Gaza: there is nowhere safe for people to go

Eight months on, and civilians continue to pay the highest price in Gaza. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is experiencing a catastrophic hunger crisis.

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Last updated 21 June 2024

What is happening in Gaza: the latest news

We are witnessing an unbearable human tragedy in Gaza. Without the basics - food, water, medical care and shelter - people are enduring unimaginable suffering.

Continued disruptions to aid delivery threaten to undermine the lifesaving support that has become so crucial for the survival of people in Gaza. Our colleagues have told us that the lack of fuel for the general population means they are often forced to travel on donkey carts just to get water for the family, or to go to work.

Aid agencies must be able to bring much more aid in much faster, and an unimpeded flow of lifesaving aid must be guaranteed.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has now reached over 1.5 million people. But with the entire population in desperate need, and conditions worsening by the hour, there is still such a long way to go .

Please help people in Gaza

Through a sustained effort over a long period of time, we can avert an even greater catastrophe in Gaza. Your donation will go towards food parcels, blankets, mattresses, tents, hygiene kits and other essentials. 

• If you can, please donate to the Israel and Occupied Palestine Territory Appeal

How your donations are helping

What's going on in Rafah, Gaza?

We are desperately concerned about the ongoing situation in Rafah. More than 1.5 million people have been living in dire, overcrowded conditions in Rafah; many have been living on the streets with only cardboard or scraps of wood for shelter.

Rafah is also home to much of the functioning health infrastructure left in Gaza, meaning an already devastated health system risks complete collapse. There is a lack of food, drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, and safety in Rafah as hundreds of thousands of people fear what comes next.

Following the airstrikes in Rafah on 26 May, the Palestine Red Crescent Society provided emergency medical aid and dozens of injured people were helped at the ICRC field hospital.

We have been hearing directly from our colleagues in Gaza, following this tragic incident who are increasingly concerned about the situation in Rafah. ICRC’s William Schomburg in Gaza, said, "There aren't really words to describe how devastating the picture is."

There is no safe place in Gaza

One of our colleagues at the Palestine Red Crescent has said ‘There is no safe place in Gaza’.

Is aid getting into Gaza?

Almost everyone in Gaza is reliant on humanitarian support, but there is not enough aid currently entering Gaza.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has now facilitated 18,849 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Roughly half of this aid was distributed by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, with the rest passed onto other agencies.

Over 14,000 of these trucks came from the Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ERCS) via the Rafah crossing. The ERCS have played a vital role in getting aid into Gaza.

The situation in the south has significantly worsened since 6 May as there have been closures and disruption at crucial border crossing points. This has caused a massive reduction to the aid entering Gaza.

The lack of aid access has had devastating effects for the people of Gaza, who have endured critical food insecurity and face the prospect of famine.

• Explainer: how is aid getting into Gaza?

Is there a famine in Gaza?

The independent and internationally recognised Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned in March that famine was imminent in the north of Gaza, and also possible later in the south in the worst-case scenario.

This famine could still be averted if access to humanitarian aid is restored across the entire Gaza strip. Humanitarian organisations, including the Palestine Red Crescent Society continue to work tirelessly to get lifesaving humanitarian aid to those in need.

• Explainer: what is food insecurity and why it is a threat?

Summary of events in Gaza

• Threat of famine in Gaza: the IPC projects that famine in Gaza is imminent 
• The death toll in Gaza currently stands at 36, 171, and 502 in the West Bank
• 81,420 people have been injured in Gaza and 5,100 in the West Bank

The impact of this violence has been affecting communities on both sides of the conflict, since it escalated on Saturday 7 October.

In Israel, more than 1,200 people have died following the attack on 7 October. 5,430 have been injured.

• Find out how Magen David Adom are supporting people in Israel

Are any hospitals open in Gaza?

The healthcare system in Gaza has all but collapsed. The destruction of medical facilities has inflicted a devastating blow on Gaza’s healthcare system.

Some larger hospitals have been able to restart providing some services, including Al-Shifa Hospital and the PRCS-run Al-Amal Hospital. But these facilities are overwhelmed with patients. They lack the supplies and resources to treat their patients’ severe health needs.

To meet the vast medical needs in Gaza, the Red Cross had recently opened a field hospital, with facilities for emergency care and a mother and child unit.

• More about the Red Cross field hospital in Rafah

Are people homeless in Gaza?

There is nowhere safe for people to go in Gaza. Over 75% of the population have been forced to leave their homes. People’s basic needs have become wish lists.

Over the last eight months, hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter in Rafah, south of Gaza. Men, women and children walk for days, past horrific scenes of death and destruction, sometimes losing family members along the way.

People are struggling to live with dignity in makeshift tents next to waste or sewerage areas; many are sleeping in the open, or trying to cover themselves with cardboard and scraps of wood.

Those who can find a space in the overcrowded shelters, have just one square metre per person. A lack of ventilation within some shelters means that disease spreads rapidly.

Rafah had previously been less affected by fighting than other areas, with better access to aid pipelines. But a million people have been forced to evacuate Rafah since the start of May, forced to seek refuge among destroyed buildings.

How is the Palestine Red Crescent supporting people in Gaza?

The Palestine Red Crescent Society is working day and night, risking, and losing, their lives to deliver assistance. They are mandated to receive and distribute this aid to where it is needed most in Gaza.

In the Gaza Strip PRCS teams have:

• received over 18,000 trucks of humanitarian aid for distribution in Gaza
• reached over 1.5m people with food parcels, blankets, mattresses, tents, hygiene kits and other essentials
• supported over 200,000 people with health services
• provided psychosocial support to over 70,000 people
• reached more than 18,000 people with emergency medical services.

An ICRC medical team has been stationed at the European Gaza Hospital since late October. Two teams have rotated deployments and have carried out more than 1,625 surgical procedures.

In the West Bank PRCS teams have:

• responded to 4,052 injuries
• delivered food parcels to 42,840 people

"We must always have hope": what it's like for Red Cross Red Crescent colleagues responding to the crisis in Israel and Gaza

How to help people in Gaza and Israel

The best way to help people affected in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory by donating to our emergency appeal.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society, and Magen David Adom in Israel, are rooted in the community and have been working to support everyone affected by the Israel-Gaza conflict since the violence escalated since October, and for many years before that.

• Donate to the Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory Appeal

Map of Israel and the Gaza Strip

What is the British Red Cross doing for Gaza?

The British Red Cross is directly supporting our partners in the Movement – including the Palestine Red Crescent Society – to respond to these urgent needs, providing funding as well as expert staff.

We have deployed nine psychosocial volunteers to Tel Aviv, Cairo and Cyprus alongside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to support British Nationals in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

And we have also deployed logistics and managerial staff to the region to support with the deliver and distribution of aid and humanitarian assistance. 

We will do all we can to support people on both sides of the conflict for as long as we’re needed.

What is the Occupied Palestinian Territory?

The Occupied Palestinian Territory or OPT is an internationally accepted description, used by the United Nations. It refers to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). Together with the reference to Israel in our appeal, it covers all the areas affected by the current crisis.

What is the Gaza Strip?

The Gaza Strip is part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Its an enclave 25 miles long and six miles wide, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Israel, and Egypt.

More on the Israel and OPT crisis

• Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: what is happening?

• Teaching resources on the Israel and Occupied Palestinian territory conflict

• Teaching resources on International Humanitarian Law