After 50 days of intense violence, a new ceasefire in Gaza has been agreed between Israel and Hamas. It’s a welcome and much needed respite for civilians on all sides, following a conflict that has come at a terrible human cost. More than 1,500 civilians in Gaza, and six in Israel, have been killed and […]
Richard Stanforth is Oxfam GB’s Regional Policy Adviser in the Middle East. Here, he shares his personal experience of what life has been like in Gaza under the blockade. I first visited Gaza in spring 2006 when I had just become a policy officer for Oxfam covering Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. I arrived […]
Salama Shamali is just six years old, yet he has already lived through three wars. I met him just days ago at a school run by a local church, where he and his family sought refuge after their home was bombed. “I am not happy,” he told me. “My house is destroyed. The missiles destroyed […]
The crisis in Gaza has affected everyone living there — including our own Oxfam colleagues, working in incredibly difficult and dangerous circumstances to deliver safe water and food to thousands of families in need. Many of our staff and partners have themselves been forced to flee their homes with their families. They fear for their family’s safety and their children’s future.
Arwa Mhanna travelled around Gaza City in during a brief window of calm. She shares her experiences: “The ceasefire lasted only 12 hours, and as I write the violence has returned. On Monday, Al Shifa hospital — where I met so many brave people — was hit, with many casualties being reported. I don’t know if the people I met are alive or dead.”
With the crisis in Gaza mounting, hospitals are struggling to cope with the growing influx of casualties. Three quarters of the dead and wounded are civilians, including many women and children.
The crisis in Gaza is having a devastating impact on civilians who represent approximately 75 per cent of the casualties so far. Oxfam partner WCLAC (the Women’s Centre for Legal Affairs and Counselling) is collecting testimonies from women in Gaza to describe their lives and fear under the ongoing Israeli airstrikes.