What is happening in Gaza right now?
Gaza is home to a population of two million people who have been living under constant bombardment, with little to no essential aid deliveries for months. They are in urgent need of food, water, medicine and fuel.
Lack of shelter, food, water and the threat of waterborne diseases is causing a health catastrophe for hundreds of thousands of people and an alarming threat to the lives of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their newborn children.
Riham Jafari, Communication and Advocacy Coordinator at ActionAid in Palestine:
There can be no delay. The level of humanitarian need is already overwhelming and growing by the day – only a permanent ceasefire will allow for the killing of civilians to stop and aid on anything like the scale required to enter Gaza and reach those who need it.”
What is ActionAid doing to help?
ActionAid are working with our partners in Gaza who are doing their utmost to provide food, cash and relief items to families that we can reach, but access to supplies is limited and transportation to the shelters is challenging and dangerous for those who are working on the ground.
So, we’re asking for your continued financial support, which is now needed more than ever, to help us deliver aid in the coming days and weeks.
- In the West Bank our partners are supporting people who have been internally displaced from Gaza. We’ve distributed over 1,000 dignity and winterisation kits across various districts. These include vital items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, shaving gel, razors, wet wipes, deodorant, and towels.
- In Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital, ActionAid’s partner in Gaza continues to provide maternity services for women in Gaza, including deliveries, caesareans and emergency maternity services, though it is operating under extremely challenging circumstances with a severe lack of medical supplies, including anaesthetics, and a shortage of staff.
- In Gaza, our partners WEFAQ reached over 1,000 families with fresh food and food parcels. And over 5,000 displaced people received hot meals at the Gaza-Rafah border.
- Our partners in Gaza also distributed emergency cash to 1050 families and 2,000 winter kits with blankets.
- 60 toilets and showers are currently being built and installed for displaced people living in overcrowded conditions in Rafah.
- WEFAQ social workers and gender-based violence experts in Rafah and Khan Younis are also providing a psychological support hotline for women and have reached over 400 women so far.
