ActionAid Palestine to Support the Clay Ovens Initiative to strengthen Women’s Roles in Strengthening Community Survival and Fighting Hunger

Gaza Strip – ActionAid Palestine (AAP) supports the establishment of clay ovens for displaced women in the Gaza Strip, in partnership with its local partner, Wefaq Association for Women and Child Care. Nisreen is a displaced woman in the Gaza Strip who prepares bread in clay ovens to help promote community survival and combat hunger.

Preparing food and bread has become increasingly difficult and dangerous for Gazan women like Nisreen, who have turned to clay ovens as an alternative to Gaza’s bakeries, which were forced to shut down due to a lack of cooking gas and scarce fuel, following the closure of border crossings and the prevention of aid, commercial goods, and fuel from entering the Gaza Strip.

Meals such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner are no longer suitable occasions for Gazans to gather. Instead, these meals and the way they are prepared have become a painful reminder of the drastic changes in the lives of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza—lives now marked by death, suffering, and deprivation.

The war on the Gaza Strip, ongoing since October 7, 2023, has forced Gazans to rely on many old, traditional, and painful methods to survive and combat hunger under the imposed blockade. In the initial months of the war, the entry of humanitarian aid was severely obstructed. As of March 2, 2025, Gaza is facing a total blockade, with not a drop of water or a single food truck allowed in. This has led to the closure of many community kitchens and bakeries, escalating poverty, food insecurity, and the spread of malnutrition.

Preparing food and baking bread in the Gaza Strip under such dire conditions has become extremely challenging. For Nisreen, making bread is no longer a simple task—it is a physically demanding and time-consuming effort that takes many hours each day. She begins her morning searching for wood and flour to make bread for her family.

Nisreen says: "Under the current conditions of war, there is no firewood or flour. These clay ovens have helped displaced families provide daily bread and meet their children’s basic needs for survival."

These additional burdens placed on women in Gaza as a result of war, displacement, and siege have dramatically increased their responsibilities. Nisreen speaks about these hardships: "Fuel shortages, power outages, displacement to shelter centers, and living on the rubble of destroyed homes have increased the responsibilities of women. Now, women work daily to provide a loaf of bread for their children, cook over open flames, and do laundry by hand. These are all major challenges that Palestinian women face in light of the war. We need flour to be able to bake and feed our children."

She continues: "We need the bakeries to reopen so we can provide food for our families. The high cost of firewood and flour makes access to bread extremely difficult."

Clay ovens have become an alternative to the bakeries that were forced to close in the Gaza Strip—a method used by women to bake bread and cook food. Nisreen says: "We resorted to clay ovens to cook our meals and provide bread for our children."

The hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip is worsening as Israel continues to keep border crossings closed for more than two months since March 2, 2025, amid forced displacement and ongoing bombardment. The continued prevention of the entry of relief aid, including flour and food, increases the threat of a real famine that endangers the lives of two million Palestinians who rely on food aid.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), all 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme have been forced to shut down due to flour shortages and the unavailability of cooking gas. The World Food Programme also announced on April 25 that its food stock in Gaza had run out, after distributing the last remaining supplies to kitchens that prepare hot meals—an alarming development that severely impacts the nutrition of vulnerable groups, including children under the age of five, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly.

About ActionAid International

ActionAid International is a global federation working with over 41 million people living in more than 72 of the world's poorest countries. We envision a world characterized by justice and sustainability, where every individual has the right to a dignified life and freedom, and a world free from poverty and oppression. We strive to achieve social justice, gender equality, and eradicate poverty.

ActionAid Palestine began its work in Palestine in 2007 to strengthen the resilience of the Palestinian people, believing in their right to enjoy freedom, justice, and self-determination. ActionAid Palestine implements several programs through its engagement with Palestinian communities and youth and women’s groups, aiming to empower women and youth and enhance their active civil and political participation to understand their rights and undertake collective action to address the rights violations resulting from the prolonged occupation, in addition to improving their leadership capacity and practicing their citizenship in holding authorities and other duty bearers accountable.

For more information, please contact:

Riham Jafari 

Communication and Advocacy Officer at ActionAid Palestine 

Mobile: +972 595242890

Email: Riham.Jafari@actionaid.org