Escalating Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

Posted: 11 March 2008

International aid to Gaza has risen sharply as poverty mounts.

The six largest international aid organizations responding to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza join together to urge the international community and the parties to the conflict in Gaza to take immediate steps to stop the violence and alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), World Vision, Save the Children, CARE, Oxfam, and Mercy Corps -- call on Israel, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and Hamas in Gaza to stop the violence, return to the negotiating table, and reestablish full humanitarian access to Gaza. They further call on the international donor community to ensure that the levels of humanitarian aid going into Gaza reflect the severity of need.

As the United Nations emergency relief coordinator John Holmes recently noted, medical services in Gaza are deteriorating, private industry has more or less collapsed, and there is increasing poverty and dependence on international aid, which has risen sharply over the past eight months. Gaza’s hospitals lack sufficient beds, drugs, resuscitation devices, needles, and blood to meet the demand, and more than 80 percent of the population in Gaza is receiving emergency supplementary rations from U.N. agencies as their main source of food.

Poverty rates in Gaza have risen to nearly 80% of the total population while unemployment is between 40-50%. The private sector, which generates 53% of all jobs in Gaza, has been devastated because of so many bankrupt businesses. Nearly 40,000 workers who depend on cash cropping and are the support for one quarter of the population now have no income because of massive layoffs in the agricultural sector.

The quality and quantity of water in Gaza are also declining, with 40 percent of the population having access to water for only a few hours a day. Some families have even less access to clean water as municipal authorities lack the fuel and spare parts needed to maintain the water delivery infrastructure, which could collapse at anytime.

In addition, sanitation has become a significant health issue. Lack of access to spare parts and fuel needed to operate and maintain the city’s sewage pumps and reservoirs means that Gazans have no means of safely disposing of their waste. Some 40 million liters of raw or only partially treated sewage is being pumped into the Mediterranean Sea every day, raising concern among health authorities of outbreaks of communicable diseases and posing long term risks not only to the environment in Gaza but to the coastlines of Israel and Egypt too.

Children are among those most at risk. Recent reports indicate there has been an increase in chronic disease and malnutrition among children under five in the Gaza Strip as well as an increase in children suffering from diarrhea, insomnia, and anxiety. United Nations emergency relief coordinator John Holmes reported, for example, that rates of anemia and diarrhea among children have skyrocketed by 40 percent and 20 percent respectively over the past year. Children’s education is also suffering. Almost 2,000 children have dropped out of school in the last five months because their parents cannot afford to send them. Due to the closures, schools are short of textbooks and other resources, and the exam failure rate has soared to 80-90% in a population known for its high levels of educational achievement.

Relief organizations report that access issues are hindering their ability to adequately meet people’s basic needs. Mercy Corps is having trouble maintaining its job creation program due to the lack of construction materials and sewing materials. CARE’s water and sanitation projects have been put on hold because it cannot obtain the required cement, pipes, and pumps to do the job. Likewise, Save the Children cannot fully support children with its protection programs because its staff can no longer obtain the permits required to enter Gaza from the West Bank, its vehicles in Gaza do not have any fuel to reach project sites, and the continued violence makes it difficult for parents to allow children to leave their houses.

To respond effectively to the situation in Gaza, the five relief organizations urge the United States, UK, EU, and the rest of the international community to work with the parties to the conflict to:

Stop the violence and a return to the negotiating table.
Ensure the protection and the well-being of the civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel.
Enforce the full implementation of the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access, which was announced by Secretary of State Rice in Jerusalem on 15 November, 2005.
Establish procedures to manage the crossings and re-establish full humanitarian and commercial access to Gaza, including specifically:

access to treatment abroad for patients requiring urgent medical care, allowing for parents to accompany children under the age of 18;
essential inputs for the maintenance and rehabilitation of public services (water, sewage, electricity, public health) including spare parts, cement, technical assistance, and cotton, which is essential for locally made hygiene items;
resumption of normal fuel imports to enable Gaza’s electricity plant to function so that ordinary people can cook, heat, and light their homes; children can take school buses; and ambulances and ordinary transport can run; and
ease of movement in and out of Gaza for the staff of humanitarian agencies.

They also urge the donor community to increase the levels of humanitarian aid in Gaza to reflect the severity of need.