Press releases

In response to the escalation of attacks on hospitals in Gaza, Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East Regional Director, said: “Attacks on hospitals packed with civilians in need of urgent treatment and seeking shelter are abhorrent and can never be justified. Children receiving care for cancer, people on respirators, patients in intensive care cannot flee the violence. Indiscriminately firing on civilians in hospitals is not just a war crime, it’s an assault on humanity.  

Oxfam is gravely concerned for the lives of around 500,000 Palestinians, alongside any of the more than 200 Israeli and other national hostages, currently trapped in a “siege within a siege” in northern Gaza.  

In response to the United Nations Environment Program’s Adaptation Gap Report 2023, Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, said: “The report underlines how the gap in adaptation funding —at its ‘highest ever’ amid accelerating climate breakdown— must be addressed with the utmost urgency next month in Dubai."

Starvation is being used as a weapon of war against Gaza civilians, Oxfam said today as it renewed its call for food, water, fuel and other essentials to be allowed to enter.  

Today, Members of the European Parliament called for a humanitarian pause in the resolution they adopted on the events in Gaza. In response, Vittorio Infante, Oxfam EU conflict expert said: "This is a timid gesture. While any window to bring in aid to Gaza safely should be seized at this catastrophic stage, this is not the real answer.

Gaza is facing an unprecedented health crisis that risks an outbreak of deadly infectious diseases, like cholera, because water and sanitation services have completely broken down, says Oxfam. 

Today, European finance ministers updated the EU tax havens list. They added Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Seychelles to the blacklist and removed the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica and the Marshall Islands.

Ahead of European leaders meeting tomorrow to discuss the unfolding events in Gaza, Vittorio Infante, Oxfam EU conflict expert, said:

CEOs of 12 humanitarian agencies alarmed by Israel’s call for over a million Palestinians to leave northern Gaza in less than 24 hours. They are urging Israel to rescind this order immediately.