ActionAid Palestine to continue Supporting Food Meals in Gaza Strip

Gaza Strip -Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt) -ActionAid Palestine (AAP) continues supporting its local partners in the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip. AAP supported the Palestinian Development Women Studies Association (PDWSA) in distributing hot rice meals to 800 affected families in Gaza City, over the course of four consecutive days. The distribution of meals comes within the project of “Emergency Response to Families Affected by the Israeli War on the Gaza Strip” 

This response aims to mitigate the suffering of residents and meet their nutritional needs by providing them with food amid catastrophic levels of hunger affecting all residents of the Gaza Strip, especially in the Gaza and North governorates

The humanitarian response is facing huge difficulties amid spread of hunger in Gaza.  which is entirely man-made. Nearly 70 per cent of crop fields have been destroyed. An entire population is forced to exclusively rely on humanitarian aid. Restrictions and delays in aid deliveries only worsen an already dire situation for displaced families. With winter approaching and weather conditions deteriorating, lack of adequate humanitarian supplies will only generate more suffering. What is needed urgently is a ceasefire to end the suffering of people in Gaza and across the region and open additional crossings, safe and unrestricted humanitarian access to reach people in need of assistance. 

Transport and adequate storage of nutrition supplies is challenging because of the limited entry of humanitarian supplies, limited ability to store products that require refrigeration such as ready-to-use infant formula, and the loss of access to some warehouses due to ongoing hostilities, evacuation orders, access, and logistical constraints.

Humanitarian food supplies are incredibly limited across the Strip. In southern and central Gaza. Humanitarian actors in field of food response lack sufficient food stocks to meet requirements and have scaled down distribution significantly for the third consecutive month since July, with food supply shortages expected to continue in October. In northern Gaza, there are huge difficulties in transporting and conveying humanitarian aids, affecting partners’ supply flows. As of 29 September, at least 100,000 metric tons of food commodities, equivalent to two months of food rations for the whole population, await entry outside the Strip and must be urgently brought in to ensure continuous food distribution. There are also great concerns for the increasing risk of spoilage of the stranded food supplies. 

Background Information

ActionAid in Palestine (AAP) is a part of global federation working for social justice and gender equality and eradicate poverty in more than 45 countries around the world. AAP started its work in Palestine in 2007 to strengthen the resilience of Palestinian People as ActionAid believes that they should enjoy their rights to freedom, justice and self-determination. AAP implements a number of programs through its engagement with communities and women and youth groups seeking to empower them and enhance their influential civil and political participation to understand their rights and undertake collective activism to address the protracted rights violations resulting from the prolonged occupation of Palestine. AAP works simultaneously to enhance their leadership capacity and knowledge to practice their citizenship in holding authorities and other duty bearers to account.

For more information, please contact

Riham Jafari

Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication in Palestine

Email: Riham.Jafari@actionaid.org