As casualties and destruction mounts in Gaza, the international development charity Christian Aid reports the humanitarian efforts of local partners are being restricted by the violence.
Christian Aid has been working with local partners in the Middle East since the early 1950s. The humanitarian charity currently works with six local partners in Gaza, providing help and support for those most in need.
The agency has confirmed two volunteers working for one partner have been killed in airstrikes while one further staff member is in a critical condition. Another partner has reported two injured staff along with one who had a leg amputated. These numbers continue to rise.
As with other humanitarian workers, staff have lost family members, been displaced and their offices and equipment have been damaged in the blasts. The conditions are limiting their ability to move around and provide aid.
William Bell, Christian Aid’s Head of Middle East Policy and Advocacy, said: “The violence is affecting everyone, civilians and humanitarians alike. Nobody is safe but still our partners in Gaza are doing extraordinary work in the most extreme conditions.
“With the local banking system still working, cash transfers via our partners are helping people displaced in Khan Younis and providing mobile medical and psychological care, including supporting a small group of Christians sheltering in Saint Porphyrius church.
"Soon the cash transfers will no longer be effective because, as one of our partners said, there’s nothing left to buy locally. While our community-led response is proving more resilient than any large-scale logistical operations can deliver at present, we need to respond at a level that can only be achieved by unrestricted humanitarian access with fuel, water and electricity reconnected.”
William Bell added: “Only a full ceasefire, not a temporary pause, can ensure the safe and effective supply of humanitarian support, including fuel, at the scale required to help two million Palestinians.”
The UN has confirmed that 56 trucks entered Gaza on 31 October compared to an average of 500 truckloads entering Gaza every working day prior to the hostilities. 500 trucks is the very lowest number required to enable the population in Gaza to subsist.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated on 31 October that the “level of humanitarian assistance that has been allowed into Gaza up to this point is completely inadequate and not commensurate with the needs of people in Gaza, compounding the humanitarian tragedy.”
Dr Hassan runs the chronic disease centre for Christian Aid’s local partner Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) but since the start of the current crisis, he has also been working with PMRS’ mobile health team, which delivers medicine and carries out home visits to change dressings for the wounded.
Speaking from Gaza, Dr Hassan explains: “I have lived through many wars in Gaza. But this war is not the same. We have lost a lot of doctors, nurses and hospital staff. Many healthcare workers have been killed by bombs and rockets hitting their homes.
“They are bombing crowded places, bakeries, hospitals and homes. They are bombing everywhere.
“If fuel totally runs out in Gaza it will be a catastrophe, especially those in intensive care units who are relying on ventilators, which will stop working without electricity. The hospitals will become a place where patients are only sent to the morgue.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Background:
Christian Aid has been working with local partners in the Middle East since the early 1950s. Since the current crisis began, these organisations have been responding as best they can with emergency first aid; food, from local suppliers and farmers; and other essential supplies, including water and sanitation kits.
In Gaza, Christian Aid has already transferred the funds for:
- Cash transfers to people recently displaced in Khan Younis. The needs are so great that the partner immediately asked if we could do the same project again.
- Medical support, including paying for mobile treatment for chronic illnesses for displaced people and wound dressing for those who require their wounds to be dressed to reduce the chance of infection.
In Gaza, Christian Aid is now preparing to transfer the funds for:
- Distribution of a wide range of Non-Food Items (whatever is available in the market) to support those sheltering in Gaza City (3,500-5,000 people). This is primarily focused on people, including the small Christian community in Gaza, who are sheltering in Saint Porphyrius church, which was hit on Friday 29 October.
- Staff welfare and basic needs. Cash grants to staff, all of whom are displaced. Many have had their homes destroyed completely or partially. Also, a fund for psychosocial support staff. Two ‘pilots’ for addressing basic needs using existing local mechanisms: 1) developing a model for water distribution for hygiene with well owners across Gaza, and 2) working with local farmers who are still risking their lives to tend to their crops on the distribution of vegetables to people across Gaza.
List and operational status of Christian Aid’s six partners in Gaza:
CFTA (Culture and Free Thought Association)
Ability to operate: CFTA have opened centres, safe spaces and their own homes in Khan Younis to hundreds of people fleeing from the North and surrounding areas.
Staff displaced: At least one staff member in a critical condition, two volunteers killed in airstrikes and huge numbers of the staff are displaced. Many staff have lost family members and relocated to the centres with their families.
Office and equipment status: Many homes of staff have been destroyed, centres appear to be operational, though it’s not clear how many of them.
Ability to move and work: Staff are limiting their movements, but community led responses are functioning. This is evident in the community kitchens in centres, procurement of mattresses, use of gas to power generators.
Agricultural Development Association (PARC)
Ability to operate: Quasi-operational in Gaza, fully operational in West Bank.
Staff displaced: All Gaza-based staff we know of are displaced.
Office and equipment status: Building standing but windows and doors all shattered. Given its location, there’s a strong possibility that the ground invasion will affect them there.
Ability to move and work: Staff aren’t moving around but community-led responses are functioning.
PCHR (Palestinian Centre for Human Rights)
Ability to operate: Most staff are maintaining contact. We’ve received a request for support with human rights monitoring, legal teams, international accountability mechanisms.
Staff displaced: all Gaza-based staff we know of are displaced; the director (name withheld) was pulled alive from the rubble of his home last week with members of his family. We haven’t heard from him since, but he has been on social media.
Office and equipment status: Office in Gaza city badly damaged and Khan Younis and Jabalia offices also damaged in airstrikes.
Ability to move and work: Staff are dispersed but managing to maintain work from where they are. We think some may be in the office in Rafah.
PMRS (Palestinian Medical Relief Society)
Ability to operate: 17 teams in operation as well as two Primary Healthcare Centres in Jabalya and Gaza City, consisting of general physicians, women’s health doctors, health and social workers, psychosocial workers, and physiotherapists. Overall, PMRS teams have been able to cover the North of Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah in the south.
Staff displaced: Two staff injured, one had leg amputated, we think most staff are displaced and/or living and working in their centres.
Office and equipment status: Massive destruction of rehabilitation centre in Gaza City, primary healthcare centres but still operational in some centres and via mobile clinics.
Ability to move and work: Fuel and safety challenges mean movement is challenging and clinics under extreme pressure. PMRS outreach teams have been offering mobile services to shelters including by bicycle.
IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities)
Ability to operate: IOCC have been able to get supplies and support to communities in the compound that contained St Porphyrius as well as other churches and a community centre.
Staff displaced: Staff face huge risks accessing warehouses and functioning companies.
Office and equipment status: They are using a Christian Aid grant of £50k to respond to the needs there.
Ability to move and work: They’re facing multiple challenges with supply chains.
WAC (Women’s Affairs Centre)
Ability to operate: Not currently operational that we know of.
Staff displaced: All staff we know of are displaced; some have not responded for many days.
Office and equipment status: Reports that their office in Gaza City was destroyed. This is unsubstantiated.
Ability to move and work: Not as far as we know.
