Geneva, 10 October 2025 (dpa/MIA) - The United Nations is calling for the opening of all border crossings into the Gaza Strip, representatives of several UN humanitarian organizations announced in Geneva on Friday.

The UN bodies involved include the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Israel ended its cooperation with UNRWA at the beginning of the year, partly because of its alleged closeness to the Palestinian militant organization Hamas.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told reporters in Geneva that relief work in the Gaza Strip would be impossible without the network of 12,000 UNRWA employees, who continued to work there despite the Israeli boycott. UNRWA remains the largest humanitarian aid organization in the Gaza Strip, she said.

Israel controls access to the Gaza Strip and must give the green light to the delivery of aid and guarantee the safety of convoys. Whether and how UNRWA will be used for humanitarian tasks is also still unclear. 

A priority is getting more than 650,000 children back to school. Classes have been cancelled since the terrorist attack on Israel led by Hamas from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war. Half of the minors had previously attended UNRWA schools, Touma said. There are 7,000 UNRWA teachers ready to resume teaching.

UNICEF has been preparing for winter for a long time. Every child in the Gaza Strip under the age of 1 will receive two boxes of winter clothing, a spokesman said.

One million blankets are available for all minors. In addition, there is enough food to feed 50,000 malnourished children and 60,000 pregnant women or breastfeeding mothers.