UNRWA Warns of 'New Humanitarian Emergency Within Ceasefire' — 45% of Medicines Out of Stock, Single Excavator for Body Recovery

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini issued a stark warning on May 7, 2026, describing Gaza's humanitarian situation as a 'new humanitarian emergency within the ceasefire' — distinct from and in some respects as severe as the acute war phase. Key facts from Lazzarini's statement and supporting OCHA data: (1) 45% of essential medicines were out of stock across Gaza's remaining health facilities as of early May; (2) only a single functioning excavator was available in all of Gaza for body recovery operations, per the ICRC, leaving thousands of bodies still under rubble — an NPR investigation published May 6 documented the case of the Abu Naser family, of whom 132 members were killed in an October 2024 airstrike and only 50 bodies had yet been recovered; (3) aid flows into Gaza in Q1 2026 were down 37% from the post-ceasefire peak (November 2025); (4) on April 24 alone, zero commercial trucks entered Gaza; (5) 18,000+ patients awaited medical evacuation to Egypt, a program suspended since April 7 after the WHO driver's killing. Lazzarini called for an immediate surge in reconstruction materials, generator fuel, and medical supplies under international oversight, and warned that without intervention the current 'cold humanitarian crisis' risked destabilizing the fragile ceasefire further by increasing Palestinian desperation. The US-led Coordination Center on May 7 facilitated delivery of hundreds of cartons of rat poison and 20 tons of pesticide — the most visible May 7 aid delivery — to address a rodent infestation accelerating in tent-city sewage conditions.