Crisis in Gaza

More than two years since the Israeli military offensive, Operation Cast Lead, the Gaza Strip remains in a protracted crisis. Of the 1.5 million people in Gaza, 80% depend on humanitarian aid. Today, the people within the coastal strip are still suffering, as badly-needed reconstruction materials are prevented from entering Gaza.

What Oxfam is doing

Throughout, we have been and continue to support partner organizations responding to the crisis.

Read Oxfam Gaza Blockade Factsheet: The Big Uneasy: Israel’s easing of the Gaza land, air and sea blockade: promises and realities (8 December 2011)

Clean water, sanitation and hygiene

In the first three months after the war, Oxfam distributed more than 40 million liters of water, reaching some 100,000 people. We have completed repairs to sewage systems in three communities and to a water pumping station. Oxfam has been providing hygiene informationa and materials to prevent outbreaks of disease.

Medical care

After providing ambulance and emergency medical services during the fighting, our partners have expanded their work to include home-based and community health care. We also organized psycho-social group therapy sessions with local partners for 180 women traumatised by the war.

Food

An Oxfam partner has distributed food packets to 20,000 people in the immediate aftermath. We then helped provide fresh produce and other foods to more than 10,000 people – much of it grown by Gazan farmers whose fields escaped serious damage from the war. In its food distributions, Oxfam aims to reach the most vulnerable groups, like women-headed households and families badly affected by injuries and disabilities.

Longer term

In the occupied Palestinian territories, Oxfam and our partner organizations help poor people establish small businesses, gain access to markets, and improve labor conditions. We provide vocational training and legal aid, as well as basic health services focusing on care for women and children. We monitor human rights violations and support women’s and refugees' rights in particular. We help provide water, rooftop storage tanks and cisterns, and public health interventions to thousands of Palestinians, and we support local partners in implementing sustainable rural development and food security projects.

In Israel, Oxfam and its partners work to secure equal rights for disadvantaged Israeli citizens, support women's groups, and help poor Israeli women support their families by setting up small businesses. An Oxfam partner is pioneering the sale of fair-trade products in Israel and the marketing of Palestinian olive oil through Israeli outlets. We also support Israeli organizations fostering a dialogue on peace and defending human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Make a donation

Please make a donation to the general emergency fund of your nearest national Oxfam affiliate. Your money will be used to fund our humanitarian and emergency work worldwide.