Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: How To Help
Families in Gaza are facing a widespread humanitarian emergency that has killed tens of thousands and forcibly displaced nearly the entire population. Learn how you can help.
As the conflict grinds past a year, the humanitarian catastrophe continues.
More than 44,000 were killed and 2 million displaced after Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in retaliation for the deadly attacks that occurred in Israel on October 7, 2023. The conflict has caused a severe lack of food, water, medicines, medical supplies, and fuel inside Gaza, leading to what the United Nations has described as a “humanitarian tragedy.”
Humanitarian aid, restricted by ongoing violence and access limitations, continues to grow in importance as health needs intensify. Displaced families face dehydration, hunger, and illness as they contend with severe shortages of food, water, and basic supplies. Hospitals are overwhelmed, operating with disrupted access to electricity, limited capacity, and relying on sporadic deliveries of essential supplies.
Parents are overwhelmed by the threats facing their children, from hunger and violence to the spread of infectious diseases like polio and cholera. Project HOPE’s health workers are helping families survive by providing wound care, administering vaccines, preventing malnutrition, and caring for pregnant women and newborns.
Project HOPE has delivered more than 10 tons of medicines, medical supplies, hygiene kits, and other urgently needed items into Gaza. Our primary health clinics in Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis have treated thousands of patients, including pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and those dealing with serious injuries and acute malnutrition. The team is also establishing temporary medical points for displaced families living in informal settlements. Read on to learn more about our response and how you can help.
The Latest
44,000+
Gazans have been killed
As the fragile ceasefire continues, families face hunger, insecurity, and the spread of infectious diseases.
>90%
people in Gaza have been displaced from their homes
With much of Gaza reduced to rubble, people are living in tents, shelters, and overcrowded spaces.
only 16
field hospitals are fully functional
Before the conflict erupted, 36 hospitals in Gaza were operational and access to emergency and primary health care remains disrupted.
URGENT: Humanitarian Catastrophe in Gaza
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What is happening in Gaza?
On October 7, Hamas militants from Gaza fired a deadly barrage of rockets and sent gunmen into Israeli territory, leaving approximately 1,200 people dead and escalating the long-running conflict. In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched air strikes and ground operations that have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly the entire population, according to Gaza health officials.
Humanitarian conditions in Gaza have deteriorated to the point where the vast majority of the population can no longer access the food, water, medicine, fuel, and other basic resources they need for daily life. Frequent communications blackouts make it hard to calculate the number of missing persons, death tolls, and injury counts. Gaza’s health system has been at its breaking point for over a year, with hospitals overwhelmed, supplies scarce, health workers overworked, and many facilities damaged or destroyed.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that up to 1.9 million people — roughly 90% of Gaza’s population — were forcibly displaced from their homes. There are limited goods available in markets and the cost of fuel, food, and cooking gas has surged.
In January 2025, Project HOPE applauded a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that set a path to free all hostages and end the war. With the ceasefire threatened multiple times in 2025, Project HOPE continues to reiterate its call for a lasting end to hostilities, an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid, and safe access to adequate health services for the 1.9 million civilians living in Gaza.
At the time of the ceasefire, Project HOPE’s CEO and President Rabih Torbay said “Rabih Torbay, Project HOPE’s CEO and President, said:
“Even with a break in violence, we know people will continue to die from preventable causes unless there is a significant reduction in humanitarian aid restrictions, an increase in humanitarian access to all areas of Gaza, and a surge of humanitarian assistance, including specialty health workers to address the array of medical needs. For now, we celebrate this incredible turning point but know that it will be years before communities can adequately rebuild and recover.”
What is Project HOPE doing to help?
Early on in the crisis, Project HOPE successfully established a supply chain into Gaza and worked to equip health workers with lifesaving supplies, providing more than 10 tons of medical relief.
Project HOPE’s operations in Gaza provide an array of essential health, nutrition, psychosocial, and WASH services to address urgent civilian needs. With 10 clinics open and an additional four being planned, Project HOPE anticipates that we will reach more than 300,000 participants in 2025 with a range of support, including health services, the provision of water and sanitation facilities, mental health support, community outreach, and protection activities.
Our team of local health workers continue to operate primary and maternal health clinics in Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis, which have provided over 61,000 consultations since December 2023.
Project HOPE also vaccinated children in response to the threat of polio, a deadly and disabling infectious disease. In coordination with the World Health Organization and other humanitarian organizations, our team is working to protect the health of children in Gaza. As new threats pop up, like cholera, skin infections, acute malnutrition, and respiratory infections from dust, our health workers are responding with lifesaving health support, like in North and South Gaza where Project HOPE midwives have delivered essential maternal health care in high-risk, low-resource areas.
Project HOPE is also supporting the urgent mental health needs faced by Gaza’s civilians. In both Gaza and the West Bank, Project HOPE partnered with Sharek Youth Forum, Sawa, Hakini Foundation, and the Treatment & Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture — all local Palestinian organizations — to provide more than 28,000 people with psychosocial support through psychological relief sessions, Psychological First Aid, and community workshops on managing trauma.
What’s happening in Gaza right now is a health and humanitarian catastrophe, and the conflict has taken a vast toll on the mental health of civilians. Project HOPE is scaling up community and clinic-based psychosocial support services, with a focus on gender-based violence response, child protection, and stress management. Our team continues to hire both national and international staff and integrate these services into our current and planned clinics.
What are the greatest needs inside Gaza?
Even in facilities that are partially-functional, health workers have been operating in impossible conditions, providing trauma care without the anesthesia, blood, medicine, materials, staff, supplies, or space needed to provide proper care to the patients lining the halls.
Shortages of supplies are having a tragic impact on the health of Gaza’s civilians. Project HOPE’s team in Deir al Balah previously reported that 15% of the pregnant women they treated during one week showed signs of malnutrition. At any given moment, approximately 50,000 women are pregnant in Gaza, with roughly 5,000 expected to give birth each month. Without a massive increase in health and humanitarian aid, these women will be forced to give birth in shelters, homes, and amidst rubble. An estimated 15% will endure birthing complications with minimal support for medical interventions.
After 15 months of conflict, the health infrastructure in Gaza is on the brink of collapse and requires immediate support to ensure a peaceful, self-sufficient future.
“Everywhere I went in Gaza, I heard from pregnant women and new mothers who were vulnerable and terrified,” said Rondi Anderson, Project HOPE’s Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health Advisor. “Displacement camps, homes, small clinics, and makeshift locations have become impromptu birth centers without trained health workers. Women who give birth outside health facilities face increased risks of all leading causes of death, including postpartum hemorrhage, high blood pressure, seizures, prolonged labor, and infections. In the absence of substantial and immediate increased access to humanitarian aid and a permanent ceasefire, the lives of all pregnant women are at risk, and the region could lose an entire generation.”
As people across Gaza have been forcibly relocated time and time again, areas have become overpopulated. In overcrowded and unsanitary areas, there are reports of 700 people using one toilet, dozens of women giving birth each day, and people nursing open wounds. Overcrowding and harsh living conditions have caused an alarming rise in acute respiratory infections, scabies, jaundice, diarrhea, and bloody diarrhea.
>> Read reflections from our program officer on the ground in Gaza
What are health workers facing in Gaza?
Health workers in Gaza have been working in horrific conditions. What few hospitals remain partially-functional in Gaza have faced scarce resources, fuel shortages, and a dangerous lack of medical supplies. There have been reports of surgeries being performed without anesthesia, health workers working around the clock, and patients lining the hallways.
During the height of the conflict, Moses Kondowe, Project HOPE’s Team Lead in Gaza said “Everyday services in Gaza are very difficult, if not impossible to find. Everything is down. There’s no banking system. There’s no fuel. There’s nothing in the market. Humanitarian aid is not coming easily across the borders. If you want to move, you have to notify officials and wait for a green light. A lot of humanitarian workers, including one of our own, have died.
“We have seen a rise in cases of acute diarrhea and are starting to see outbreaks of hepatitis A and B. We have also seen an increase in the number of people being discharged from health facilities who have nowhere to go, including children who have lost their parents and do not have anyone left.”
The ongoing conflict is always present. The mental health toll for health workers living in the same devastating conditions as the patients they treat is immense.
At the beginning of the conflict, Dr. Monther Abo Sharek, an emergency doctor at El-Najar Hospital in Rafah, told us that the majority of his staff had not left the hospital since the war started. The doctor told us that his hospital had 80 beds to meet the needs of 500,000 people, faced severe shortages of medicines and medical equipment, and was unable to refer trauma cases to larger hospitals. They had no imaging equipment to assess serious internal injuries, and regular electricity blackouts rendered their existing equipment unusable.
“Most of these cases are critical,” Dr. Sharek said. “Most of them will die soon because we don’t have enough medical supplements or medical staff to deal with them.”
Further, Dr. Sharek reported that his staff were facing severe mental health issues due to exhaustion and trauma brought on by the severity of civilian injuries they were treating. “Our team is very exhausted,” he said. “Our team is very tired, emotionally, inside them. Nobody in this world can imagine the number of cases and the type of victims that have come to us.”
“The scene is very hard to imagine. Most of us now need psychological therapy, because we’re just carrying more than we can carry,” he said.
As the humanitarian crisis continues to persist, health and humanitarian aid workers are coping with untold amounts of stress and trauma.
“The scene is very hard to imagine. Most of us now need psychological therapy, because we’re just carrying more than we can carry.”
What is Project HOPE’s history in Gaza?
Project HOPE previously supported relief efforts in Gaza through local partners in 2009 and 2021, including distributions of hygiene kits, emergency medicines, medical supplies, and equipment.
Though Project HOPE did not have active operations in Gaza prior to the current conflict, our medical team on the ground is comprised of local Palestinians from Gaza and led by dedicated emergency response professionals from outside Gaza.
Throughout our response, we have worked with local authorities, UN agencies, and local civil society to plan and coordinate the delivery of aid. Additionally, we are in regular, close contact with partners across the region and are actively participating in the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Health Cluster to better coordinate our response. From operating health clinics and temporary medical points to delivering essential, lifesaving supplies, Project HOPE’s team in Gaza is hard at work.
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