Note: This article was written by an independent journalist in the first week of March, before Israel broke the ceasefire, resulting in the deaths of over 400 people in Gaza to date. Sami Khader is the director of the MA’AN Development Center, an independent and secular Palestinian civil society organisation that has been operating in the West Bank and Gaza since 1989. MA’AN collaborates with both Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA and ActionAid.
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Israel’s aid blockade of Gaza, escalating military raids in the West Bank are creating a humanitarian catastrophe for Palestinians.
“We are facing disaster,” said Sami Khader from MA’AN Development Centre. “For ten days now, no food or supplies have been allowed in. Israel is using hunger as a weapon to try to force Palestinians to leave their country.”
People in Gaza have no food, electricity, clean water, non-food items or health services in the north of Gaza city.
“What do you expect for 2.3 million people under constant repression and bombardment? The situation is beyond words,” said Khader from his office in Ramallah, West Bank.
US President Trump warned that if Hamas does not release hostages and civilians do not leave, Gaza will “see hell.”
“What hell? They are already living in hell for more than 17 months,” said Khader. “What more can they do against our people?” Khader quoted António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations when he described the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth”.
Israel has dropped 80,000 tonnes of bombs on civilians, schools, hospitals, universities, schools, shelters, mosques, churches, museums, and clinics. Over 59,000 persons were killed, including 10,000 who are still under the rubble and over 113,500 were injured, out of them 17,000 children and over 13,500 women have been killed, and over 25,000 orphaned. “What else do they want to commit that they haven’t already? Besides all kinds of war crimes and destruction, will they resort to nuclear weapons next?”
MA’AN, has provided developmental and emergency aid in Gaza and the West Bank for over 36 years, offering food, non-food items, WASH, shelter, counselling, and developmental aid.
Now, Australian aid is even more critical. “We face 10-20% cuts to projects,” said Khader. “Some are completely frozen or cancelled.”
Since the war began, MA’AN has provided over 200,000 food parcels, each sustaining a family of six for two weeks—feeding around one million Palestinians. In addition to more than 190,000 hot meals, each meal for 5 persons.
Throughout the war, MA’AN has supplied food parcels including flour, milk packs, 99,000kg of fresh bread, vegetable baskets, over 72 million liters of drinking water, WASH services for shelters, distributed more than 3,000 tents, and tens of thousands of sealing-off kits (SoK). In addition to tens of thousands of children’s clothing kits, hygiene & dignity kits, diapers for elderly and children, cash assistants to displaced families, distributed over 9,000 blankets in Gaza and West Bank, provided agricultural inputs for farmers and psychological support for children and mothers.
“We’ve built 183 toilets in shelters, where 864 people share one latrine. People wait in line for three hours—you could reach London before reaching the toilet,” Khader said.
Women shave their heads due to lack of soap or shampoo. Some elderly and disabled have one diaper for five days.
“Israel blocks money to Gaza. Only one bank still operates. Prices have soared, with money changers and merchants charging 15-25% commissions.”
Nothing is left in Gaza. More than 84% of the hospitals and health services are destroyed and stopped, universities, schools, hotels, more than 320,000 housing units were destroyed partially or totally, 95% of Gaza’s population has had no access to clean water. More than 90% of the artisan wells are destroyed. Over 80% of the drinking and swage networks were destroyed and farming has been wiped out.
MA’AN’s work is now even harder.
“No one is safe in Palestine,” he said.
Nine MA’AN workers in Gaza—all under 30—have been killed. The last was a 30-year-old mother of five, who died after the MA’AN warehouse was bombed in January and could not get medical help. Khader estimates 85% of MA’AN’s 278 Gaza employees have lost their homes, and more than 78% of them have also lost one or more of their nuclear family members—some as many as 60 relatives. Most of them now live in tents and shelters, and some rent a small apartment.
Meanwhile, Israel has escalated attacks on Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. Palestinians in the West Bank are witnessing a significant escalation in organised attacks by the Israeli army and the settlers. These include the intensification of pastoral colonisation and land seizure, changing the laws to facilitate the confiscation of Palestinian lands, intensified demolition of homes and infrastructures, and imposing restrictions on the movement of citizens and goods through the 980 different checkpoints and physical barriers.
“They destroy the homes we rebuild and confiscate aid materials,” Khader said. “They are ethnically cleansing the south, where we work with farmers and shepherds. Whatever we build, they destroy, and we must rebuild again and again.”
This winter, MA’AN distributed 9,000 blankets to Palestinians. It provided water tanks to two hospitals in Jenin, now under Israeli siege.
HOW CAN WE HELP?
“What we need is political solidarity, not just food and water and hygiene kits. People worldwide must pressure Israel to stop this war and stand with Palestine—because standing with Gaza is standing with humanity.”
Khader thanked MA’AN’s Australian supporters for their solidarity and donations.
