When I sit down to write this, my heart is with the people in Gaza and the terrible news that is pouring out from there. The latest surge of violence has introduced unprecedented hardships for the population clustered in a narrow strip of this densely populated territory. Cynical missile flights are creating devastation everywhere, levelling houses, hospitals and other critical installations. Nowhere is safe. Parents have no place to shelter their children from the frightful bombardment that rumbles in the sky.
The images emerging are only too vivid: the bodies of the casualties being dragged from the debris, the agonising wails of grief overpowering the acrid smoke, a child’s doll left behind in the ruins of the family home. This is a real human crisis of unprecedented scale that is ongoing in front of us.
The Grim Statistics
The statistics make for grim reading. Tens of thousands killed, a huge number of them children robbed of their future. Thousands more forced to flee their homes multiple times with nowhere safe to go. Food, water, fuel and medical supplies running perilously low as the siege tightens.
People are being starved as a brutal tactic, with the UN warning that famine is imminent. A staggering 2.3 million people – over half the population – are in desperate need of food aid. But even the paltry amounts allowed in are rendered useless without clean water or electricity to prepare it. Malnutrition is already rife, particularly among children.
The water crisis is equally dire. With supply lines shattered, the average Gazan has access to just 3 litres per day – a tiny fraction of the minimum emergency levels recommended. Forced to drink contaminated well water, incidences of life-threatening diseases like cholera are soaring.
“Our whole family are sick with diarrhoea from the disgusting salty water we have to drink,” one Oxfam staff member in Gaza told me in a voice strained by desperation. “There’s no electricity to pump clean water. We fill buckets and carry them up to the roof tanks.”
A Full-Scale Humanitarian Response
Impossible Unfortunately, the unrelenting bombardment has made it near impossible for aid agencies like Oxfam to mount a full-scale humanitarian response to this deepening crisis. Only a pitifully small amount of aid has been allowed through the crippling blockade.
Yet despite the huge obstacles and spiralling insecurity, Oxfam and partners like the Palestinian Medical Relief Society have been bravely doing what they can to help the beleaguered civilians. Cash assistance, hygiene kits, food parcels, medical aid – every little helps to ease the suffering. But it is just a drop in an ocean of need.
Oxfam has been in the region since the 1950s, and throughout this time, it has been fighting for the most basic of rights that the people in Gaza are being ruthlessly denied today, like access to water, sanitation, food and shelter. The principle the organisation stands for is that alleviating human suffering is the only valid reason for their intervention, regardless of the political situation.
The situation was already precarious, with 80% of Gaza residents relying on humanitarian aid to survive before this latest episode of war. Now, the lifeline is being disconnected. The need for more support is very urgent now and the aid workers should be allowed to start scaling up the operations as soon as the crisis is safely resolved.
Calling for an Immediate Ceasefire
This is why Oxfam is asking for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in this war. It is only after the bombs have stopped falling that the tenuous infrastructure can be rebuilt and aid can start to reach the people who need it the most. The very basic human needs and dignity are compromised by such destruction.
Their mission is to assist local partners to respond immediately in their communities by restoring water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, distributing food and household essentials, and helping those who have lost homes and livelihoods get back on their feet.
However, to make this a reality, safety should first be guaranteed for both civilians and humanitarian workers. The world cannot afford to ignore and let this man-made calamity continue. Peace talks, a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian access are needed now, not more escalation.
As one exhausted Oxfam staff member in Gaza, Wassem, told me: “We are looking for a ceasefire. We are looking for humanitarian aid to support the resilience of the people here.” His voice echoes that of millions teetering on the brink of famine and total collapse of basic services.
How You Can Help
While Oxfam and their partners try to do anything to respond to the chaos, the reality is that the worsening violence is preventing them from doing what they need to do. One thing that is of utmost importance is the support of people of good will from all around the globe. Here’s how you can take action:
- Sign the petition calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire to allow humanitarian access. Add your voice to the growing global chorus demanding an end to this bloodshed.
- Email your MP to amplify the pressure on UK leaders to use all diplomatic means to resolve this crisis and uphold human rights and international law. They need to hear from constituents that this is a priority.
- If you are able, please donate whatever you can afford to Oxfam’s Gaza Crisis Appeal. Your money will help get food, clean water, shelter and medical care to those most in need as soon as the security situation permits safe delivery.
The road will be long and hard even if a ceasefire is signed shortly. The scale of death, displacement and destruction is beyond one’s comprehension. However, with all of us standing in solidarity and taking action, we can assist Oxfam and partners to give the people of Gaza immediate humanitarian relief, which they are denied unfairly at the moment.
No one should have to drink dirty water that will make one’s children sick. No one deserves to starve to death or get blown off by indiscriminate bombing. We have to be louder than ever before with the calls for this injustice to be over. The people of Gaza are now looking up to the mercy of the world to lighten up their darkest day. Donate to Gaza
