Emergency aid Gaza Strip

After more than a year of war, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is unimaginably precarious. Frieda supports families with direct financial aid so that they can buy the essentials. Women can access psychosocial support and receive legal advice in cases of gender-based violence. Every day, sports and play activities for children and young people are organised in refugee accommodation centres to provide psychosocial support. Primary school pupils also receive Arabic, English and maths lessons.

Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, around 45,000 Palestinians have been killed and 106,000 injured on the Palestinian side (OCHA figures, 10 Dec. 2024). The shortage of essential goods such as drinking water, food, medicine and electricity is dramatic. The civilian population is suffering massively from the severe food shortage. Due to the ongoing fighting and often closed border crossings, only some of the aid shipments reach the people in need.

Most of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have had to flee, many of them several times. The loss of family members and friends weighs heavily. Fear and displacement lead to severe trauma in some cases, and many are weakened by illness and inadequate nutrition. There is no longer a safe place. Fear dominates everyday life and people are fighting for survival on a daily basis. Refugee shelters are overcrowded, families live without privacy and are at the mercy of precarious hygiene conditions and rampant disease. 645,000 children have now lost an entire school year. Women bear an enormous burden in everyday life during the war. In addition to caring for children and injured relatives, they are often also responsible for ensuring survival.

Humanitarian aid is also proving difficult: there is no electricity, no fuel and communication networks regularly fail. Aid transports are prevented by the Israeli authorities and even humanitarian aid workers are not safe.

Together with our civil society partner organisations, The Center for Women's Legal Research, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP), Palestine Sports for Life (PS4L) and Rural Women's Development Society (RWDS), Frieda provides emergency aid for those most affected.

Frieda supports over 1,900 families with cash payments to procure essential goods such as food or medication. The families can withdraw the amount they are entitled to at so-called "cashing points" by showing their identity cards. This ensures that the cash arrives at the right place.

Traumatised women and children urgently need psychosocial support. The Frieda partner organisations have a great deal of expertise in this area. For example, they organise therapeutic leisure activities for displaced children in the refugee camps: around 13,000 children can escape the daily grind of war for a moment every day in a supportive environment. In addition to sports and games, painting therapy is also used. In addition, 900 primary school pupils are taught Arabic, maths and English in the refugee camps.

Women and children can discuss what has happened in group and individual therapy sessions and try to take an important step together towards coming to terms with the traumatic experiences. Those affected by gender-based violence receive specific legal support or can take part in family mediation, for example in the event of divorce or custody disputes.

Working with traumatised women and children in the midst of war is challenging. The staff of our partner organisations can therefore take advantage of specific psychosocial support and supervision.

Frieda was already working with all three partner organisations before the outbreak of the war. Together, we have successfully implemented regular and emergency aid projects. Frieda is represented by a local coordinator in the Gaza Strip and also coordinates aid within the framework of important committees such as the OCHA Clusters (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).

Updated 17.12.2024