What is happening in Gaza and how is the Irish Emergency Alliance responding?
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to deteriorate, but donations to the Irish Emergency Alliance’s Gaza Appeal are making a difference. Thanks to the generosity of supporters, our member agencies and their trusted local partners are reaching people with lifesaving aid in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
Access to aid remains severely restricted by the blockade, and families are facing extreme shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Despite these challenges, our members are doing everything possible to deliver emergency relief. The need for safe and sustained humanitarian access has never been more urgent.
What is happening in Gaza
Famine has now been confirmed in Gaza for the first time. The global hunger monitor, the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), reports that famine is occurring in Gaza City and surrounding areas, where more than half a million people are currently living. This is only the fifth time in over two decades that the UN-backed IPC system has declared famine. Without a major increase in food supplies, the crisis is expected to spread further by the end of September.
Gaza’s health system has been devastated. With little or no fuel available, the few hospitals that remain open are forced to make impossible choices about who they can treat. Supplies of medicines and baby formula are almost gone.
Meanwhile, repeated mass casualty incidents have overwhelmed medical staff, leaving hospitals beyond breaking point. Our member agencies and their partners are working crowded aid distribution sites to provide support as safely as possible, including emergency medical care.
This catastrophe is not the result of a natural disaster but of man-made restrictions. The Israeli blockade has prevented food, fuel and medicine from entering Gaza at the scale required, directly contributing to famine and starvation deaths.
Throughout this crisis, aid workers and their families continue to live through unimaginable conditions, facing significant personal risk as they deliver lifesaving assistance.
How are Irish Emergency Alliance members helping?
Even under these dire conditions, Irish Emergency Alliance members and their local partners continue to adapt to ensure families receive support. Generous donations from people across Ireland are enabling this work.
- Cash assistance is giving families the ability to buy food and essential items when available, as prices continue to rise sharply.
- Medical care is being provided in field hospitals and clinics, even as supplies run critically low.
- Water distribution continues despite the lack of fuel and the challenges of moving across Gaza.
- Food relief remains the most urgent need. While some of our members have been able to provide hot meals and food parcels, the severe shortage of supplies entering Gaza means the scale of need far outweighs what can currently be delivered.
The Irish Emergency Alliance remains committed to supporting people in Gaza and Lebanon through our member charities and their local partners. Your support is providing hope and practical help at a time of unimaginable crisis.