[ [link removed] ]Mercy Corps

Dear friend,

Famine is imminent in Gaza. Up to half the population — 1.1 million people
— are facing the most catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation.
Evidence indicates a steep rise in child deaths linked to hunger and
malnutrition, with one out of every three children under the age of two
acutely malnourished in the north.

The new data underscores the horrors the people in Gaza have now endured
for nearly six months including daily airstrikes, a dire lack of food and
supplies, and the rapid spread of deadly illnesses.

Mercy Corps teams and partners have been navigating these challenges as we
continue planning to scale up our response — though without a permanent
ceasefire, the aid we can provide will be nowhere near enough to meet the
population’s urgent needs.

[ [link removed] ]Read on for more details about our efforts to bring critical aid into
Gaza and for more firsthand reports from our team in Gaza.


[ [link removed] ][IMG]
Workers pack food kits inside a warehouse in east Amman, Jordan. The kits
were then flown on a cargo plane to Egypt, where they were unloaded and
trucked over the border into Gaza for distribution to vulnerable families
and individuals.


Getting life-saving into Gaza


Despite the difficulties in delivering aid, through Mercy Corps’ regional
connections and experience, we have coordinated with partners to pack and
deliver more than 1,300 food kits in Gaza.

The kits included a variety of ready-to-eat items that require minimal
preparation considering cooking gas is not available, like dried fruits,
olive oil, and canned vegetables, beans, and meat.

These food kits will no doubt make a difference for the families who
receive them, but with 2 million people in Gaza facing crisis levels of
hunger, the humanitarian response must scale up dramatically. The
heartbreaking fact is that a long line of trucks sit idly, ready to move
into Gaza — but they are being held up by authorities at the border. And
even this awaiting aid is simply not enough.


Report from a Mercy Corps team member


Mercy Corps team member Waleed (name changed for security) has observed
the lack of humanitarian access firsthand and provided this recent report:


"In the north and Gaza City, the aid trucks reaching there are very few,
extremely limited, and the assistance doesn’t reach anyone in an
organized manner.... Last week, I went to observe the situation of people
and trucks and what’s happening, and it was very distressing. Thousands
of people are waiting by the seaside in the hope that aid trucks will
enter, and after waiting for hours, only two trucks entered."


As hunger continues to be weaponized, the grim reality is that without an
immediate ceasefire, people in Gaza remain at risk of dying of hunger just
miles from trucks filled with food.


Daily life for civilians in Gaza


[ [link removed] ][IMG]
Children warm their hands next to a clay oven that Gazans are using to
bake bread when there is enough flour to do so. Photo © Shadow Pro for
Mercy Corps


The struggle to survive continues every day for two million people across
Gaza who are taking extreme measures to keep their families safe — from
drinking unclean water to making the dangerous trek across Gaza to areas
where more aid is able to be delivered.

Asma (name changed for security), a Mercy Corps team member in northern
Gaza, sent this recent update on what life is like for her and her family:


"There is no aid in the north. There are only individual efforts; for
example, some good people who are outside Gaza transfer money to a
person inside Gaza, who cooks quantities of rice and distributes them.
Some people make simple sweet dishes that do not require flour and sell
them, and people eat them as a meal. Or someone in our area, for
example, sells falafel, which people eat without bread.

"People are literally begging. We only bake bread from the feed, and
people smell the bread and come to ask for it. Everyone is barely
managing on their own; either they eat rice or they stay without food.
Some people are risking their lives and going to the south so they don’t
die of hunger."


[ [link removed] ]Please,
take a moment to read more about Mercy Corps’ aid delivery across the
Rafah border and how we’re advocating for a permanent ceasefire that will
allow the full scale of support needed to prevent further escalation of
this humanitarian catastrophe.

We’ll have more updates for you in the weeks ahead.

Thanks as always for your support,

The Mercy Corps team

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