Donate to Gaza Emergency Appeal

Palestinians in Gaza are facing severe hunger and need humanitarian assistance.

Ambient homepage video

Last updated February 24th, 2026

What is happening in Gaza?

Since October 2023, Oxfam has been working with local partners to deliver humanitarian assistance for people in Gaza, including food, clean water, hygiene items, and sanitation systems in areas hosting displaced people.

The announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2025, after two years of fighting, led to the release of Israeli hostages and unlawfully detained Palestinians. However, the man-made humanitarian crisis and obstruction of assistance in Gaza has accelerated to a pending shutdown of large international NGOs by the Israeli government. Despite reporting about increased access to commercial goods, people are still fighting back from famine and remain in desperate need of sustained, predictable, mass scaling of humanitarian aid. Many are unnecessarily suffering now through cold winter weather and flooding rains in spite of the ready access and availability of supplies by established humanitarian actors.

The most pressing needs include food, healthcare, and shelter; as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene services (WASH) including menstrual products and waste management services. Critical supplies for long-term recovery and reconstruction, like pipes, electric hospital beds, and fuel remain blockaded by the Government of Israel.

Oxfam is now working with partner organizations in Gaza to provide lifesaving assistance to families across Gaza despite the renewal of hostilities during the ceasefire, limitations of border crossings, and shutdown of established international humanitarian organizations. We are calling on the Government of Israel to avert the creation of an artificial humanitarian crisis and facilitate full, safe, and principled humanitarian access to Gaza. This will allow Oxfam, partner organizations, and the entire humanitarian community to bring Palestinians back from the brink of famine and provide the essential support in this interim period to support Palestinians in their long road to recovery.

Israel’s imposition of an arbitrary, opaque, politicized, unprecedented registration regime has hindered but not stopped Oxfam from pursuing its mission. Through local organizations and markets, Oxfam and our partners have kept delivering lifesaving support in Gaza. However, the new system has limited the quality and quantity of supplies Oxfam and others can send to communities, raising operating costs. Families are facing winter in displacement with insufficient supplies—and lack the purchasing power to secure whatever commercial supplies are available. Our teams continue to operate with valid registration with the Palestinian Authority and are finding every possible route to reach people in Gaza—however costly or inefficient that is due to the new system—providing assistance to purchase food and hygiene items, clean water, essential water infrastructure repairs, psychosocial support, and more.

Maintaining the fragile ceasefire in Gaza and facilitating the flow of ready, wide-scale, principled humanitarian access are critical to save lives in the short term—and also to pave the way for a sustainable peace and enduring reconciliation. This process cannot succeed without justice and accountability at its core for all Palestinians and Israelis, to prevent impunity and ensure the cycle of violence is not repeated. The path forward must be led by Palestinians and rooted in the fulfilment of fundamental rights.

What is Oxfam doing in Gaza?

Oxfam continues to source aid and materials within Gaza in order to assist partner organizations, people displaced by the conflict, and those on the move and choosing to return to their homes. We are focusing on a range of emergency interventions including:

  • Clean water for displaced people
  • Access to food supplies
  • Access to hygiene items, including menstrual products
  • Rehabilitation of water and sanitation systems and wells
  • Solid waste management
  • Training and inputs for home gardens to help people grow vegetables
  • Support for women’s rights organizations helping survivors of gender-based violence, and providing other essential services for women and girls affected by the conflict.

Since the beginning of hostilities in early October 2023, Oxfam has supported 20 local partners providing lifesaving assistance including food, clean water, repairing and installing sanitation systems, and hygiene support. Oxfam helps organizations in Gaza that are helping women and girls surviving sexual and psychological violence.

Oxfam and partners have worked under unimaginable conditions to deliver lifesaving aid in Gaza. Our teams have reached more than 800,000 people with WASH support since the war began and have continued to provide protection services to the most vulnerable, especially women and children.

By working closely with our partners in Gaza, Oxfam has helped reach more than 1.3 million people with humanitarian assistance.

Oxfam InuruID 369588 Palestinian Territory, Occupied 2024-05-02
A woman fills a bottle with water from a tap stand supplied by a bladder installed with support from Oxfam in the Al-Mawasi area in Gaza. Alef Multimedia/Oxfam

Aid for families in Gaza

Food

  • In the early months of the conflict in Gaza, Oxfam worked closely with six partner organizations to procure and distribute 18,709 ready-to-eat food parcels, with items such as beans, peas, tuna, sardines, dates and dried apricots. These parcels supported 91,173 people in Rafah, Khan Younis and Deir el Balah areas of Gaza.
  • Oxfam partners also distributed 31,207 fresh vegetable parcels (including tomatoes, onions, potatoes, lemons and peppers) to 187,242 people. The vegetables were sourced from farmers in the West Bank, Rafah, Khan Younis and Middle Area, and distributed by our partners Economic Social Development Centre of Palestine and Agriculture Development Association to displaced families and host communities in Rafah, Khan Younis, and Deir el Balah.
  • Oxfam assisted 300 farmers in Khan Younis and Deir el Balah with essential agricultural inputs such as soil sterilizers and fertilizers, while two nurseries were given support packages consisting of a solar power system, small equipment such as kitchen tools, and raw materials for food processing. Three women-led food businesses were also given raw materials and small equipment to continue their production of affordable food. Partners are also distributing seedlings, tools, and other agricultural inputs to families so they can grow their own vegetables.
  • In 2025, Oxfam partners in Gaza plan to help more than 100 farming families with irrigation system components and technical support. This includes rehabilitating an agricultural nursery in Gaza City and supporting 100 farmers who will begin growing seedlings in newly repaired greenhouses.
  • Oxfam partners continue to assist displaced families with home-gardening support packages so they can grow their own food. We added 110 new families to this project area in January 2026, and provided follow-up visits and technical advice to other participating families.

Water, sanitation, hygiene

Beginning in October 2023, Oxfam and partners have delivered lifesaving water and sanitation services to 800,000 people.

  • For example, we supplied water by truck to people in Gaza City, Middle Area, Khan Younis and Rafah, reaching 152,213 people.
  • In 2024, Oxfam managed to bring in five desalination units which were installed at wells across Rafah, Al-Mawasi, and Khan Younis in coordination with Palestinian Environmental Friends (PEF). The units operate with solar power for six hours daily, providing three liters of clean drinking water per person per day, reaching 48,422 people.
  • Oxfam, together with Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, rehabilitated 15 damaged water networks in Gaza City, the Middle Area, and Khan Younis. This has given 309,129 people access to water. Damaged wastewater systems in 23 sites were also rehabilitated, supporting 143,000 people.
  • In September 2025, Oxfam helped our partners repair two generators powering wells in Gaza governorate serving 22,000 returning people and other residents and provided 1,300 liters of fuel to power well pumps in 11 locations in Gaza City serving 31,000 people. We conducted more than 1,000 water tests at 20 sites across Gaza City, and repaired 167 meters of critical damaged water pipes serving more 40,000.
  • Oxfam supplied latrine slabs, latrine superstructures, tap stands, and handwashing stations that enabled partners to build 216 latrines that supported 27,107 people.
  • Together with partners PEF and Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Oxfam distributed 6,407 hygiene kits and 12,136 jerry cans and Oxfam buckets, supporting 62,802 people. The kits included items such as soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, menstrual pads, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Alongside supplying the kits, partners ran campaigns to inform communities about basic hygiene practices.
  • Starting in early 2025 Oxfam and partners continued to supply water to 120 areas hosting 27,500 displaced people, building and maintaining latrines, collecting solid waste, and providing water tanks and small cans for storing clean water.
  • Following the announcement of the ceasefire in October 2025, we are continuing to deliver water to people affected by the conflict and to promote good hygiene by conducting awareness raising sessions and training, and helping people access soap and other hygiene items.
  • In January 2025, Oxfam partners delivered water by truck to 61,400 displaced people in 57 locations, and pumped 1,752 cubic liters of water from 15 wells serving more than 9,200 people in Gaza city. Oxfam helped our partners repair 48 meters of wastewater pipes serving a hospital and another 10,000 nearby people, and provided and installed 746 latrines and 284 handwashing stations at 13 camps hosting displaced people in Gaza City.

Protection

Since 2023, Oxfam has supported efforts by our partners to provide psychosocial support to people in Gaza. This work has a specific focus on psychological first aid, and awareness-raising sessions for adolescent girls in Gaza.

Other protection work carried out by Oxfam partners includes:

  • Identifying and registering unaccompanied and separated children in health facilities and shelters in Rafah. The children, especially those who were exposed to heightened safety risks, are referred to relevant services.
  • Distributing assistive devices to people with disabilities.
  • Oxfam and PEF distributed 12,775 female protection kits, including clothing, such as head scarfs and dresses, and personal hygiene and self-care items, such as deodorant, menstrual pads and baby wipes. The kits were distributed to the same people who received hygiene kits.

Oxfam and partners are continuing to provide access to counseling to survivors of violence.

Gaza_water_desalinationRS367661_lpr
Oxfam is working with the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility and Palestinian Environmental Friends Association to install 11 solar-powered water desalination units at wells that can serve 10,000 people displaced by the conflict in Gaza. Alef Multimedia Company/Oxfam

Advocating for peace in Gaza

Since the beginning of the recent conflict in Gaza in 2023, Oxfam has called on all parties to the conflict and UN members to ensure unhindered access to vital aid in Gaza, negotiate a permanent ceasefire, and for the release of all remaining hostages and unlawfully detained prisoners.

The current ceasefire marks only the beginning. It must stop the killing and pave the way for the next phase: preparing the ground for a sustainable peace and genuine reconciliation. This process cannot succeed without justice and accountability at its core for all Palestinians and Israelis, to prevent impunity and ensure the cycle of violence is not repeated.

Oxfam is urging:

  • Full and unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza.
  • The beginning of a sustained and principled effort that leads to ending Israel’s unlawful occupation and blockade.
  • Palestinians to lead the rebuilding and governance of Gaza, shaping their own future across all occupied territory.
  • Justice and accountability for all Palestinians and Israelis, to prevent impunity and ensure the cycle of violence is not repeated.

As a driver of this deal, President Trump must do all in his administration’s power to ensure this plan proceeds to create a peaceful future for all Palestinians and Israelis. He and all world leaders must ensure that this ceasefire is upheld by all parties, that those who committed war crimes are investigated and prosecuted, and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is upheld.

How to help Gaza

  • Learn more: For updates on the situation, visit the UN OCHA website.

  • How to help Gaza: Actions you can take to help Palestinians in Gaza recover from the conflict