The scale of destruction is like nothing we have seen before. Israel’s relentless attacks have turned Gaza into rubble, wiping out entire neighbourhoods and destroying all sectors of society.

According to UN reports, 69% of all structures in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed, including 94% of health facilities, 92% of homes, 89% of water and sanitation services, 88% of schools and 81% of main roads. Places of worship are similarly affected, with 79% of mosques and almost all churches now damaged or completely flattened.

The economy and people’s livelihoods are also destroyed, which will leave people dependent on aid for a long time to come. Around 80% of commercial facilities such as shops and small businesses are damaged or destroyed, and many businesses and factories have been forced to close, leading to a steep decline in Gaza’s economic output. Farmers face enormous challenges as 82% of agricultural cropland is now damaged, as well as 68% of agricultural wells and 72% of greenhouses. Cattle owners have few animals left as 95% of cattle, 57% of sheep and 63% of goats have died. Gaza’s fishing industry is in ruins, with 72% of fishing boatsdestroyed.

Unemployment has rocketed to around 85% and GDP declined by approximately $655 million last year. People’s futures are also badly damaged. Almost everyone is mourning the death of loved ones, and many people have been left with life-changing injuries including loss of limbs. Almost everyone has gone through traumatic experiences and many are left with long-term mental health impacts that will affect them for a long time to come.

The situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is at boiling point as violence and oppression against Palestinians there increases. Palestinians face daily human rights violations that affect every aspect of life.

Even before October 2023, that year was already the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank since the end of the second Intifada in 2005. Since 7 October 2023, Israeli attacks have intensified even further and killed more than 930 Palestinians, including around 200 children, and wounded more than 8,500 – mostly from live military fire and also frequent airstrikes, which were rarely seen in the West Bank before October 2023. In the same period, 46 Israelis have been killed, including soldiers.

These attacks show no sign of slowing down – in the first four months of 2025, at least 118 Palestinians have been killed, including 23 children. One of them was a 2-year-old girl shot in the head while she ate dinner with her family in her village.

In January – as the ceasefire was beginning in Gaza – Israel launched a major military offensive in the northern West Bank, starting in the city of Jenin and then spreading to other areas such as Tulkarem and Tubas. This ongoing offensive, which the Israeli military refers to as Operation Iron Wall, has forcibly displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians from their homes, the largest and fastest displacement in the West Bank for decades. It has destroyed entire neighbourhoods, with homes, roads and hospitals bombed into rubble and previously bustling communities now emptied of people.

The Israeli military has imposed increasing restrictions on Palestinian movement across the West Bank, closing roads, detaining civilians for hours at a time, and installing new iron gates to control movement in and out of villages. This prevents people from reaching relatives, markets, farms, schools, health facilities, businesses and places of worship. Palestinian civilians often face harassment, humiliation, detention and assault when trying to pass Israeli military checkpoints, and medical staff and humanitarian workers are frequently obstructed, preventing them from reaching wounded and vulnerable civilians. Israeli troops have particularly increased restrictions in villages that are home to Palestinian prisoners who were released during the Gaza ceasefire.

As well as military attacks, the Israeli government is also taking political steps to entrench the occupation. In May Israeli politicians announced plans to move ahead with the years-old “E1” settlement plan, which would expand Israeli settlements with thousands of new housing units, divide the West Bank completely in two, and completely cut off most Palestinian communities from Jerusalem. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the E1 plan as “This is how we effectively kill the Palestinian state.”

Armed Israeli settlers have also stepped up violent attacks and intimidation of Palestinian villagers. OCHA has recorded an average of around 4 settler attacks a day since October 2023.

These attacks are carried out with complete impunity and in many cases actively supported and accompanied by Israeli troops. Settler attacks have killed and injured Palestinian civilians, damaged homes, stolen agricultural equipment, burnt farmland, and chopped down thousands of olive trees on which families depend their livelihoods and which have belonged to Palestinian families for generations.

We are also seeing an increase in the demolition of Palestinian homes and other structures such as agricultural facilities or schools in Area C of the West Bank. Between 2009 and 2022 Israel demolished an average of 654 Palestinian structures every year, citing a lack of building permits which in practice are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain. In 2023 at least 1,129 such demolitions were recorded, the highest annual total since the UN started tracking the data almost 20 years ago. In 2024 this rose even higher to 1,768 demolitions. In the first 4 months of 2025, at least 580 structures have been demolished. Thousands of Palestinians have been displaced as a result.

Figures are published by UN OCHA

Even before October 2023, Gaza’s health system faced daily challenges to keep functioning, with frequent shortages of fuel and medical supplies due to the Israeli blockade.

Now, after 18 months of repeated targeted Israeli attacks, 94% of all health facilities in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed. At least 1400 health workers have been killed and many more wounded. The World Health Organisation has documented hundreds of attacks on healthcare, including bombing and shelling hospitals and clinics, striking ambulances as they carried wounded civilians, and shooting paramedics as they try to reach injured people. Hospitals have frequently been besieged by Israeli military – with staff, critically ill patients, young children and pregnant women trapped inside without fuel, food or water – and the Israeli siege has prevented vital drugs, medical equipment and fuel from entering, forcing doctors to carry out surgeries in mediaeval conditions.

International law demands that hospitals and medical staff are protected and are never used for military purposes. It can never be morally justifiable to attack hospitals that are full of casualties and frightened civilians.

Palestinian medical staff are doing everything they can to keep health services going. But as of May 2025, around 40% of hospitals, more than 52% of primary health centres, and 67% of UNRWA-run health centres are completely shut down. Most of the rest are only partially functional and they face a daily struggle to stay open due to critical shortages of medicine, fuel and basic supplies such as insulin and paracetamol.

Many patients simply cannot access the care they need. Between 10,500 – 12,500 patients require medical evacuation for urgent treatment outside Gaza.

Over the past 18 months children in Gaza have been trapped in a nightmare. They have been bombed, starved and forcibly displaced. They’ve seen their friends and relatives killed, and their homes and schools bombed to rubble. More children have been killed in Gaza than in the last 4 years of all global wars combined. As well as the thousands killed, tens of thousands more have been injured – many with life-changing injuries such as loss of limbs. Thousands more have been orphaned.

They have suffered trauma that most people cannot even imagine, which will have a devastating impact on children’s long term mental health.

More than 650,000 school-age girls and boys have now been out of formal schooling for almost 2 years – and many of these children also missed out on at least a year of school during the Covid-19 lockdown as well.

The education sector has been devastated. 88% of Gaza’s schools (499 out of 564) are damaged or destroyed and will need either full reconstruction or significant repairs, and another 2,308 educational facilities ranging from kindergartens to universities are now rubble.

At least 663 educational staff have been killed and more than 2,700 teachers injured. NGOs including Islamic Relief have been running informal learning classes for displaced children during the crisis, but this is no substitute for getting back to school. The lost education will affect the rest of their lives.

Even before October 2023, the UN warned that most water in Gaza was unfit for human consumption. Regular fuel shortages due to the Israeli blockade often caused water pumps and sewage networks to shut down.

Now there has been unprecedented destruction, with 89% of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities damaged, including water pumps, sewage pumps, waste collection vehicles and sewage lines.

90% of households now don’t have enough water and 65% of people receive less than 6 litres of water per day for drinking, washing, cleaning and cooking – below the minimum emergency standard.

Together with the collapse in sanitation this has led to widespread outbreaks of preventable diseases including skin infections. Last year recorded Gaza’s first polio case in more than 25 years – a major outbreak was averted thanks to a mass vaccination campaign, but as the crisis worsens again a further outbreak remains a real fear.

There are many challenges facing women and girls. Pregnant women struggle to access even basic healthcare and maternity services, clean water or sufficient food, and many have been forced to give birth amid the rubble or under bombing. Midwives have reported a rise in premature births due to the extreme levels of stress. There are around 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza and every day about 180 women give birth in unimaginable conditions.

Most women are living in desperately overcrowded shelters and tents without clean water or sanitation. In some shelters hundreds of men, women and children are sharing a single toilet or shower and women have to queue for hours at a time. The complete lack of privacy puts women at even greater risk of harassment and assault and NGO assessments show a rise in sexual or gender-based violence against women and girls. There has also been an extreme shortage of sanitary products on local markets.

At least 1 million children, and many adults, are now in need of mental health and psychosocial support. Even before the current escalation people in Gaza were suffering a mental health crisis. 17 years of Israeli blockade that has cut Gaza off from the rest of the OPT and the rest of the world, along with frequent escalations in bombing, have taken a terrible toll on people’s mental health. Even before this year, studies found over 68% of adolescents in Gaza have developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a staggering 95% grapple with severe anxiety. Now an entire generation is living through trauma, loss and violence that most people cannot even imagine. They have seen their loved ones blown to pieces by bombs, their homes and schools turned into rubble, and feel abandoned by the world. This will have a devastating impact on people’s long term mental health.

All funds directed at supporting Gaza will be used in Gaza, we have a dedicated fund, and donors can be assured that they will reach Gaza.

For the additional funds that are coming in and those we are unable to use at the moment, we are assessing opportunities to invest in long-term development programming, including rebuilding efforts.

Sustainable development programming is just as vital as providing emergency relief, so donors can be assured donations will be used to uplift communities in Gaza. Circumstances obviously do allow us to undertake any assessments in term of rebuilding.

There is a major liquidity crisis in Gaza and most people are suffering from the scarcity of cash. Many banks and ATMs had to shut down over the last 19 months and financial systems are in disarray. With formal banking disrupted, many people rely on informal money transfer systems, but these can be less reliable and more expensive with financial agents charging up to 30% in fees. When people do have cash, the scarcity of goods means that prices are rising rapidly and it is increasingly difficult for people to afford essentials.

Yes, our team in Gaza works with a range of local humanitarian partner organisations who have extensive experience in delivering emergency aid and long-term development in the region.

We also coordinate closely with other international humanitarian organisations and UN agencies to make the overall humanitarian response as effective and coordinated as possible. For instance, our partnership with the World Food Programme allows our teams to distribute food items directly within Gaza, delivering ready-to-eat meals to civilians sheltering in schools without kitchens.

We have worked in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1997. We have a team of 17 staff – all of them Palestinians living in Gaza. A lot of our work and aid delivery is done in coordination with international and local humanitarian partner organisations.

People’s needs change as the context changes, so we make sure that any aid we deliver is based on regular and thorough needs assessments and consultations with communities.

We undertake the most comprehensive screening of partner groups and their key officials against proscribed lists available to us by using screening software. We also undertake localised due diligence based on company information, press and peer intelligence.

Any organisation with which we partner must also adhere to an agreement covering areas such as risk management, publicity issues, child protection and terrorism.

We have committed ourselves to meeting various practice related compliance standards. The standards include those set by the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) in Australia and the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) globally. We are also signatories to various commitments, including the Leave No One Behind UN Agenda and the Red Cross Code of Conduct. By committing to these standards, we are able to measure ourselves against best practice in the sector. We are also able to assure our supporters that we maintain the highest standards of accountability, transparency, and professionalism.

No, Islamic Relief only provides aid to civilians. We do this in line with the humanitarian principles of impartiality, humanity and neutrality.