Gaza blockade

The United Nations and all other humanitarian actors have spent 15 years delivering humanitarian support to 2.1m Palestinians blockaded inside Gaza, and yet, there is still no sustained collective political action or will to resolve it. 

Six years after the establishment of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, people in Gaza continue to live on the brink of disaster as a result of 13 years of the Israeli blockade. The water, sanitation and health sector remains significantly damaged, with Gaza facing the complete collapse of its wastewater treatment system.

Over half the population of Gaza lives under the poverty line, and one million Palestinians in Gaza don’t have enough food to feed their families.This joint agency briefing calls for an immediate end to the blockade and opening crossings into and out of Gaza.

The prolonged closure of crossings into Gaza could cut Palestinians off from essential goods such as fuel and food, threatening to further deteriorate what is already a dire humanitarian situation.

Without a peace deal based on international law, the US announcement to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy to the city is a provocative and dangerous move for both Palestinians and Israelis, Oxfam said today.

In Gaza less than four percent of fresh water is drinkable and the surrounding sea is polluted by sewage. Yet the international community is failing to do enough to protect the health and dignity of almost 2 million people who have nowhere else to go. Read the story.

Two and a half years after the devastating destruction in Gaza, this paper analyses the effectiveness of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) in improving access to water, health and sanitation services and identifies urgent steps that should be taken. 

As the blockade imposed by Israel approaches its 9th anniversary, it continues to devastate the lives and livelihoods of 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza. This collective punishment keeps people poor, denies them their rights and fails to make Israel safer, Oxfam said today.

Rich countries have paid out less than half the amount they originally pledged to help countries recover from a snapshot of three major humanitarian crises, according to Oxfam.

One year on from the 2014 Gaza conflict, most people's lives have not improved and an entire generation of young people face an increasingly bleak future with little hope of jobs, reconstruction or safety, Oxfam said today.