Oxfam partners are trying to get food, clean water, and medicine to desperate families. Here’s the latest, and what you can do to help.
Getting humanitarian aid into Gaza is a complicated mess—but it shouldn’t be.
Oxfam and other aid groups are ready to deliver food, clean water, and medicine to millions of Palestinians in need. But for the most part, the Israeli government is still allowing just a tiny amount of very restricted aid into Gaza. And it’s also making it nearly impossible to deliver whatever assistance gets through to the people who need it most.
“In Gaza, any aid can help,” said Scott Paul, Director of Peace and Security at Oxfam America. “But people in this stage need much more than food falling from the sky. They need specialized medical treatment, clean water, and ongoing access to food and safety.”
Oxfam is calling for unhindered access to vital aid in Gaza; on all parties to negotiate a permanent ceasefire; and for the release of all remaining hostages and unlawfully detained prisoners. Oxfam stands ready to scale up the delivery of humanitarian aid once the Israeli government ends its deadly siege.
Gaza’s urgent need for increased aid delivery
From early March to the middle of May, the Israeli government imposed a complete siege of humanitarian aid on Gaza. Since then, the aid allowed in has only been a tiny fraction of what’s necessary for survival. Starvation is now underway and will soon accelerate without an urgent, sustained surge in access across all sectors.
- A new report this week on hunger in the area found that the “worst-case” scenario of famine in Gaza is already unfolding.
- A recent survey of several dozen non-governmental organizations operating in Gaza found that 93 percent had fully or almost fully exhausted their stocks of supplies.
- Nearly 1 in 3 people are not eating for days, according to recent estimates.
Children are particularly at risk. Nearly 71,000 cases of acute malnutrition among those aged 6 to 59 months are estimated as likely to occur between April 2025 and March 2026, including 14,100 severe cases. Water-borne diseases that are both preventable and readily treatable have also increased by almost 150 percent inside Gaza over the past three months.
Other UN agencies report that many women are struggling to produce milk and find food to feed their families while suffering from depression, anxiety, and nightmares. Palestinians in Gaza have also been killed while attempting to access food. Civilians are risking their lives to find food for their families, fully aware they could be killed or injured as many already have been.
“It’s hard to find words to describe the level of desperation I have witnessed,” said the World Food Program's Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau, who recently visited Gaza city. “People are dying just trying to get food.”
What is the current situation on aid entering Gaza?
The Israeli government has closed nearly all of the access points into Gaza, slowing the flow of aid to millions of people in need to a trickle for more than four months.
- As a result, international humanitarian donors and agencies have been forced to accumulate enough aid to fill more than 100 football fields inside warehouses across the region. This aid in limbo includes shelters, food and supplements to combat malnutrition, as well as water equipment, sanitation items, and medicines that would be vital to tackle diseases.
- Oxfam alone has over 110,000 items of humanitarian aid in one warehouse, including water bladders and tanks, hygiene, dignity and water testing kits, food parcels, soap, nappies, pipes and latrine slabs.
- Recent attempts by the Israeli government to deliver food via airdrop has been a dangerous & ineffective fig leaf, especially when Israel could simply allow in the aid sitting just outside of Gaza and facilitate its safe delivery to the people who need it most.
The trickle of supplies allowed in recent months are only a tiny fraction of what would be needed to reverse the famine overtaking Gaza. They are also completely insufficient to address the compounding catastrophes affecting people without shelter, clean water, sanitation, and safety.
- While around 1,100 truckloads reached the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing between May 31st and June 2nd, humanitarian organizations were only able to collect around 400 for onward distribution, according to a June 5th report from the UN.
- Once inside Gaza, the movement of humanitarian workers and the aid they are delivering is severely restricted by the Israeli authorities–either prohibited outright or limited to routes that are unsafe and vulnerable.
- More than four months have passed since anything more than a paltry amount of fuel was allowed into Gaza. That means virtually no fuel to cook food; to run ambulances, water trucks, or the generators needed to supply power for hospitals; and to power water wells and desalination plants.
For weeks, Israeli authorities also denied humanitarian workers the permission to collect fuel stored in a UN warehouse inside Gaza. An alternative food distribution scheme promoted by the Israeli government has also exacerbated displacement and placed civilians at extreme risk, while making no attempt to address needs across any sectors beyond food.
What is Oxfam doing to help aid get to Gaza?
Oxfam and other agencies are doing what they can, through partners, to deliver life-saving aid. Israel’s military operations and siege make any international humanitarian response of the scale required now impossible across Gaza. Prior to the aid blockade, Oxfam worked closely with our partners in Gaza to reach more than 1.3 million people with humanitarian assistance.
Despite working under unimaginable conditions, Oxfam staff and partners are still able to provide urgent and essential support to Palestinians in Gaza.
Despite Israel’s 18-week near-total siege, and amid 92 weeks of severe deprivation, mass displacement and bombardment, Oxfam and partners are delivering:
- Clean water to over 60,000 displaced people in makeshift camps
- Repairs for water and sanitation facilities reaching 40,000 people
- Essential water and sanitation services, including solid waste collection
- Mental health and psychosocial support, including case management to over 1,000 people
- Support for more than 200 farmers, including agricultural supplies and rehabilitation
A permanent ceasefire is the most important humanitarian intervention that Gaza needs now. The international community must increase pressure on Israel to release its stranglehold on aid delivery, which is starving the population and making access to clean water and sanitation impossible.
"Nothing other than complete access to Gaza to deliver aid at scale can alleviate the conditions that people have been forced to live in," said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel policy lead.
