Allow Lifesaving Winter Supplies into Gaza

Gaza, November 25, 2025. Photo by Yousef Zaanoun, Activestills

On December 16, 2025 ACRI sent an urgent appeal to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Commander of the Southern Command, and the Minister of Defense, demanding that residents of the Gaza Strip be supplied immediately with protective equipment to cope with the looming winter, including tents, sealing sheets, blankets, sanitation equipment, and heating and lighting equipment. 

In the appeal, Attorney Tal Hassin describes the situation in Gaza following the winter rains and the storm Byron. Over a million people who were uprooted from their homes during the war are currently destitute and living in tents and temporary shelters. After Byron swept through the area, displaced persons camps were flooded; tents collapsed; and vulnerable groups such as children, women, and the elderly suffer from the cold without any ability to protect themselves. As of December 13, 2025, 14 deaths, including those of three children, were reported as a result of the storm and the lack of safe shelter. Since the storm began, the number of cases of hypothermia and illness increased, as well as the number of hospitalizations due to infectious diseases and heart and lung problems. Meanwhile, millions of items intended to help Gaza residents cope with the cold are stuck waiting to enter the Strip. This is due, among other things, to a new procedure that makes it difficult to register humanitarian organizations seeking to operate in Gaza, and due to the intermittent closures of the crossings. 

Attorney Hassin noted that the State's obligation to provide humanitarian equipment to Gaza’s residents is anchored both in Israeli and international law. Among other things, the Fourth Geneva Convention obligates the State to protect the civilian population, to allow the passage of essential equipment and aid, and to allow the Red Cross and other neutral humanitarian organizations access to the population requiring their services. Moreover, consistent Supreme Court rulings have obligated the State to act in accordance with the principles of international humanitarian law, and to avoid doing harm to the minimal living conditions of a civilian population. 

ACRI's appeal, December 16, 2025 (Heb)