Stand with Palestine

Thank you for your support of this project, I'm writing to share some updates on ActionAid's emergency humanitarian response in Gaza and the West Bank.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly. More than 680,000 people have been newly displaced, with over 82% of Gaza under displacement orders, forcing civilians to move repeatedly with little to no shelter. By mid June 2025, at least 55,637 Palestinians had been killed and nearly 130,000 injured. Health services barely functioning and only five hospitals remain partially operational for maternal and neonatal care. Food insecurity has reached catastrophic levels as Gaza's entrie population faces crisis levels, with nearly half a million people projected to face famine-like conditions through September. Access to clean water, food, and medical care is critically limited, especially for women, children, and babies.

Challenges:

• Aid response has been severely constrained due to access issues, lack of fuel, and widespread destruction. As of our most recent update (June 2025) no fuel has entered Gaza in more than 100 days, threatening the shutdown of whatever crtiical services remain. Food availability is minimal, and what is avaialbale costs up to 7,000% more compared to pre-conflict levels per reporting.
• In many humanitarian crises, women bearing the brunt. In this case, it is no different. Nearly 700,000 women and girls have no access to basic hygiene materials, and over 28,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are in desperate need of food and medical attention.
• Market access is still quite limited and often unreliable. Private cash services charge up to 48% in withdrawal fees due to issues of liquidity.

Despite these conditions, ActionAid and our partners in the region are continuing limited distributions (as we are able and as items are available for procurement) of hygiene kits, food parcels, clothing, and hot meals across Gaza, focusing our efforts in Khan Younis, Gaza City, and Deir al-Balah.

In the West Bank, movement restrictions. mass arrests, damange to homes an infrastructure, and violence have intensified, esepcially following broader regional escalations. As we are able, ActionAid is responding with emergency cash assistance to the most vulnerbale families, especially those that are woman-headed households and families with children with disabilities. We are also supporting gender-based violence survivors with targeted distributions and psychosocial support to overcome trauma.

Looking ahead, we are plannning to scale up distributions of food and hygiene kits to thousands of more families across Gaza, while continuing maternal and psychosocial support activities. Across both Gaza and the West Bank, our response is being adapted to ever-evolving and worsening conditions taking into account local sourcing of supplies, market scarcity, and rising prices, all of which pose extreme challenges to humanitarian response.. In the first half of 2025 (through May), over 34,000 people have been reached with food, shelter, hygiene, and medical support, but the scale of needs continues to remain far greater than current capacity.

We thank you for your support and solidarity during this devastating, unprecendented, and challenging time. Please feel free to reach out should you have any questions.