists and human rights defenders,” the report said.

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said that is what one of its workers told him on Thursday morning.  

This sobering comment comes amidst increasingly severe malnutrition for children and adults throughout the Gaza Strip.  

“When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold,” Mr. Lazzarini said in a tweet.   

Bombs are not the only thing that kills

Gaza has faced relentless bombardment for almost three years, but Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said at a briefing on Wednesday that it is not just the bombs which are killing Palestinians.  

Starvation is “another killer”.

Reportedly at least 100 people have died from hunger, and WHO has documented at least 21 cases of children under the age of five dying from malnutrition.  

Additionally, Mr. Lazzarini said one in five children in Gaza City is malnourished, a number increasing every day that unhindered humanitarian aid is denied.  

“Severe malnutrition is spreading among children faster than aid can reach them, and the world is watching it happen … Children must be protected – not killed, and not left to starve,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UN Children Fund’s (UNICEF) regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. 

Between early March and mid-May – 80 consecutive days – no aid was allowed into the Gaza Strip, pushing the population to the brink of famine. While minimal aid has since entered, Tedros emphasised that it is not enough.  

“Food deliveries have resumed intermittently, but remain far below what is needed for the survival of the population,” he said. 

Safe havens are no longer safe

Tedros reported that between 27 May and 21 July, over 1,000 people in Gaza have been killed while trying to access food.  

Many of these have died in or around sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American-run and Israeli-backed aid distribution organization which the UN has repeatedly said violates well-established principles of international humanitarian law.

“Parents tell us their children cry themselves to sleep from hunger. Food distribution sites have become places of violence,” Tedros said.  

In addition to risking their lives when seeking out desperately needed humanitarian assistance, hospitals – which have been systematically targeted, according to UNFPA – are no longer safe havens.  

“Hospitals, which are supposed to be safe havens, have regularly been attacked, and many are no longer functioning,” Tedros said.  

He recalled that on Monday, a WHO staff residence, a humanitarian site, was attacked, with male personnel being stripped and interrogated, women and children forced to flee on foot in the midst of violence and one WHO staff member detained. 

“Despite this, WHO and other UN agencies are staying in Gaza. Our commitment is firm. UN agencies must be protected while operating in conflict zones,”  Tedros said.  

An UNRWA school turned shelter in Al Bureij, Gaza, lies in ruins following a missile attack in May 2025.

Frontline workers face hunger

In addition to the Palestinians in Gaza who are “emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying”, aid workers are also feeling the effects of the sustained lack of supplies.

Most UNRWA workers are surviving on a meagre bowl of lentils each day, Mr. Lazzarini said, leading many of them to faint from hunger at work.  

“When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing,” he said.  

Some parents are too hungry to care for their children, and even those who do reach clinics for treatment are often too tired to follow the advice provided.  

Desperately needed aid

While UN teams were able to collect some flour at the border on Wednesday, the aid is “nowhere near sufficient” to meet the basic survival needs of Palestinians and humanitarian workers in Gaza, said Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.  

A trickle of fuel has been allowed in during the past few weeks but no tents or other shelter materials have been allowed in for over 20 weeks.  

Mr. Dujarric said that UN humanitarian teams trying to bring aid into the Strip continue to face logistical and bureaucratic impediments from Israeli authorities, ongoing hostilities which create access constraints and other challenges.  

Mr. Lazzarini noted that UNRWA alone has 6,000 trucks of desperately needed food and medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt. He called for this and other aid to be immediately let through.

“Families are no longer coping. They are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened,” he said.  “Allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza.”