Over 16 months of war devastated the Gaza Strip. What was once a place with resourceful people struggling with many challenges and under Israeli blockade, is now a grim landscape of rubble, tents, and overcrowded, bullet-riddled makeshift shelters.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, over 48,000 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 1,230 families have been completely wiped out. Children have endured relentless bombing, hunger, and terrifying nights filled with the fear of death, only to wake up to the constant buzz of drones. This has been their reality every day for over a year.
More than 1.9 million people – 9 out of 10 inhabitants of Gaza – have been displaced multiple times. For most of them, humanitarian aid has been their only lifeline. Over 650,000 school-aged children have not attended school since the war began, during which they have experienced extreme violence, lost their parents and friends, and had their homes destroyed.
The 19 January ceasefire offered a crucial opportunity to finally deliver long-obstructed humanitarian aid to Gaza, enabling all humanitarian organizations to significantly scale up their emergency response.
In 2024, the European Union has allocated €237 million in humanitarian funding channeled via international NGOs, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and UN agencies, whose staff work on the ground at great personal risk. Their ability to deliver aid is indisputable, but they require access and safety to continue their work.
Over 165 months of heavy fighting and airstrikes devastated the infrastructure of Gaza. 9 out of 10 private homes are severely damaged or destroyed.
Civilians are forced to either live in makeshift, overcrowded, and unsanitary shelters or in crumbling buildings.
Water pipelines have been heavily damaged in the war: 50-80% of water leaks before reaching civilians.
For most people, water trucking is the only way to access clean water. With EU funding, the NGO Action Contre la Faim runs water trucks across the Strip.
Over 1.1 million children live in Gaza, none of whom attended school during the war.
In the past 4 years, due to COVID and escalations, Gaza’s children only completed 1 school year.
They spend their days wandering through the rubble, exposed to risks.
96% of schools in Gaza are either destroyed or damaged.
With EU funding, UNICEF provided children with temporary learning spaces throughout the war.
They built temporary structures amid destroyed neighbourhoods and enrolled over 100,000 children.
Almost empty and what little was available was unaffordable.
The EU supported the World Food Programme in providing food to approximately 1 million people.
The EU is funding, through WFP, food for a vast network of community kitchens, providing hundreds of thousands of hot meals a day, for free.
Cooks and workers show up every day to keep these kitchens running, cook and deliver hot meals.
“I used my money to buy food, I don’t know what I would have done without it,” says Saed.
During the war, humanitarian e-cash was, for many families, the only economic lifeline they had.
UNICEF provided 140,000 civilians in Gaza with EU-funded e-cash.
Winter in Gaza can be very harsh: cold nights, strong winds and heavy rains.
For the over 600,000 displaced children living in tents and destroyed buildings, winter is life threatening.
With EU funds, UNICEF distributed winter clothing to 150,000 children.
At least 14,500 children have been killed in Gaza.
They faced displacement, saw their families torn apart, witnessed violent death. This will leave long-lasting traumas.
The EU funds UNICEF and UNRWA to provide them with mental health and psychosocial support.
“Since the beginning of the ceasefire, they started drawing flowers and happy things again. Before, it was always bombs and war,” says the UNICEF staff providing mental and psychosocial support for children in Gaza.
Doctors were arrested, ambulances bombed, patients besieged. The WHO recorded 670 attacks on health facilities.
Only half of Gaza’s hospitals are partially functional. The rest are non-operational.
WHO provides EU-funded medical supplies, trauma care and emergency medical teams in Gaza.
The EU has been coordinating medical evacuations of critically ill patients from Gaza to European hospitals.
Since 2024, the European Union has supported the most vulnerable Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with €237 million in humanitarian aid.
Despite the considerable insecurity and logistical challenges, EU humanitarian partners continue to respond on the ground, doing their utmost to provide relief in Gaza, often at great personal risk.
