Human Rights Watch: Gaza Civilian Harm and Aid Limits Remain in Focus

What Human Rights Watch is recording

Human Rights Watch says it is still documenting civilian harm in Gaza, including deaths, repeated displacement, and limits on humanitarian access. The group cites Gaza Health Ministry figures used in its World Report 2026 chapter and later updates, including more than 69,000 Palestinians killed and more than 170,000 injured as of that report period, and 19,000 children among the dead in the same tally.

HRW has stated that Israeli forces have forcibly displaced nearly all of Gaza’s population, often more than once, and that it has classified some of those acts as war crimes and crimes against humanity. A UN Commission of Inquiry report in September, referenced by HRW, found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Israel rejects those characterizations.

Aid, hospitals, and current field reports

HRW and U.N. sources it quotes say aid volumes remain below assessed need and that access routes have been obstructed. OCHA figures cited in HRW material said 82 percent of Gaza was inside an Israeli-militarized zone or under displacement order as of mid-September in the World Report period. WHO counted hundreds of attacks on health facilities and 983 people killed in those incidents as of September 11 in that dataset.

In a May 2026 statement still used in its Gaza file, HRW deputy Middle East director Adam Coogle said Palestinians in Gaza “are still hungry, still cannot reach medical care, and civilians are still being killed.” Reuters reported this week that an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed a family of four. HRW says parties to the conflict remain bound by international humanitarian law, including safe passage of aid.