The continued horror and of the past 15 months before the temporary ceasefire must not be forgotten.

Israel’s assault has turned Gaza into an apocalyptic landscape of hell on earth. For almost 500 days the Israeli army carried out a daily stream of massacres and war crimes, slaughtering Palestinian civilians and violating international laws with impunity as world leaders watched.

Israel has used starvation and denial of aid as a weapon of war, and systematically targeted every part of Gaza’s infrastructure and social fabric. Children have been burned alive as bombs rained down on the schools and camps where they were ordered to shelter.

Babies have died from hunger and hypothermia while trucks full of food and medicine were blocked just a few miles away. Doctors and midwives have had to perform surgeries in medieval conditions without basic drugs, equipment, or electricity.

Almost everyone in Gaza has been forced from their homes multiple times and herded into squalid camps where families share tents surrounded by streams of sewage. Almost everything in Gaza – homes, schools, hospitals, roads, mosques, water and sanitation systems, farms, shops – is now damaged or destroyed.

Gaza’s entire society has been targeted in a brutal and cruel act of collective punishment. We welcome the new ceasefire agreement, and we hope it becomes permanent, but the impact of the past 15 months will be felt for decades to come.

As of 18 March 2025, the ceasefire has unilaterally ended due to the resuming of Israel military operations in Gaza. Below was what the purposed implementation of the ceasefire would have been prior to the current ongoing airstrikes and attacks.

We (were) now approaching the end of the initial 42 days “stage 1” period of the ceasefire, which came into effect on 19th January. We have seen a lot of positive improvements since then, which need to be built on further in the next phases, but the ceasefire is increasingly fragile.

We have seen a significant improvement in security and Israeli troops withdrawing to the periphery of Gaza – although dozens of Palestinians have still been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire came into effect, including children shot dead while playing or walking home. We call for an end to all attacks on civilians.

We have seen a big increase in aid trucks allowed to enter Gaza, although these are primarily containing food – which is vital and welcome, but not the only thing needed. Hamas has claimed that Israel has reneged on commitments to allow specific quantities of tents, caravans, fuel, and reconstruction equipment in. Many mobile homes for displaced families and construction vehicles for rubble removal and road repairs remain stuck outside Gaza, awaiting entry from Egypt.

Although there has been a big increase in aid overall, the amount entering remains nowhere near enough to meet the massive humanitarian needs caused by Israel’s attacks and will need to be further increased.

We also welcome the release of numerous Israelis and Palestinians from captivity, although both have shown signs of ill-treatment.

There have also been other positive developments, such as a resumption in some medical evacuations of Palestinian children who need urgent treatment – although tragically at least two children died from their illness before they could be evacuated, and others were reportedly now too sick to be transferred.

However, the medical evacuations continue to be below the levels that were reportedly agreed as part of the truce, with only 90 patients and companions leaving daily instead of the stipulated 150. Since Rafah reopened, 452 patients and 620 companions have exited, but around 15,000 still need evacuation. Some medical evacuations for cancer patients have been suspended.

Despite some progress, the ceasefire remains extremely precarious and needs constant international attention. Israel’s escalating attacks in the West Bank and international and Israeli statements about forcing Palestinians out of Gaza also increase the likelihood of the ceasefire collapsing.

We hope that stage 1 will soon proceed to stage 2, including the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Official reports state that more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 111,000 wounded – which means around 7% of Gaza’s population is now dead or wounded. 

However, despite the ceasefire the death toll continues to rise as people discover more bodies under the rubble. Thousands of people are still missing and unaccounted for. 

More than 15,000 children have been killed, including thousands of young babies and infants. A recent UN investigation found that close to 70% of fatalities are children and women, the vast majority of them killed in homes and shelters. Of the tens of thousands killed in residential buildings, almost half (44%) were children – with most of them aged between 0-9 years. 

The eventual death toll could still rise far higher – a July 2024 study published in The Lancet estimated that the final death toll could exceed 186,000 people. 

This death toll should be a source of eternal global shame. They are not just numbers – they include babies, children, mothers, fathers, doctors, farmers, shopkeepers, students, teachers, journalists, aid workers, artists, entrepreneurs, grandparents and much more. Gaza’s entire society has been targeted. 

At least 385 aid workers, 1060 health workers (some also counted under aid workers), 519 educational staff and 198 journalists are among the dead. Many of the injured have lost limbs or suffered other injuries that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Thousands of children have been orphaned. 

Casualties are also still rising in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 800 Palestinians since 7 October 2023. Israeli attacks on Lebanon have also killed more than 3,000 people, including Palestinian refugees who have lived there for decades. 

In Israel around 1,200 people were killed in the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, including around 800 civilians and at least 33 children. More than 5,400 people were wounded. Since then, 405 Israeli soldiers have been killed while deployed in Gaza. 

These figures are all published by the United Nations, based on reports by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Israeli government. 

When the ceasefire was announced we saw scenes of jubilation across Gaza. People felt immense joy and relief at the prospect of at least a few weeks without relentless bombing and more displacement; the chance to return to their homes and reunite with families and neighbours; and the hope of more food and other vital supplies entering Gaza.

Over the past 15 months, around 1.9 million people (more than 90% of the population) have been forced to leave their homes, and since the ceasefire around 500,000 of them have started to return, walking for miles across Gaza to reach their old neighbourhoods.

However, the initial joy is also mixed with sorrow and anger at the extent of destruction and loss. Many people have little or nothing to return to. Families have gone home to find only rubble, or an uninhabitable shell of a building with no roof or walls and no running water or electricity. People have had to dig the bodies of missing relatives from the rubble of their house. Families are queuing for hours just to try, and get some water.

Islamic Relief aid workers have themselves been able to return to their homes in northern Gaza for the first time since late 2023, but have found ruins just like many others.

Many of the returnees are now once again living in tents because their homes no longer exist. Huge numbers of people are still displaced as they have nowhere to go, and they are likely to remain displaced in temporary shelters for a long time to come.

The scale of destruction is like nothing we have seen before. 

More than 15 months of relentless Israeli attacks have turned Gaza into rubble. The UN reports there are now around 50 million tonnes of rubble strewn across Gaza. This, if piled together, would be roughly 12 times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza or 18 times the height of the Statue of Liberty. It will take years to clear. 

Every part of Palestinian infrastructure and society has been targeted in an attempt to make Gaza unliveable. Entire neighbourhoods have been almost wiped out. 

Gaza’s physical infrastructure is in ruins. According to UN reports, 69% of all structures in Gaza are either destroyed or damaged, including 94% of health facilities, 92% of homes, 88% of schools and 85% of water and sanitation services. 68% of all roads are damaged. Places of worship are similarly affected, with 79% of mosques and almost all churches now damaged or completely flattened. 

People’s livelihoods are also destroyed, which will leave people dependent on aid for a long time to come. Some 80% of commercial facilities such as shops and small businesses are damaged or destroyed. Farmers face enormous challenges as 68% of agricultural cropland is now damaged, as well as 52% of agricultural wells and 44% of greenhouses. Cattle owners have few animals left as 95% of cattle, 57% of sheep and 63% of goats have died. Gaza’s fishing industry is in ruins, with 72% of fishing boats destroyed. 

The past 15 months have also destroyed many people’s futures. Almost everyone is mourning the death of loved ones, and many people have been left with life-changing injuries including loss of limbs. Almost everyone has gone through traumatic experiences, and many are left with long-term mental health impacts that will affect them for a long time to come. 

The terms of the ceasefire state that Israel should allow at least 600 aid trucks, including 50 carrying fuel, to enter Gaza every day of the initial 6-week period. This is a massive ten-fold increase from the average daily total of only 62 trucks allowed in over the previous 6 months. This should be the absolute bare minimum, given that 500 trucks a day used to enter Gaza before October 2023 and the needs are now stratospherically greater. 

Since the ceasefire there has been a significant increase – in the first 11 days around 7,900 trucks reportedly entered, an average of around 700 trucks a day – mostly bringing in food. 

However, a big increase for a few days will not be enough – this increase must be sustained long-term. We saw in early 2024 that global pressure brought a temporary increase in aid, but this was quickly reversed and dropped to virtually nothing again within a few weeks. 

Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza means that it continues to control what aid can enter Gaza and the Israeli government can turn this tap on or off at any moment. Israel’s blockade did not begin in October 2023 – it has been in place for nearly 18 years, since 2007. The blockade restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza through several tightly controlled crossings, and cuts Gaza off from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and the rest of the world. 

For years the Israeli blockade has imposed arbitrary restrictions and delays on aid and commercial goods coming into Gaza. This means often removing items for being ‘dual-use’, i.e. goods intended for civilians that Israel claims could potentially also be used for military purposes. This can be arbitrarily applied to almost anything. There are reports of cancer medicine, anaesthetics, water filters, solar panels, surgical scissors, zipped sleeping bags and even pitted fruit and olives being removed from trucks and denied entry.  

The current ceasefire does not remove this blockade. Communication from the Israeli government to NGOs in Gaza since the ceasefire highlights that many essential items will continue to need pre-approval and extensive security screening to enter Gaza. This includes things like nutritional supplements for animals, veterinary equipment, desalination devices, ovens for cooking food, sewage pumps, storage units and many more items. 

Since the ceasefire we have seen a big increase in food being allowed in, but nowhere near sufficient amounts of other essential items. This includes tents for displaced families, medical supplies for hospitals, fuel for basic services, and heavy machinery for removing rubble. 

Truck drivers continue to report lengthy delays as they have to repeatedly unload perishable produce such as fruit and vegetables for so-called security checks. They comply with Israeli rules on the amount of goods per pallet or how high pallets are stacked. 

There are also still limits on movement within Gaza – for example, vehicles are able to move from south to north Gaza along the Salah-ah-Din road, through a checkpoint staffed by armed US private security company. However, this is currently only one-way and vehicles are not able to move from north to south. 

We continue to call for an end to all Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid coming into Gaza. 

Despite the ceasefire in Gaza we have growing fears of a further escalation in violence and oppression against Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 

The situation in the West Bank is at boiling point and has been deteriorating for some time. Even before October 2023, that year was already the deadliest for Palestinians there since the end of the second Intifada in 2005.

Since 7 October 2023, Israeli attacks in the West Bank have intensified even further and killed more than 800 Palestinians – including around 200 children – and wounded more than 7100. In the same period 25 Israelis have been killed. The unprecedented rise in Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank has been particularly deadly and worrying, as these were rare events before October 2023. 

Since the Gaza ceasefire, Israel has further stepped up violence and human rights violations in the West Bank. In Jenin, Israel is currently carrying out its longest military operation in the West Bank since the early 2000s. Ground attacks and airstrikes have killed and wounded dozens of people, as well as trapping hundreds of patients inside hospitals, destroying roads, obstructing ambulances and preventing delivery of vital humanitarian aid.

More than 40,000 people have been displaced from areas around Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas in recent weeks – the biggest displacement in the West Bank for decades. Across the West Bank, dozens of civilians have been killed so far in 2025, including at least 13 children. The fatalities include a 2-year-old girl shot in the head while eating dinner with her family in her village, and an 8-month pregnant woman.

Across the West Bank, Israeli settlers have stepped up attacks on Palestinian villagers causing many injuries and damage to property; and the Israeli military has further tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement by closing roads, detaining civilians for hours at a time, and installing at least 18 new iron gates to control movement in and out of villages.

Israeli troops have particularly stepped up restrictions in villages that are home to Palestinian prisoners released under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire.

The restrictions on movement cut people off from their livelihoods, essential services and relatives. Palestinian civilians often face harassment, humiliation, detention, and assault when trying to pass Israeli military checkpoints. Medical staff and humanitarian workers trying to help injured civilians have themselves been assaulted and prevented from accessing people in need. 

As well as rising attacks by Israeli forces, there has been a massive increase in violence and intimidation of Palestinian villagers by armed Israeli settlers, with OCHA recording an average of around 4 attacks a day since October 2023. These attacks are carried out with complete impunity and in many cases actively supported and accompanied by Israeli troops. Settler attacks have killed and injured Palestinian civilians, damaged homes, chopped down thousands of olive trees, stolen agricultural equipment and attacked aid convoys heading to Gaza. 

Israel has also stepped up the demolition of Palestinian homes and other structures such as agricultural facilities or schools in Area C of the West Bank. Between 2009 and 2022 Israel demolished an average of 654 Palestinian structures every year. In 2023 at least 1,129 such demolitions were recorded, the highest annual total since the UN started tracking the data almost 20 years ago. In 2024 this rose to 1,768 demolitions. Thousands of Palestinians have been displaced as a result. 

Over the past 15 months Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war, deliberately depriving Palestinian civilians of food in violation of international law. Some 83% of food aid has been blocked from entering Gaza. Together with the ongoing bombardment and displacement, this created one of the world’s worst hunger crises and pushed the territory towards a man-made famine. Children and elderly people have starved to death. 

The latest projections from the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) show that 91% of Gaza’s population are suffering high levels of food insecurity. The IPC uses a 5-phase scale beginning at Phase 1, in which most of the population has access to adequate food supplies. At Phase 3 the situation has become a crisis; by Phase 4 the food shortage has become a humanitarian emergency and lives are at risk; and at Phase 5 it has escalated to catastrophic conditions or famine. 

Before the ceasefire the IPC reported that some 1.2 million people in Gaza are suffering from Phase 4 or Phase 5 levels of hunger. Some 60,000 children under-5 years old now need urgent treatment for malnutrition. 

The increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza following the ceasefire will save many lives, but it will not immediately solve the hunger crisis. Famine and extreme hunger remain a real risk. 

As well as blocking aid, Israeli military action has destroyed Gaza’s capacity to produce its own food. 95% of Gaza’s cattle have died, and 68% of agricultural land has been destroyed. Around 70% of Gaza’s fishing fleet is destroyed, and fisherfolk are routinely shot at if they try and go to sea. 

The increase in aid must be sustained to have long-term impact, and urgent action is needed to rebuild livelihoods and food production. 

Even before October 2023, Gaza’s health system faced daily challenges to keep functioning, with frequent shortages of fuel and medical supplies due to the Israeli blockade. 

Now, after 15 months of repeated targeted Israeli attacks, 94% of all health facilities in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed. At least 1060 health workers have been killed. The World Health Organisation has documented hundreds of attacks on healthcare, including bombing and shelling hospitals and clinics, striking ambulances as they carried wounded civilians, and shooting paramedics as they try to reach injured people.

Hospitals have frequently been besieged by Israeli military – with staff, critically ill patients, young children and pregnant women trapped inside without fuel, food or water. The Israeli blockade prevented vital drugs, medical equipment and fuel from entering, forcing doctors to carry out surgeries in medieval conditions. 

International law demands that hospitals and medical staff are protected and are never used for military purposes. It can never be morally justifiable to attack hospitals that are full of casualties and frightened civilians. 

At the time of the ceasefire, only 50% of hospitals in Gaza (18 of 36) and 39% of primary health care centres (55 of 141) were even partially functioning. Those have been facing a daily struggle to stay operational, with critical shortages of medicine, fuel and basic supplies such as insulin and paracetamol. 

The ceasefire now means that more supplies are able to get in, enabling hospitals and other health facilities to replenish their stocks and enabling some to re-open. 

However, the scale of destruction and the killing of so many health workers means it will take a long time before the health system is back to even pre-October 2023 levels. 

Over the past 15 months children in Gaza have been trapped in a nightmare. They have been bombed, starved and forcibly displaced. They’ve seen their friends and relatives killed, and their homes and schools bombed to rubble. More children have been killed in Gaza than in the last 4 years of all global wars combined. As well as the thousands killed, tens of thousand more have been injured – many with life-changing injuries such as loss of limbs. Thousands more have been orphaned. 

They have suffered trauma that most people cannot even imagine, which will have a devastating impact on children’s long term mental health. 

More than 650,000 school-age girls and boys have now been out of formal schooling for at least 15 months – and many of these children also missed out on at least a year of school during the Covid-19 lockdown as well. NGOs including Islamic Relief have been running informal learning classes for children during the crisis, but this is no substitute for getting back to school. 

The lost education will affect the rest of their lives. However, despite the ceasefire it will be difficult for most children to return to school immediately. The scale of destruction and killing of so many teachers means that rebuilding Gaza’s education system will take many years. At least 88% of school buildings are reportedly damaged or destroyed and need either full reconstruction or significant repairs, while 51 university buildings have been completely destroyed and another 57 damaged. At least 519 teachers and other educational staff have been killed and more than 2,700 injured. 

Even before October 2023, the UN warned that most water in Gaza was unfit for human consumption. Regular fuel shortages due to the Israeli blockade often caused water pumps and sewage networks to shut down. 

Now there has been unprecedented destruction, with more than 60% of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities damaged, including water pumps, sewage pumps, waste collection vehicles and sewage lines. 

Before the ceasefire, Gaza’s water supply was less than a quarter of what it was before October 2023, and 70% of the water being produced was lost due to leakage in damaged networks. Most families don’t have enough water for drinking, cooking, washing, or cleaning. Together with the collapse in sanitation this has led to widespread outbreaks of preventable diseases over the past year, including Gaza’s first polio case in more than 25 years. 

We hope that the ceasefire will enable repairs to be carried out and the water supply to increase again, but the scale of the destruction means this will take a long time to even get back to pre-October 2023 levels. 

Despite eased coordination for aid missions since the ceasefire, Israeli authorities continue to block entry to key sites like the Sufa landfill, preventing waste removal from overflowing dumpsites and increasing public health risks.

We have highlighted a range of specific challenges facing women and girls over the past 15 months – including women forced to give birth amid the rubble, a rise in premature births due to the extreme levels of stress, lack of privacy and risks of gender-based violence in the overcrowded shelters, and an extreme shortage of sanitary products on local markets.

Many of these still stand. Despite the ceasefire, thousands of pregnant women still lack access to adequate healthcare or basic services such as clean water and sufficient food. There are around 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza and every day about 180 women give birth in unimaginable conditions.

Most women are still in desperately overcrowded shelters and tents without clean water or sanitation. In some shelters hundreds of men, women and children are sharing a single toilet or shower and women have to queue for hours at a time. The complete lack of privacy puts women at even greater risk of harassment and assault and NGO assessments show a rise in sexual or gender-based violence against women over the past year.

At least 1 million children, and many adults, are now in need of mental health and psychosocial support. Even before the current escalation people in Gaza were suffering a mental health crisis.

17 years of Israeli blockade that has cut Gaza off from the rest of the OPT and the rest of the world, along with frequent escalations in bombing, have taken a terrible toll on people’s mental health. Even before this year, studies found over 68% of adolescents in Gaza have developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a staggering 95% grapple with severe anxiety.

Now an entire generation is living through trauma, loss, and violence that most people cannot even imagine. They have seen their loved ones blown to pieces by bombs, their homes, and schools turned into rubble, and feel abandoned by the world. This will have a devastating impact on people’s long term mental health.

Despite the ceasefire there is still a significant liquidity crisis in Gaza and most people are suffering from the scarcity of cash.

Many banks had to shut down over the last 15 months – they are reopening but it will take time to get the financial systems functioning again. Under the ceasefire agreement Israel has committed to allowing more aid into Gaza, however it is still unclear whether restrictions on bringing cash into Gaza will be lifted (for example international aid workers are restricted to bringing a maximum of $2800 in for their offices).

With formal banking disrupted, many people rely on informal money transfer systems, but these can be less reliable and more expensive with financial agents charging up to 30% in fees.

Almost every sector of Gaza’s economy has been devastated. Around 80% of commercial facilities have been damaged or destroyed and many businesses and factories have been forced to close, leading to a steep decline in Gaza’s economic output.

Most agricultural land has been damaged and most livestock are now dead. Unemployment has rocketed to around 85% and GDP declined by approximately $655 million last year. As well as reconstruction of infrastructure, Gaza will need enormous support to rebuild people’s livelihoods for years to come.

Over the past 15 months, Israel’s assault and blockade turned Gaza into the world’s most difficult and dangerous place to deliver aid. Despite the huge challenges, the Islamic Relief team in Gaza has worked closely with local and international partner organisations to deliver vital aid to people in need every single day throughout this crisis. Even though they themselves have been displaced from their homes multiple times and lost loved ones.

Since October 2023 we have spent more than $77 million AUD on aid in Gaza. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters and donors around the world, we have been able to help hundreds of thousands of people. 

Now there is a ceasefire we are scaling up our emergency response to reach even more people and more areas, working across all five governorates of Gaza (North Gaza, Gaza City, Deir al Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah in the south).  

Right now we are distributing ready-to-eat food, clean water and clothes and blankets for displaced families and those whose homes have been destroyed; running psychosocial activities and educational lessons for children; and providing cleaning services and hygiene supplies for people who remain in shelters. We have also started new activities such as clearing rubble and providing physical therapy for injured children. 

Providing food and nutrition to around 175,000 people a day 

• Since the start of the crisis we have cooked and distributed more than 64 million ready-to-eat hot meals for families. For many families this is the only meal they get to eat each day.  

• We are providing monthly Lipid-based Nutrition Supplements (LNS) for over 35,000 pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and young children. We also provide the same families with ready-to-eat food parcels twice a month. 

• We’ve distributed more than 260,000 packs of fresh vegetables  and more than 28,000 dry food parcels containing staples like rice and cans of meat. 

• We’ve provided more than 4,000 food vouchers so that families can buy food from local shops. 

Supporting children with psychosocial support and education 

• We’ve run fun and creative activities for over 100,000 displaced children. These activities are designed to help children cope with the stress and trauma of displacement, by offering a rare moment of normality, comfort, safety and stability. 

• With children out of school for more than a year, we are also supporting informal education initiatives, including ‘numbers and letters’ classes to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills – mostly for young children in grades 1-6. 

Improving Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) 

With water supplies extremely limited and water infrastructure badly damaged, we are currently providing water to an average of around 110,000 people a day. 

• We have installed toilets and other sanitation facilities in 67 shelters in the Middle Area and Khan Younis, benefiting around 70,000 people. 

• We have provided around 64,000 families with hygiene and dignity kits that include things like soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, shaving cream, diapers/nappies, towels, sanitary pads and sanitary products for women and girls. 

• We are providing cleaning services and hygiene supplies to 85 shelters where displaced families are sheltering. 

Supporting health facilities 

• We’ve supported a temporary medical point serving around 12,000 people a day, by providing it with essential medicine and supplies. 

• At the very start of the escalation, we distributed 2.2 million items of medical supplies to support hospitals and health facilities across Gaza as they treated wounded civilians. 

Orphan sponsorship 

• We have more than doubled our existing orphan sponsorship program due to the huge needs. We now sponsor and transfer money to the families of 17,775 orphaned children in Gaza, which helps them buy supplies or find shelter. 

Distributing other essential aid 

• We’ve distributed items such as blankets, mattresses and kitchen kits to over 66,000 displaced families. 

Most of the aid that we have distributed throughout the crisis has been brought into Gaza via commercial suppliers. We then procure these supplies once they are inside Gaza. 

We also distribute some aid that enters Gaza via UN trucks. 

Over the past year we also brought a small amount of aid in ourselves, including trucks from Jordan containing winter clothing and hygiene products such as sanitary pads and nappies (diapers), and trucks from Egypt containing blankets and food packs. 

Now there is a ceasefire we are seeing a big increase in trucks entering Gaza – currently mainly through Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) and Erez crossings – so we are focusing on using these supplies to scale up our response. 

However, we also continue to explore options to bring additional trucks in, potentially via Egypt, and we hope to do so in the coming weeks. 

At the moment the ceasefire remains temporary and fragile. The situation is uncertain and we are constantly adapting our plans to match the changing context and needs on the ground. 

The humanitarian needs are urgent and enormous, and hundreds of thousands of families remain displaced in tents and have lost everything they had. So at the moment most of our activities are still focused on emergency relief such as distributing food, water, and other vital aid. 

We have also started some immediate recovery programs such as clearing rubble and supporting the physical rehabilitation of wounded children. 

We have developed a $119 million AUD early recovery plan to guide our work for the next 18 months, if the ceasefire remains in place. We aim to empower communities to rebuild self-reliance in a more sustainable way. This plan includes things like: 

• Repairing some of the damaged homes, schools and hospitals. We will focus first on repairing those with relatively minor damages, rather than those that are completely destroyed. 

• Rehabilitating centres for children and adults with disabilities 

• Providing families with transitional shelters while their homes are rebuilt, as well as things like kitchen sets and solar powered energy systems. 

• Creating paid employment for skilled and non-skilled workers who have lost their livelihoods – including hiring labourers to help remove rubble and employing people in health and agriculture. This helps families get an income so they can rebuild their lives, and also contributes to rebuilding Gaza’s basic services. 

• Supporting children to kickstart their education by providing educational kits and school bags, and providing schools with furniture and equipment. 

• Strengthening healthcare systems by providing medical supplies and other support to improve the quality and accessibility of medical services, especially for women, children, elderly people and people with disabilities. 

• Providing families with cash so they can purchase what they need most and support local markets. 

• We know the impact of this crisis will last for generations to come and we are committed to supporting the Palestinian people as long as needed. 

We have a long history of providing development programmes in Gaza as well as emergency aid. These were suspended while we focus on our emergency response, but we hope to resume this important work in future, when it is appropriate for the situation. For example:

• In the face of soaring youth unemployment, our youth-centred community work helped young people enter the world of work, earn a reliable living, and raise their living standards. Our Islamic microfinance grants enabled young entrepreneurs to start up microbusinesses, supported by training, coaching and mentoring. Focused on enabling young people to achieve their potential, we developed apprenticeship and internship opportunities and boosted access to high-quality technical and vocational education and training.

• Seeing education as essential to building a brighter future, we improved the learning environments in kindergartens and primary schools; trained teachers; ran child counselling services; helped children with disabilities to access schools; and improved water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools. We also ran educational clubs that used practical and entertaining teaching methods to help children find solutions to community issues.

To deliver aid, the Islamic Relief team in Gaza works closely with local and international humanitarian partners. 

As always, local aid workers and community-based organisations are at the forefront of the humanitarian response. We have worked in Gaza for over 25 years and we have long-established partnerships with numerous local Palestinian organisations. During this emergency we are working closely with 6 of these local partners, who all work in different locations throughout Gaza and help us carry out our daily distributions and other activities. 

We also work with international organisations. Our largest partnership is with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and we are now their biggest NGO partner in Gaza. Together we aim to provide food to around 175,000 people a day. Through our partnership with WFP, which began in early 2024, we have cooked and distributed over 53 million* hot meals for displaced families in overcrowded shelters; provided monthly supplies of Lipid-based Nutrition Supplement (LNS) for over 35,000 vulnerable young children, pregnant women and breastfeeding women; and distributed twice-monthly food parcels for 27,000 families. 

(*Islamic Relief is also cooking hot meals through other projects, so the cumulative total of meals cooked given in question 18 is higher). 

Yes, in addition to our partnerships with agencies such as WFP, we actively coordinate with a range of other UN agencies and other international and national NGOs in Gaza. Good coordination with other organisations is vital to avoid duplication of work and maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the humanitarian response. 

Islamic Relief is part of the UN cluster system, which is a global coordination mechanism that organises humanitarian actors into 11 core sectors such as health, logistics, shelter, food security and protection. Each cluster is coordinated by a different lead agency and the members share information, coordinate activities and avoid duplication. In Gaza Islamic Relief is currently an active member of numerous clusters including food security, education and protection. 

Our long-term orphan sponsorship program (OSP) provides cash transfers that help orphaned children and youth* get food, shelter, education, healthcare and other necessities. 

In the face of the unprecedented need this year we have almost doubled our orphan program and we now support 17,775 orphans in Gaza. 

We are utterly heartbroken that dozens of the orphans we sponsor have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 2023 – the youngest of them just 5 years old. Dozens of guardians involved in the OSP have also been killed – many children have previously lost their parents and have now lost their remaining guardian. 

We were particularly appalled at the killing of Mohammad Bhar, a young man with Down’s syndrome and autism who was mauled to death by an Israeli military dog. He and his mother had been part of our sponsorship programme since Mohammad was just 2 years old. We continue to call for an independent investigation into his death, and for all responsible to be held accountable. 

Transferring money has been a challenge throughout the crisis, due to the massive liquidity shortage in Gaza and the collapse of the banking system. We have been using the payment system of the UN World Food Programme, through which families receive an SMS code which they can use to withdraw money from functioning supermarkets whenever they are able to. We know that at least 85% of families in the OSP have managed to redeem the cash this way. We hope that the ceasefire will now make it easier to transfer and collect funds. 

*Islamic Relief begins sponsoring orphan children under the age of 18, however we continue to sponsor them after 18 if they remain enrolled in education. 

Providing people with cash is often a very effective part of emergency response, as it empowers people to buy what they need and supports local markets. At the start of this escalation in Gaza we distributed food vouchers to families as part of our response, and we have provided cash to families through our Orphan Sponsorship Program. However, the liquidity and banking challenges in Gaza means that we’ve prioritised distributing food and other aid rather than cash for most of the crisis. 

Now there is a ceasefire we hope that we may be able to scale up cash distribution – for example we have already begun to distribute some cash assistance through our DEC-funded projects. Our early recovery plan includes providing families with cash assistance so they can buy what they need on local markets. 

The past 15 months have brought the deadliest violence against humanitarian workers that the world has seen in many years, with at least 385 aid workers killed, as well as hundreds more health workers. 

We are relieved that no Islamic Relief staff have been killed – although several staff have had close family members killed and wounded in the bombardment, including husbands, wives, and children. All of our staff have been forced to flee their homes. They have been trying to keep themselves and their families safe at the same time as delivering lifesaving aid. 

Islamic Relief’s office in Gaza City was badly damaged by airstrikes early in the escalation, bombs have fallen nearby as our staff provide civilians with aid, and there have been deadly attacks on shelters where we have delivered aid. 

Our staff also need support to rebuild their lives and we are committed to providing them with additional financial support to cover things like rent and medical bills, providing access to mental health support and temporary accommodation, and repairing damaged work spaces. 

We have worked in Gaza for more than 25 years. In 2023 our work in Gaza helped more than 1 million people. We work mainly with local partner organisations who implement many of our distributions. We currently have 13 staff, all of them Palestinians, who coordinate and oversee this work. 

The Israeli government shut down Islamic Relief Worldwide’s office in the West Bank in 2014, and we do not currently have staff or operations there. Some other members of the Islamic Relief family continue to fund a range of programs and partners in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 

The supplies we are currently distributing in Gaza originate from other countries in the region such as Turkiye, Egypt and Jordan.

For years, the Israeli occupation has suffocated Palestinian producers and markets. In Gaza, the 17-year blockade has restricted everything that can enter and leave Gaza, including food and other supplies.

Over the past year most local production in Gaza – such as local farms and fishing – has been destroyed. In the West Bank, checkpoints and permit systems mean that Palestinian producers are rarely able to sell their goods in Jerusalem, and struggle to access other markets such as Gaza.

The expansion of settlement infrastructure and the Wall has confiscated Palestinian farmland. This means that Palestinians sometimes have no choice but to buy Israeli-made goods. NGOs like Islamic Relief work to support Palestinian farmers, fisherfolk and other producers as much as possible.

Yes, you can. 

The humanitarian needs and scale of destruction in Gaza is enormous. For many people, humanitarian aid is now their only lifeline and the meals we are providing are the only food they eat that day. People will need a lot of support to rebuild their homes and livelihoods, and Gaza’s infrastructure needs almost completely rebuilding.

Please continue to donate to Islamic Relief’s emergency appeals around the world – those donations are having a huge impact and will help us continue to save lives and help Gaza to rebuild. But humanitarian aid alone is not enough. There will only be lasting peace and development in Gaza when there is an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. Please help us pressure policymakers and political representatives around the world to take action to help end the occupation and the Israeli blockade of Gaza that accompanies it.

Islamic Relief was among the first aid agencies to call for a ceasefire, and throughout the crisis we have been urging world leaders and international governments to apply pressure and demand a ceasefire and respect for international law. We welcome the new ceasefire agreement, but that doesn’t mean the crisis is now over. 

We continue to call on international governments and other global actors to: 

• Ensure the ceasefire is adhered to and becomes permanent. The ceasefire remains temporary and fragile. Ongoing international scrutiny and diplomacy is needed to ensure the ceasefire is respected and extended. Parties must be held accountable for any violations. 

• Pressure Israel to lift all restrictions on humanitarian aid. There has been a welcome increase in aid allowed into Gaza, but Israel’s 18-year-old blockade remains in place. Ongoing restrictions on the type and quantities of assistance allowed to enter must be lifted in order to ensure that reconstruction and recovery can happen at the necessary scale and speed. 

• Protect civil society and humanitarian actors from disinformation and lawfare campaigns. Governments must stand up for UNRWA and other organisations that are similarly targeted, push back on allegations that are made without credible evidence, and proactively address impacts such as bank derisking and challenges with payment platforms. 

• Take a holistic approach to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For many years Israeli policy has been to separate Gaza from the rest of the OPT – politically, economically and culturally. Gaza must not be treated in isolation from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, especially given the worsening situation there as well. 

• Protect Palestinians’ right to stay on their land. International governments must ensure that Palestinians are not forced to leave Gaza. We urge them to issue statements to this effect, recognising that any Palestinians who do leave Gaza must be allowed to return. 

• Ensure the UN-led humanitarian appeal for Gaza is fully funded. International donors should also increase support to local Palestinian organisations at the heart of the response, including those that are women-led, and support liquidity to mitigate the collapse of the banking system. 

• Gaza’s reconstruction must be locally-led, driven by the needs and opinions of local communities. Women and youth groups must be at the heart of the recovery process. 

• Increase pressure on Israel to end its illegal occupation of Palestine, including its blockade of Gaza, in line with the resolution unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2024. Regardless of the ceasefire, Israel continues to violate international law on a daily basis. Governments must not be complicit in these violations. They have a legal and moral duty to use all their political, economic and diplomatic leverage to pressure Israel, through actions such as: 

• • Halting all arms licences and exports of weapons, parts, and ammunition 

• • Legislating to support bans on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and bans on goods produced in settlements 

• • Reviewing human rights obligations of any political agreements, for example the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and acting to suspend such agreements based on violations of international law 

• • Supporting legal mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable for violations of international law. 

• • Considering targeted sanctions against officials responsible for violations of international law. 

Ultimately, we want to see the ceasefire become a lasting peace where all Palestinians and Israelis can live in safety and dignity and have their fundamental human rights upheld. We believe this will not be possible until the root causes of the crisis are addressed and there is an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.