While marking a grim milestone, Oxfam and partners are continuing to assist people affected by the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Over the last year of conflict and displacement in Gaza, Duaa Mansour says the hardest part was watching her children slowly lose weight due to lack of food.
She scrolls through photos on her phone. "These are photos of my daughter before the war,” she says. “Her smiles and facial features were totally different.”
All three of her children have suffered from malnutrition. She recently weighed them: “Maram lost 5 kilograms [11 pounds]. Meera lost 3 kilograms [6 pounds]."
Mansour looks up from her phone, and tries to describe the struggle to keep her family properly fed. “My biggest concern is to lose a child, for there is no food. It is really difficult.”
Conflict, displacement and hunger in Gaza
Since the outbreak of conflict in October 2023 following attacks by Hamas in Israel, Gaza has faced a humanitarian crisis. Israeli bombardments and ground operations have been a daily reality for the 2.1 million people in Gaza. Israel’s military assault has killed over 40,000 people and injured more than 95,000. Families in Gaza have been displaced by conflict, many of them more than three times. No place in Gaza is safe.
The total siege of Gaza cut off the supply of food and other goods, and by the end of 2023 the entire 2.2 million population of Gaza was highly food insecure and facing the risk of famine. In the following months, the lack of food and other aid entering Gaza deepened the humanitarian crisis and risk of starvation for hundreds of thousands of people, particularly children.
Oxfam staff based in Gaza have been working closely with 20 partner organizations to provide cash, food, clothing, water, and improved sanitation to Palestinians affected by the conflict. Aid operations have been nearly impossible due to Israel’s siege, widespread bombardment, restrictions on movement, and imposition of delays on aid delivery.
Nonetheless, in the last year, Oxfam and our partners have reached 776,917 people in Gaza with humanitarian assistance.
During these months, Oxfam has been advocating for a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and unlawfully detained Palestinians, and access to humanitarian assistance and basic services throughout Gaza.
In the United States, Oxfam supporters have urged the Biden administration to prioritize these goals and to stop sending lethal arms to Israel due to its violations of international humanitarian law and blocking of humanitarian aid. In recent months, 48,685 Oxfam supporters have signed petitions and taken other online actions in support of a ceasefire.
How Oxfam’s partners are helping people in Gaza
Water, sanitation, hygiene
To help people in Gaza survive the conflict, Oxfam has supported the work of partners providing water by truck to families seeking shelter in southern and central areas of Gaza.
We installed five solar-powered desalination units in wells in Rafah, Al-Mawasi, and Khan Younis in coordination with Palestinian Environmental Friends. They are providing three liters of clean drinking water per person per day for 48,422 people. Together with Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, Oxfam rehabilitated 15 damaged water networks in Gaza City, the Middle Area, and Khan Younis. This has given 309,129 people access to water. We also rehabilitated damaged wastewater networks in 23 sites serving 143,000 people.
Oxfam supplied materials for our partners to build more than 200 latrines that serve 27,000 people, and helped our partners distribute more than 6,000 hygiene kits containing soap, toothbrushes, shampoo, laundry soap, and menstrual items.
Food for Gaza
Food has become extremely expensive, when it is available at all in Gaza. Oxfam worked with organizations in Gaza to provide cash to 3,833 households (more than 19,000 people). Our monitoring efforts showed that people receiving funds used them to buy food, medicine, water, and hygiene items.
Working with the Economic and Social Development Centre of Palestine and the Agriculture Development Association, we sourced vegetables from local farms and distributed tomatoes, onions, potatoes, lemons, and peppers to 187,242 people.
In collaboration with six Palestinian groups, Oxfam supported distribution of 18,709 ready-to-eat food parcels to families affected by the conflict in three areas of Gaza. These parcels included canned fruit and vegetables like tomatoes, olives, beans; canned tuna and sardines and beef; dried dates and apricots and raisins; and a variety of packaged high-energy biscuits, and other staple foods.
By August 2024, Oxfam partners had delivered food parcels to 10,800 households, including Duaa Mansour’s. When they opened up the box of food in their temporary home, Mansour and her family were relieved to have a source of food, at least for a few days.
“When the children saw the Oxfam food parcel, they were happy,” Mansour says, explaining that the box contained “things they have not seen for nine months.”
Advocating for a ceasefire
In late September 2024, a long-simmering conflict between Israel and armed groups in Lebanon escalated dramatically. More than a million people in Lebanon have been displaced and the region sits on the precipice of wider conflict.
Oxfam continues its advocacy for peace in Lebanon, Israel, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “We need a full and permanent ceasefire now, the safe return of all Israeli hostages and illegally detained Palestinians, an end to Israel’s siege of Gaza, and a stop to lethal arms sales to Israel,” says Oxfam America’s President and CEO Abby Maxman in a recent op-ed.