The destruction was caused by the Israeli airstrikes in Al Remal neighbourhood in the middle of Gaza City during the 4th day of the escalation.
The conflict in Gaza continues to take a devastating toll on civilians.
No one and nowhere is safe.
People who survive the relentless airstrikes are living in overcrowded shelters, in tents, and on the streets with limited access to food or clean water. Over 95% of Gaza’s population doesn’t have access to clean water and people in northern Gaza are forced to survive on 245 calories a day, less than a can of beans.
The situation in Gaza is an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
Please donate what you can to the Gaza appeal today.
Your donation will help provide emergency food, clean water and hygiene kits and help repair water and sanitation networks.
Duaa Abu Sabha holds water bottles while walking to her tent in the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis Governorate. (Photo: Alef Multimedia/Oxfam)
HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE AT SCALE NOW IMPOSSIBLE:
Oxfam and other operational agencies are doing what they can, through partners, to deliver some amounts of life-saving aid, but this is not enough. The Israeli military onslaught is causing such destruction, danger, and civilian terror and suffering that makes any international humanitarian response of the scale required now impossible across the entire enclave. The nightmare is unfolding in full view of the international community. Our political leaders are failing – in abject weakness – to forge a ceasefire, which is the only possible humanitarian action that now really matters.
What is happening in the Israel-Palestine conflict?
Israel is inflicting mass death, forcible displacement, starvation and deprivation upon more than two million people, and reducing Gaza to rubble.
Palestinians in Gaza are being repeatedly displaced into so-called ‘safe zones’ - but it’s clear that nowhere is safe.
Duaa Mansour and her children are checking the food items in Oxfam food parcel distributed among displaced people. She and her husband are challenged to make food for their three children who lost significant weight during the Israel's war on Gaza. (Photo: Alef Multimedia Company/Oxfam)
Our Humanitarian Response
The continuing bombardment has made a full-scale humanitarian response impossible. Only a small amount of aid is being allowed in by the Israeli authorities. More than 2 million people are still in desperate need of lifesaving assistance.
Despite severe challenges to aid delivery, Oxfam, with its partners, reached over 262,424 people in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, delivered emergency cash, and was able to expand food security interventions through a network of local entities.
Oxfam has worked in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel since the 1950s to help build and protect rights to water, sanitation and hygiene, cash assistance and more.
INSIDE GAZA: Oxfam is working to deliver clean water and sanitation to Palestinians in Gaza, and is working with local partner organizations to provide shelter, food, healthcare services, hygiene kits and other essentials. We are also working together to support vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, and to provide specialised support to women and children. Our partners, like us, are now operating under extremely difficult conditions – including the displacement of their staff – and we know that the aid we are able to provide is only a drop in the ocean given the monumental needs of more than two million people.
In the first six months of the war, Oxfam successfully delivered more than 14,000 jerry cans and buckets, 3,000 protection kits, over 800 bedpans and commodes, 1,000 bedding kits, 29 tap stands and two pallets of handwashing stations. We are progressively also sending in around 4,500 food kits. We are anticipating the delivery of another 3,000 hygiene kits, nearly 300 winterisation kits, 60 cleaning kits, remaining food kits, and we have another 1,000 latrine slabs awaiting transportation.
Along with our partners, we have also made cash and voucher distributions into Northern Gaza, distributed dignity kits and mother and baby kits; provided clean drinking water to more than 44,000 people in Rafah; and together, we have rehabilitated wastewater networks in Rafah. Despite the extremely difficult operational environment, Oxfam and its partners have reached more than 250,000 individuals with life-saving aid and support in six months. The number of people reached grew to 335,000 in May.
IN THE WEST BANK: We are working to support Palestinians in the West Bank, who are facing myriad impacts of the war on their lives. Israeli forces and illegal settlers have increased their violent raids and attacks on Palestinians, with more than 500 people killed since October 7 and thousands arbitrarily detained.
Critical infrastructure and hundreds of homes have been deliberately destroyed. Movement around the West Bank is severely restricted with more checkpoints creating bottlenecks. Palestinians in the West Bank are also facing a severe economic crisis and poverty is increasing, with almost 150,000 people losing their permits to work in Israel.
Oxfam is helping families in need by providing food parcels, including fresh food. We are also working with our partners to support farmers to stay on their land, and women and young people with employment opportunities.
Oxfam’s shipment of vital water quality testing equipment has not been able to cross into Gaza since December.
We have had several other items that Israeli authorities initially rejected but have since been given pre-approval, and we expect these will be transported as soon as possible, including tank and bladder kits and hand-washing stands. We also regularly wait on authorities to pre-approve materials such as water testing kits, sterilisers, deionisation packs, pH sensors, photometers and turbidity tubes. This process usually takes two to three weeks.
The Gaza crisis is unprecedented in its scale and complexity. A ceasefire will demand an immediate scale up in our response where our current appeal funds can be utilized, however we know ongoing needs will be huge and the response required to meet them will be enormously costly.
Despite working under unimaginable conditions, our Oxfam staff and partners are still able to provide urgent and essential support to Palestinians in Gaza including fresh water and sanitation kits, but that is hardly enough to meet the sheer volume of needs.
Oxfam projects our humanitarian and development response will require tens of millions of dollars to help rebuild the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.
Oxfam is not a registered organization in Egypt and doesn’t have a team in Egypt, which makes any Oxfam response through the Rafah crossing challenging for us and many other unregistered organizations. However, we are actively pursuing multiple avenues, a
