Palestine Emergency

Israel has turned Gaza into hell on earth. Islamic Relief staff and partners on the ground say the situation is now the worst they have ever seen there. Relentless and indiscriminate Israeli bombing is killing civilians every day, burning families to death in their tents, maiming young children, and tearing through hospitals and school shelters.

People have been wounded by bombing in their neighbourhoods, then killed by bombs striking the hospitals and shelters where they seek refuge and treatment. Nowhere is safe.

Since 2 March, Israel has completely sealed off Gaza and prevented any humanitarian aid or commercial supplies from entering.

Gaza is now in the grip of starvation as food runs out. Famine conditions are spreading fast, with young children starving to death and families scavenging through rubbish on the streets to try and find a few scraps to eat. Doctors report horrific cases of children too emaciated and malnourished to stand up, and most people are going entire days without eating. Parents are going without and giving all their food to their young children, but it’s still not enough to keep them healthy.

Meat, fruit, vegetables, eggs and dairy products are now almost impossible to find, and the price of items such as wheat flour has risen by 3000% since the closure, at a time when few people have jobs or access to cash. Bakeries have shut down due to the lack of flour and fuel.

Even when people do have food, there is an extreme shortage of cooking gas. Most people now rely on unhealthy canned goods as those are all they can find and afford. More than 19 months of Israeli attacks have destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself, with most agricultural land, greenhouses and fishing boats destroyed and most cattle killed. This has left all civilians in

Gaza reliant on humanitarian aid that is now banned.

Israeli military orders have yet again forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes, with areas such as Rafah now completely emptied of Palestinians. Families are being herded into ever-shrinking areas where there is no clean water, no functioning sanitation and no safety. Multiple families share tents and communal shelters and there are growing risks of deadly diseases spreading in the desperately overcrowded conditions.

People suffering from injuries, malnutrition or disease are unable to access decent healthcare and treatment as most health facilities have been forced to shut down or are operating at greatly reduced capacity. Many hospitals have been repeatedly attacked and the Israeli siege meansthey cannot access medicine, medical supplies or fuel to keep generators going. Wounded civilians and patients with cancer or kidney disease suffer in agony as medics try and keep working in almost mediaeval conditions without drugs and electricity.

Over the past 19 months Israel’s attacks and restrictions have turned Gaza into the world’s most dangerous and difficult place to deliver aid. Now, Israel and the US have announced new plans to dismantle the current humanitarian system in Gaza. These plans would contravene core humanitarian principles, entrench the Israeli occupation and weaponise aid as a tool of forced displacement.

Since 2 March Israel has shut all crossings into Gaza and prevented all humanitarian and commercial supplies from entering.

Nothing at all has been allowed in. No food – not even a bag of rice or an apple. No medicine – not even painkillers or treatment for cancer patients. No medical supplies – not even bandages or incubators for newborn babies. No fuel to keep water pumps, sanitation systems and bakeries running. Not even tents for hundreds of thousands of families forced from their homes.

Many of these supplies are on trucks and ready to enter, but are blocked by the Israeli military just a few miles away from starving children and critically ill patients.

Over the past 19 months Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war, deliberately depriving Palestinian civilians of food in violation of international law. 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. People’s coping mechanisms are exhausted.

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 and more are starving right now.

In early May the Palestinian Authority declared famine in Gaza. The latest May 2025 report from the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – the main global body that declares famine – finds the whole of Gaza is at critical risk of famine, with half a million people facing starvation.

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.

The IPC’s new projections for May-September 2025 show the entire population of Gaza at Phase 3 or higher. Over 1 million people are in Phase 4 and 470,000 are in Phase 5 – a significant deterioration since the IPC’s last forecast in October 2024.

Declaring famine is a very complex and politicised issue and we know from other experiences around the world that formal famine declarations usually only come too late, after many people have already died, or not at all. For example, during the 2011 Somalia famine, most of the 260,000 fatalities had already died from hunger and disease before famine was officially declared by the IPC.

Regardless of whether or when famine is officially declared or not, we know that Palestinians in Gaza – particularly very young children – are starving to death right now. And we know that many more are likely to die unless there is urgent action. Stopping famine is not only about providing food, there also has to be action to prevent disease and improve healthcare.

The scale of destruction is like nothing we have seen before. Israel’s relentless attacks have turned Gaza into rubble, wiping out entire neighbourhoods and destroying all sectors of society.

According to UN reports, 69% of all structures in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed, including 94% of health facilities, 92% of homes, 89% of water and sanitation services, 88% of schools and 81% of main roads. Places of worship are similarly affected, with 79% of mosques and almost all churches now damaged or completely flattened.

The economy and people’s livelihoods are also destroyed, which will leave people dependent on aid for a long time to come. Around 80% of commercial facilities such as shops and small businesses are damaged or destroyed, and many businesses and factories have been forced to close, leading to a steep decline in Gaza’s economic output. Farmers face enormous challenges as 82% of agricultural cropland is now damaged, as well as 68% of agricultural wells and 72% 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 boatsdestroyed.

Unemployment has rocketed to around 85% and GDP declined by approximately $655 million last year. People’s futures are also badly damaged. 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 situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is at boiling point as violence and oppression against Palestinians there increases. Palestinians face daily human rights violations that affect every aspect of life.

Even before October 2023, that year was already the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank since the end of the second Intifada in 2005. Since 7 October 2023, Israeli attacks have intensified even further and killed more than 930 Palestinians, including around 200 children, and wounded more than 8,500 – mostly from live military fire and also frequent airstrikes, which were rarely seen in the West Bank before October 2023. In the same period, 46 Israelis have been killed, including soldiers.

These attacks show no sign of slowing down – in the first four months of 2025, at least 118 Palestinians have been killed, including 23 children. One of them was a 2-year-old girl shot in the head while she ate dinner with her family in her village.

In January – as the ceasefire was beginning in Gaza – Israel launched a major military offensive in the northern West Bank, starting in the city of Jenin and then spreading to other areas such as Tulkarem and Tubas. This ongoing offensive, which the Israeli military refers to as Operation Iron Wall, has forcibly displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians from their homes, the largest and fastest displacement in the West Bank for decades. It has destroyed entire neighbourhoods, with homes, roads and hospitals bombed into rubble and previously bustling communities now emptied of people.

The Israeli military has imposed increasing restrictions on Palestinian movement across the West Bank, closing roads, detaining civilians for hours at a time, and installing new iron gates to control movement in and out of villages. This prevents people from reaching relatives, markets, farms, schools, health facilities, businesses and places of worship. Palestinian civilians often face harassment, humiliation, detention and assault when trying to pass Israeli military checkpoints, and medical staff and humanitarian workers are frequently obstructed, preventing them from reaching wounded and vulnerable civilians. Israeli troops have particularly increased restrictions in villages that are home to Palestinian prisoners who were released during the Gaza ceasefire.

As well as military attacks, the Israeli government is also taking political steps to entrench the occupation. In May Israeli politicians announced plans to move ahead with the years-old “E1” settlement plan, which would expand Israeli settlements with thousands of new housing units, divide the West Bank completely in two, and completely cut off most Palestinian communities from Jerusalem. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the E1 plan as “This is how we effectively kill the Palestinian state.”

Armed Israeli settlers have also stepped up violent attacks and intimidation of Palestinian villagers. OCHA has recorded an average of around 4 settler 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, stolen agricultural equipment, burnt farmland, and chopped down thousands of olive trees on which families depend their livelihoods and which have belonged to Palestinian families for generations.

We are also seeing an increase in 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, citing a lack of building permits which in practice are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain. 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 even higher to 1,768 demolitions. In the first 4 months of 2025, at least 580 structures have been demolished. Thousands of Palestinians have been displaced as a result.

Figures are published by UN OCHA

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 18 months of repeated targeted Israeli attacks, 94% of all health facilities in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed. At least 1400 health workers have been killed and many more wounded. 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 – and the Israeli siege has prevented vital drugs, medical equipment and fuel from entering, forcing doctors to carry out surgeries in mediaeval 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.

Palestinian medical staff are doing everything they can to keep health services going. But as of May 2025, around 40% of hospitals, more than 52% of primary health centres, and 67% of UNRWA-run health centres are completely shut down. Most of the rest are only partially functional and they face a daily struggle to stay open due to critical shortages of medicine, fuel and basic supplies such as insulin and paracetamol.

Many patients simply cannot access the care they need. Between 10,500 – 12,500 patients require medical evacuation for urgent treatment outside Gaza.

Over the past 18 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 thousands 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 almost 2 years – and many of these children also missed out on at least a year of school during the Covid-19 lockdown as well.

The education sector has been devastated. 88% of Gaza’s schools (499 out of 564) are damaged or destroyed and will need either full reconstruction or significant repairs, and another 2,308 educational facilities ranging from kindergartens to universities are now rubble.

At least 663 educational staff have been killed and more than 2,700 teachers injured. NGOs including Islamic Relief have been running informal learning classes for displaced children during the crisis, but this is no substitute for getting back to school. The lost education will affect the rest of their lives.

There are many challenges facing women and girls. Pregnant women struggle to access even basic healthcare and maternity services, clean water or sufficient food, and many have been forced to give birth amid the rubble or under bombing. Midwives have reported a rise in premature births due to the extreme levels of stress. There are around 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza and every day about 180 women give birth in unimaginable conditions.

Most women are living 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 and girls. There has also been an extreme shortage of sanitary products on local markets.

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.

There is a major liquidity crisis in Gaza and most people are suffering from the scarcity of cash. Many banks and ATMs had to shut down over the last 19 months and financial systems are in disarray. 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. When people do have cash, the scarcity of goods means that prices are rising rapidly and it is increasingly difficult for people to afford essentials.