AMMAN — Series of United Nations reports released in January 2026 warn of a sharp deterioration in human rights and humanitarian conditions across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, citing worsening restrictions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and growing vulnerability in Gaza amid harsh winter conditions.

 

The reports highlight severe impacts on civilians in Gaza as heavy rain and cold weather have flooded camps and rendered thousands of tents uninhabitable. Nearly 800,000 people — about 40 per cent of the population — are now living in flood-prone areas, with children and the elderly most at risk.

 

According to UNICEF, more than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire. While humanitarian aid deliveries have nearly tripled during the same period, UN agencies say damaged roads, limited storage facilities and restrictions on essential materials continue to undermine the effectiveness and durability of relief efforts.

 

UNICEF reported that nearly half a million children received child protection services between October and December 2025. However, winterisation support for adolescents remains critically low, reaching only 4 per cent, including among adolescents with disabilities.

 

In the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, UN reports warn that Palestinian rights are being “systematically asphyxiated,” citing widespread segregation, racial discrimination and what they describe as institutionalised apartheid under Israel’s current far-right government.

 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that nearly every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank is subject to Israeli control. “Whether accessing water, attending school, reaching a hospital, visiting family or harvesting olives, every aspect of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices,” Türk said, comparing the system to apartheid-era South Africa.

 

Beyond the humanitarian and legal assessments, analysts say the conflict has also reshaped global public opinion and media narratives.

 

Hassan Dajah, professor of strategic studies at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, said Israel has not entirely lost influence in Western media but no longer dominates the narrative as it once did.

 

“The media landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade,” Dajah said. “Social media has allowed Palestinians and their supporters to bypass traditional outlets and transmit images of suffering directly, generating widespread sympathy, particularly among younger generations in Europe and the United States.”

 

That shift, he added, has fuelled mass demonstrations and popular pressure on governments and institutions, even as Israel continues to wield significant political and media influence within Western decision-making centres.

 

“It would be inaccurate to say Israel has lost the media war entirely,” Dajah said. “However, it has lost its monopoly on the narrative, and Western public opinion has become more divided and increasingly sceptical of official Israeli discourse.”

 

American-Palestinian journalist and author RamzyBaroud said Israel’s long-standing public relations strategy, known as “hasbara”, has lost its strategic dominance, not due to policy shifts among Western governments but because of a deeper change in public consciousness.

 

“What we are witnessing is not a moral awakening of Western governments, many remain complicit, but an irreversible transformation in public awareness,” Baroud said.

 

He argued that Israel’s traditional cycle of military escalation followed by a coordinated propaganda campaign has been disrupted by the war in Gaza, which has unfolded in real time and been extensively documented by Palestinian journalists and, in some cases, Israeli soldiers themselves.

 

“This unprecedented volume of visual and testimonial evidence has bypassed traditional media gatekeepers,” Baroud said. “Denial and euphemism have become increasingly untenable.”

 

Baroud also pointed to international legal developments, noting that actions by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have challenged Israel’s long-held claim to exceptionalism.

 

“For the first time, Israeli conduct is being treated not as ‘disputed’ but as potential genocide and crimes against humanity,” he said, adding that efforts by Western leaders to undermine these institutions have weakened their own moral credibility.

 

According to Baroud, Israel’s growing reliance on censorship and the criminalisation of pro-Palestinian solidarity, particularly in the United States and Europe, reflects a loss of confidence rather than strength.

 

“A narrative that requires repression to survive has already failed,” he said.

 

He added that public opinion, especially among younger generations, has reached a turning point. “Palestine is no longer a marginal humanitarian issue,” Baroud said. “It has become a defining moral and political cause tied to colonialism, racism and the future of international law.”