Gaza Briefing: 12 September to 18 September 2026 / Page Updated:  19 September 2026

The NCF’s weekly overview of developments in Gaza, including the humanitarian situation, aid, peace efforts and related developments.

In This Update

• Deaths as a Consequence of War
• Humanitarian Aid and other civilian crossings for the Week of 11–17 September
• Key Developments: 12 September – 18 September
• Gaza Governance

Deaths as a consequence of war

Since 7th October 2023

Since the ceasefire on October 10 2025

This week (12-18 September):

Sources: IMEMC, 18 Sept 2026 (topline and ceasefire-cumulative figures from Ministry of Health — no cross-source date mismatch). Israel: government’s official numbers and Israel media.

Notes on this week’s figures

Both the “since 7 October 2023” and “since ceasefire” counters come from the same Ministry of Health report this week, so there’s no repeat of last week’s date-mismatch problem. The two counters’ implied weekly changes are reasonably close (38 killed on the topline vs. 28 on the since-ceasefire counter; 141 vs. 243 injured) — a modest gap consistent with normal day-to-day reporting variance, not the kind of large, unexplained divergence flagged last week. No batch certification event (of the kind that affected the 8–9 September figures) was reported this week.

Israel — methodology unchanged from last week’s revision: the named-basis total of 1,804 (695 civilians + 71 foreign nationals killed 7 October 2023, plus 968 soldiers + 70 police killed since 7 October 2023 to present) remains current, with no new Israeli military fatalities confirmed in reporting for this week. Israel injury figures (3,004 since 7 Oct 2023; 20 since ceasefire) remain on the previous, non-named-basis standard.

Humanitarian Aid for the week of 11–17 September

NCF Exclusive: Gaza Crossings Authority Weekly Report

This section is built entirely from the Gaza Crossings Authority’s own official weekly bulletin, obtained directly by NCF’s Head for Gaza, Adel Al Zanoon, through his personal contact with the Director General of the Crossings and Borders Authority – Gaza. NCF is grateful to both for this access. This is original NCF-sourced information, may not be available elsewhere, and — as a single-source report from the Gaza-side crossings authority — is not independently cross-verified by an international body.

Crossing operational status, 11–17 September (7-day period):

Passenger movement, 11–17 September:

Net movement this week: outflow of 146 — a marked change from the previous week’s exact balance (334 out / 334 in). Denied entry/turned back: 0.

Breakdown of the 318 departures:

The 165 “evacuation” departures — all flagged to the EU — are new this week. Last week’s report showed zero non-medical/non-standard departures; this week over half of all departures fall into this separate evacuation category, distinct from ordinary Egypt and Jordan crossings, likely reflecting a European medical evacuation effort. Worth watching whether this becomes a recurring pattern or was a one-off.

Truck movement, 11–17 September (all via Kerem Shalom):

Fuel breakdown (40 tankers): Diesel 25, Cooking gas 14, Gasoline 1.

Truck contents by category: Food/provisions 673, Consumer goods/household items 319, Shelter/relief supplies 35, Medicines/medical supplies 17, Fuel 40, Animal feed/seeds 11, Zinc roofing sheets 5, Water tanker trucks 9 (total 1,109).

Source: Crossings and Borders Authority – Gaza, Public Relations and Media, weekly bulletin for 11–17 September 2026, via Adel Al Zanoon and the Director General of the Crossings and Borders Authority.

Latest single-day snapshot: Friday, 18 September

The Authority also issues daily bulletins. Friday’s figures show a sharp one-day drop: only 32 total trucks entered via Kerem Shalom (21 commercial, 10 aid, 1 fuel) — well below the week’s daily average of ~158. Zikim and Kissufim remained closed. All 10 aid trucks that day were World Central Kitchen (6 flour/wheat, 4 soup kitchen supplies). This is a single day’s figure, not a trend — included here as the most current data point available, not as representative of the week.

A Note on Groups 1, 2 and 3 (Chamber of Commerce / UN2720 / Bilateral)

NCF has historically tracked three additional aid channels — the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, the UN2720 mechanism, and bilateral state donations. In practice, these have proven largely useless for weekly reporting purposes: figures are chronically stale (Chamber of Commerce data is currently nearly two months old), UN2720’s dashboard has been offline for a platform migration, and bilateral figures are fragmentary, self-reported, and rarely align with NCF’s reporting week. Now that NCF has direct, weekly, internally consistent data from the Gaza Crossings Authority itself — the body that actually operates the crossings — these three sources add little and will no longer be reported in full each week. They remain available as a secondary cross-check if a specific figure is needed.

A Note on COGAT (Israeli Government Data)

Unchanged finding: gaza-aid-data.gov.il’s date-range search still returns no results for any 2026 period (NCF’s own direct testing). The most recent dated COGAT report located still covers only through 7 June 2026.

Caveats

• The figures above are NCF’s own exclusive sourcing from the Gaza-side Crossings Authority — detailed and internally consistent, but single-source and not independently cross-verified by an international body.
• This week’s reporting window (11–17 September) runs one day earlier than the casualty section’s window (12–18 September), reflecting the Crossings Authority’s own reporting cycle rather than NCF’s.
• COGAT remains unusable as a current source.

Key Developments: 12 September – 18 September

16 September: A war-damaged residential building collapses in Gaza City, killing at least 21 people, including 12 children; the six-storey structure had been previously damaged in an Israeli strike and was known to be unstable. The IDF denies ever striking the building.

16 September: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi rejects any plan for Palestinian displacement during a Cairo meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, hours after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the army would “finish the job” in Gaza “so that we can also implement the migration plan.”

16 September: Forty-three Israeli human rights, equality, and peace organisations issue a joint statement backing “NAZA” documentary filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor amid threats and calls to revoke their citizenship, following the film’s Special Jury Prize win at Venice.

16 September: An Israeli “double-tap” air strike in Gaza City kills a paramedic and a 15-year-old schoolboy who had rushed to help the wounded.

NCF Exclusive / 19 September: Gaza’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education launches the 2026–2027 academic year — the first with in-person attendance since the war began. Around 500,000–700,000 students are enrolled across roughly 230–320 school buildings, tents and temporary learning sites; the Ministry says some 97% of Gaza’s school buildings were damaged in the war. Confirmed directly to NCF’s Head for Gaza, Adel Al Zanoon, by the Ministry.

Gaza Governance

Transitional Administration:

The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is designated as the Palestinian civilian administration for Gaza under the Gaza peace framework.

Head: Ali Shaath, Chief Commissioner of the NCAG.

International Oversight:

The transition is overseen by the Board of Peace, with Nickolay Mladenov serving as High Representative for Gaza.

Gaza Executive Board, Board of Peace

Hamas:

In July 2025, Hamas announced it will transfer civilian and security governing authority to the NCAG. The transfer remains in progress, with the implementation of Hamas’ disarmament and the full establishment of NCAG authority still unresolved.

Hamas has traditionally organised its leadership across four pillars — Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora/external leadership, and (historically) a prisoners’ portfolio. Israel’s assassination of most of the pre-war leadership has significantly reshaped this structure over the past two years:

• Overall Chairman of the Political Bureau: Khalil al-Hayya, elected 20 July 2026 (35–34 over Khaled Mashal), replacing the five-member collective leadership that governed since Yahya Sinwar’s death in October 2024. Formally based in Doha, Qatar, but widely described as Gaza’s de facto leader and remains Hamas’s lead ceasefire negotiator.
• Political leader inside Gaza: Ali al-Amoudi, a Sinwar ally released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, is the figure reported to be managing Hamas’s internal political affairs in Gaza following al-Hayya’s promotion. Hamas has not formally confirmed this appointment, deliberately keeping it ambiguous for security reasons.
• Diaspora/external leadership: Khaled Mashal, who lost the July 2026 leadership vote to al-Hayya, continues to lead Hamas’s operations and diplomacy abroad.
• West Bank / prisoners’ portfolio: Zaher Jabarin leads Hamas’s West Bank operations and also formally holds the “Office of Martyrs, Wounded, and Prisoners” portfolio — the closest surviving equivalent of the historic separate prisoners’ leadership.
• Military wing (Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades) commander: Mohammed Odeh — arguably the most operationally significant of these roles, given Hamas’s stated refusal to disarm. Odeh succeeded Izz al-Din al-Haddad after al-Haddad was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 15 May 2026, and previously commanded Hamas’s northern Gaza brigade.
• The Shura Council, headed by Muhammad Ismail Darwish (Abu Omar Hassan), functions as Hamas’s overarching consultative, legislative, and decision-making body, responsible for electing the group’s Political Bureau and charting its strategic direction. It is an institution rather than an operational command — its head is not comparable in day-to-day significance to the political and military figures above, and is listed here for completeness rather than as a power centre in its own right.

Palestinian Authority (PA):

The PA is the internationally recognised Palestinian governing authority, with a stated objective of eventually assuming governance responsibilities in Gaza.

A Possible Future Leadership: Mohammed Dahlan

Mohammed Dahlan — the former PA Gaza security chief, exiled to the UAE since 2011 and a longstanding rival of Mahmoud Abbas — is increasingly reported to be positioning himself, with active Emirati backing, for a role governing Gaza and potentially as a future successor to the 90-year-old Abbas. Recent reporting (New Lines Magazine, August 2026; Mondoweiss, September 2026) describes intelligence and diplomatic circles in the US, Israel and the UAE putting his name forward, and describes Dahlan as having formed an informal alliance with elements of Hamas around a proposal to reshape Palestinian politics — a move that would place him closer to both Gaza governance and the wider Palestinian leadership question than at any point since his 2011 expulsion from Fatah. He remains deeply controversial and unpopular in Palestinian public opinion polling, and no formal appointment or succession process has been announced; this should be read as an emerging, actively-reported dynamic rather than a settled outcome.

Upcoming Elections

Israel – Knesset Election

Next Scheduled Election: 27 October 2026

Palestine – Legislative Election

Next Scheduled Election: 28 November 2026 (tentative date, cancellation by the President of Palestine anticipated)

From the NCF

NCF’s Latest Blog: The problem is still the occupation

Senior NCF member, Dr Tony Klug, shares his personal view that without an end to occupation, there can be no resolution of the Palestine-Israel question.

Click to read.

NCF’s Recent Blog: The Uprooting of Olive Trees in Palestine

NCF Trustee research officer, Ksenia Ryadnova writes on the destruction of olive trees in Palestine that causes cultural damage that goes well beyond its impact on food security.

Click to read.

Image featured above: Gaza, 18 September 2026: a mural thanking Macklemore for his solidarity with Palestine, being painted onto the ruins of a destroyed building.