Gaza Briefing: 18 September to 24 September 2026 / Page Updated:  26 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

A note on this week’s reporting window: going forward, NCF’s weekly window will run Friday to Thursday inclusive, matching both the Gaza Crossings Authority’s own reporting cycle and the Ministry of Health’s own day-of-week rhythm — rather than the previous Saturday-anchored week. This week accordingly covers Friday 18 September to Thursday 24 September 2026 inclusive.

Since 7th October 2023

Since the ceasefire on October 10 2025

This week (18-24 September):

Sources: IMEMC/WAFA/Palestine Information Center, 18 & 24 Sept 2026 (corroborated across multiple independent wire pickups). Israel: Al Arabiya/AFP, Times of Israel, 25 Sept 2026.

Notes on this week’s figures

Gaza: the “since 7 October 2023” topline rose by 107, while the “since ceasefire” counter rose by only 22 — a gap consistent with the recurring mechanism now confirmed across several weeks of reporting and documented directly by OCHA’s own sitreps: bodies recovered from rubble (most from deaths that occurred before the ceasefire) are periodically certified by a ministerial committee and added to the cumulative “since 7 October” total without adding to the “since ceasefire” counter, which only tracks deaths occurring after 10 October 2025. This is now understood as a structural, recurring feature of Gaza’s reporting rather than an unresolved anomaly.

Israel: two Israeli reservists — Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Kali, 24, and Master Sgt. (res.) Ofek Moalem, 23 — were killed on 24 September when a military drone that had crashed at an army post in Gaza exploded as they approached it. This was reported as an operational accident, not combat, and an IDF probe is under way. This raises the named-basis Israeli fatality count since 7 October 2023 to 1,806 (695 civilians + 71 foreign nationals killed 7 October 2023, plus 970 soldiers + 70 police killed since 7 October 2023 to present — up from 968 soldiers previously), and the “since ceasefire” total to 7 (up from 5). Israeli injury figures (3,004 since 7 Oct 2023; 20 since ceasefire) remain on the previous, non-named-basis standard and have not been updated this week.

Humanitarian Aid for the week of 18–24 September

NCF Exclusive: Gaza Crossings Authority Weekly Report

This section is built entirely from the Gaza Crossings and Borders 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 Authority. NCF is grateful to both for this access.

Crossing operational status, 18–24 September (7-day period):

Passenger movement, 18–24 September:

Net movement this week: outflow of 35. Turned back: 0.

Breakdown of the 185 departures: Patients 86, Companions 99, Coordination cases 0, Evacuations 0 — a return to the pattern of two weeks ago (100% medical), after last week’s one-off surge of 165 EU-flagged evacuation departures.

Truck movement, 18–24 September (all via Kerem Shalom):

Fuel breakdown (49 tankers): Diesel 34, Cooking gas 15, Petrol 0.

Truck contents by category: Food/provisions 520, Consumer goods/household items 218, Shelter/relief supplies 26, Medical/health supplies 5, Fuel 49, Fodder/seeds 4 (total 822).

Source: Crossings and Borders Authority – Gaza, Public Relations and Media Department, weekly bulletin for 18–24 September 2026, via Adel Al Zanoon and the Director General.

Week-on-week context: total truck volume fell sharply from last week’s 1,109 to 822 (a 26% drop), driven mainly by fewer commercial trucks (825 → 588) and a near-halving of aid trucks (244 → 185), alongside two additional closure days at Kerem Shalom for goods traffic (1 day closed last week vs. 2 this week).

Are these figures published elsewhere?

The Authority maintains a public Facebook page and a subsidiary presence via the Palestinian Ministry of Interior and National Security, and its daily truck-movement bulletins do get occasional pickup by regional outlets — for example, a same-day figure from this Authority appeared on a Lebanese news site on 24 September. But there is no other weekly consolidated report — with the full passenger-movement breakdown, crossing-by-crossing operational status, and truck-content categorisation — republished anywhere in English or Arabic media.

Caveats

• Single-source (Gaza-side authority), not independently cross-verified by an international body.
• Other sources (Chamber of Commerce, UN2720, bilateral) remain deprioritized per the standing methodology — mentioned only if a specific figure is needed as cross-check.
• COGAT (gaza-aid-data.gov.il) remains unusable as a current source.

Key Developments: 18 September – 24 September

21 September: UN partners complete repairs to a damaged sewage pumping station in Jabalya, north Gaza, restoring operations via a locally-procured generator — part of a wider push (19 water/sewage facilities repaired between June and August, ~1 million of 60+ million metric tons of rubble cleared since last year) that OCHA says remains capacity-constrained because Israel continues to restrict entry of new generators, heavy machinery and spare parts. Separately, some 330,000 children are now attending 200 UNICEF-supported learning centres after Gaza’s schools returned from summer break, and this year’s $4bn OPT humanitarian response plan remains under 40% funded.

22 September: World leaders line up to criticise Israel on the opening day of the UN General Assembly’s 81st session — Turkish President Erdogan accuses Israel of “state terrorism” and calls Gaza “the most inhumane and shameful concentration camp”; Jordan’s King Abdullah II alleges Israel is systematically altering realities in Gaza and the West Bank; Qatar’s Emir calls events in Gaza “genocide in the fullest sense”; France’s Macron and UK PM Andy Burnham voice sharp criticism; Brazil’s Lula references Palestinians’ “pain and trauma”; outgoing Secretary-General Guterres warns of possible “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank.

23 September: Four Palestinians killed in separate Israeli strikes on Wednesday. An airstrike on a vehicle in western Khan Younis kills Osama Abu Khater and Mohammad Abu Elwan — the latter named by Netanyahu and Katz as a senior Hamas finance official — with two more wounded; two further people are killed in separate strikes in Gaza City and Deir al-Balah.

23 September: The Board of Peace unveils a $2.4–2.45bn, six-month, 66-project reconstruction blueprint for Gaza — the largest component ($1bn) is infrastructure, including rubble and unexploded-ordnance clearance (~$275m) and tunnel filling, alongside shelter, hospital and road repairs; a further ~$885m is earmarked for security, including an International Stabilization Force base in Rafah and a Palestinian-police mobilisation fund. High Representative Mladenov stresses the plan depends on Hamas’s disarmament: “we are not bound by a calendar.”

24 September: Netanyahu delivers a combative UN address attacking both adversaries and allies — defending the Israel-US strikes on Iran, criticising Turkey, France and the UK, and calling New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani “anti-Semitic” — as dozens of delegates walk out of the chamber as he begins speaking.

24 September: In a pre-recorded address (after the US denied visas to the Palestinian delegation for a second year running), Mahmoud Abbas warns the UN that Israeli policy now threatens the Palestinians’ “very existence,” brands West Bank settlement expansion a “malicious colonial plan,” and states that any transitional period must lead to reunification of Gaza and the West Bank “under one Palestinian state with a single legitimate armed force.” He also announces the PA has “completed the national reform programme” it had committed to.

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.

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Image featured above shows children returning to school in Gaza for the first time in years.