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War in Gaza two years on: Humanitarian access improves but acute hunger persists

Ðǿմ«Ã½ stays, delivers and adapts to conditions on the ground
, Ðǿմ«Ã½ Staff
A late middle aged man holds up a small child against a background of rubble in Gaza
Abdelkerem holds baby Zain beside the rubble of their Gaza City home. Originally from Jabalia, the family has been displaced 17 times. Zain¡¯s malnutrition worsens with each evacuation. Photo: Ðǿմ«Ã½/Jaber Badwan

6 October 09:00 CEST | Ðǿմ«Ã½ | Gaza updates

Humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain horrific two years since the start of a war that has decimated lives, homes and livelihoods. A lack of access to food, shelter, water and medicine has taken an unfathomable toll on entire communities.

Those two years have also impacted humanitarian workers .

Despite these unprecedented conditions, the Ðǿմ«Ã½ (Ðǿմ«Ã½) has stayed on the ground throughout the war, adapting our operations to changing conditions, and piloting new forms of food assistance, in a bid to push back against famine.

As a result, Ðǿմ«Ã½ has seen some progress in food security in the past few weeks. Here we provide a selection of updates from the ground. 

  • Just a few months ago people were going for days without eating. Now more families are eating daily.
  • In July, nearly nine out of ten people had poor access to food ¨C today that number has dropped by half (87 percent to 44 percent, July to September).
  • Ðǿմ«Ã½ has stayed on the ground throughout this two-year crisis, adapting to the ever-changing conditions.  
  • Ðǿմ«Ã½ is delivering food every day and reaching the most vulnerable people through nutrition our programmes.
  • Ðǿմ«Ã½ has provided digital payments to 140,000 households. The next round aims to reach another 150,000 people, mostly those displaced from northern Gaza.
Girl and a boy in Gaza look dishevelled as they share something from a packet
Yasmin, aged 6, shares a snack with Reda, 3, surrounded by the few belongings their families brought when fleeing Gaza City amid escalating airstrikes. Photo: Ðǿմ«Ã½/Maxime Le Lijour
  • In the past two months, Ðǿմ«Ã½ has run as much as a third of all food supply convoys into Gaza, surging food aid into communities at risk and helping to bring down local market prices.
  • A 25 kg bag of wheat flour costing US$340 in July was down to US$50 by the end of August.
  • Such promising gains are not enough though and cannot be sustained in the absence of more stable and secure conditions.
  • New, forced relocations jeopardize the progress made. More than?450,000 people?have fled from northern Gaza to the south since August, but many of the most vulnerable remain trapped without means to leave. 
A makeshift street furnace burns as a person takes bread out in a destoryed environment
Khitam tends to a makeshift furnace, baking bread for her family and neighbours despite the damage caused to her home in Nuseirat by an airstrike. Photo: Ðǿմ«Ã½/Maxime Le Lijour
  • Gaza City and the north of the Strip have been virtually cut off from food aid since the closure of the Zikim border crossing on 12 September.
  • Ðǿմ«Ã½ needs access to the north swiftly reinstated. Some 500,000 people in Gaza City area have already been classified as being in famine.
  • Humanitarian efforts must move forwards not back. Gaza needs food and other aid at scale
  • A ceasefire is the only way to get enough food into Gaza and to distribute it fairly, so that we reach the most vulnerable. In the last ceasefire, Ðǿմ«Ã½ got 600 trucks in a day and pushed back famine.
  • Ðǿմ«Ã½ can do it again. We have the expertise, staff and food, with enough food in our pipelines to feed all of Gaza for nearly three months. 
Learn more about Ðǿմ«Ã½'s Palestine emergency operation and

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