Gaza blockade

The resumption of aid into Gaza, including fuel to operate undamaged water and sanitation systems along with water trucking, has improved the amount of water available to people in some parts of Gaza. But the picture remains extremely bleak and dangerously critical, especially in the North Gaza and Rafah governorates, warned Oxfam today. 

After more than a year of a brutal military assault and blocking of aid by Israeli authorities, this pause is long overdue.

Reaction to the Knesset passing bills banning UNRWA from operating in areas under Israel’s control.

The Israeli forces’ assault on Gaza has escalated to a horrifying level of atrocity. Northern Gaza is being wiped off the map. Under the guise of “evacuation,” Israeli forces have ordered the forced displacement of an estimated 400,000 Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza, including Gaza City. This is not an evacuation—this is forced displacement under gunfire.

Israeli explosive weapons hit civilian infrastructure in Gaza once every three hours. 

A new Oxfam report reveals how Israel has been systematically weaponizing water against Palestinians in Gaza, showing disregard for human life and international law.  

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.  

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.  

Of the meagre 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians. For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours.  

New displacement orders issued by Israeli authorities have forced another mass movement of families and humanitarian workers from areas in Deir al-Balah - one of the only remaining areas in the occupied Gaza Strip with essential infrastructure and warehouses storing aid supplies.