Lifesaving Aid to Gaza through Emergency Cash, Clean Water, and Safety Education

The Issue

Gaza is experiencing an unparalleled humanitarian catastrophe, driven by decades of Israeli occupation, a 17-year-long blockade, and the ongoing conflict. Since October 7, 2023, conditions have drastically worsened. By April 8, 2024, more than 50,800 Palestinians had lost their lives and nearly 116,000 had been injured. The majority of the population has been forcibly displaced.

According to the UN, approximately 1.9 million people – around 90% of Gaza’s population – have been displaced during the conflict, many of them multiple times, with some uprooted as many as 10 times. Critical infrastructure and services have collapsed: clean water is severely limited, food insecurity is widespread, and both healthcare and sanitation systems are stretched beyond capacity.

Child malnutrition has reached alarming levels, and access to education has largely ceased due to widespread damage or military use of school facilities. Meanwhile, ongoing airstrikes and ground operations continue to result in significant civilian casualties and massive destruction

The Project

This project seeks to save lives and ease the suffering of conflict-affected families in Gaza by improving access to essential goods and services amidst a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Humanitarian assistance under this project is delivered through 3 components:

The first component consists of the provision of Emergency Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (E-MPCA) to most vulnerable families, allowing them to purchase food, medicine, hygiene items, and other basic necessities.

At the same time, the project supports informal shelters through Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) assistance, including water trucking and desludging activites.

And finally due to the ongoing dangers posed by unexploded ordnance, the project also delivers Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) and Conflict Preparedness and Prevention (CPP) sessions for both children and adults.

These awareness campaigns aim to reduce risks and strengthen community preparedness and resilience.

The Change

By combining emergency cash assistance with targeted WASH interventions and EORE lifesaving activities, the project addresses urgent humanitarian needs and aims to improve basic living conditions for displaced and vulnerable populations in Gaza to the extent possible.

In the current context, where Israeli military operations and airstrikes continue and humanitarian access is severely restricted, meaningful change remains out of reach. With aid entry completely blocked and conditions deteriorating daily, the project focuses on delivering life-saving relief and essential services to help affected families survive.

The Results

Progress under our Gaza project includes key achievements across WASH activities, implemented by DCA/NCA while the EMPCA and EORE activities have implemented by our local partner.

Under the WASH component of the project, 2,933 cubic meters of drinking water have been distributed through daily water trucking (averaging 40 cubic meters per day), reaching around 9,000 internally displaced people.

Additionally, a total of 5 water storage tanks (2000 litres each) have been distributed to the targeted sites in Gaza city. Desludging activities have been carried out, resulting in the removal and safe disposal of 200 cubic meters of wastewater from cesspits and septic tanks. Approximately 500 internally displaced people benefited from the desludging activities.

Under EMPCA-component, 100 families (totaling 550 individuals) received multipurpose cash to cover their most urgent needs, including food, medicine, etc.

As part of EORE component, 468 awareness sessions were carried out, with life-saving awareness materials distributed to internally displaces poeple, reaching 9,360 people in total.