Mercy Corps is committed to providing lifesaving assistance in Gaza and is actively ramping up the distribution of essential items to meet urgent needs and we continue advocating at every possible level for a sustained ceasefire and end to the siege.
What we’ve been able to deliver so far is just a drop in an ocean of need. Humanitarian aid is currently the main lifeline for 2.3 million people – half of whom are children. Our goal is to raise $100 million to significantly scale up our aid effort to reach 1 million people. While our advocacy efforts focus on a ceasefire and sustained humanitarian access, we cannot wait for a ceasefire to begin taking action, or lives will be lost with further delays.
4/8/24 UPDATE: Despite the incredibly challenging access issues, Mercy Corps has been able to deliver aid inside Gaza, reaching more than 107,000 people to date. We have delivered 4,730 food and hygiene kits and delivered emergency cash assistance to over 99,000 individuals.
We expect to deliver an additional 10,700 food kits, 9,200 hygiene kits, and 7,400 household shelter and winterization kits in the coming days.
All supply kits include items for a family of four:
1) Food kits include a variety of ready-to-eat, culturally appropriate items.
2) Hygiene kits include sanitizing and cleaning supplies, water containers, and personal hygiene products like toothbrushes, toothpaste, and diapers.
3) Shelter and winterization kits include a sealing-off kit to maintain warmth, a winter bedding set with mattresses and pillows, and winter clothes.
3/6/24 UPDATE: Our first trucks crossed the Gaza border and delivered 1,300 food kits through our local partners in Rafah, Deir al Balah, and Khan Younis earlier this week.
2/12/24 Update: After four months of unrelenting bombardments from air, land, and sea, Gaza is in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions. Over 100,00 people are now dead or injured, and an entire population marches toward famine as essential services have collapsed and replenishment of food, water, and other basic necessities has dwindled.
Though escalating hostilities and displacement have obstructed relief efforts, Mercy Corps is doing all that we can to support our team and communities affected by this crisis. We are coordinating emergency supply distribution through our teams in Egypt, Jordan, Jerusalem, and beyond to deliver urgently needed humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Your support allows us to continue our multi-purpose cash assistance and direct provision of supplies like food, shelter, hygiene, and winterization kits as well as adapt to evolving needs.
Updates on Mercy Corps’ regional response:
- In Gaza, we have secured a local partner and will conduct door-to-door distributions of 2,100 food kits and 2,100 hygiene kits to Gazan residents between mid-February and early March.
- Formal vendors have largely been unable to replenish supplies, however, informal markets remain a primary source of lifesaving goods for Gazan residents. Since the onset of the conflict, Mercy Corps has disbursed cash transfers to 12,800 households in Gaza, which households continue to use to purchase essential goods, including food, drinking water, and medicine.
- In response to the escalating tensions and conflict in Lebanon, we continue to work with local partners to meet the most immediate needs of displaced individuals and host families. Since October, we have served nearly 42,000 hot meals to those in emergency displacement centers and delivered critical items like hygiene kits, mattresses, blankets, and pillows to 1,545 households and food baskets to 600 households.
The scale and fluidity of this crisis, ongoing security concerns, and unpredictable humanitarian access may shift our outlined activities as the needs in Gaza and surrounding regions evolve.
Your support will go where it is needed most, helping us mobilize our teams in response to humanitarian crises around the world. Mercy Corps teams are already on the ground where help is most needed. We work in more than 40 countries alongside communities as they prepare for, protect against, and recover from crisis.
