For donors looking to help people in Gaza, what’s the best way to give? This is the first of a two-part series exploring how aid agencies and individuals are mobilizing to provide humanitarian relief. This independent journalism is supported by Makeway and Waterloo Region Community Foundation. Read our editorial ethics and standards here.

Despite the challenges they face getting food and medical supplies into Gaza, international humanitarian aid organizations say Canadians should keep giving to support immediate and long-term humanitarian needs. 

“Those who wish to donate to make a difference should still be encouraged to give, whether that dollar gets used tomorrow, in two weeks, or in two months,” said Richard Morgan, executive director of Humanitarian Coalition, a Canadian charity working on behalf of 12 member agencies.   

“Vital aid is still getting through, and donations are still making a difference, but the greater impact will come once safe humanitarian access is dramatically increased.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking some 240 people hostage, according to Israeli authorities. 

Since then, Israel has sought to eliminate Hamas, undertaking one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, according to experts interviewed by the Associated Press, killing about 30,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 70,000 others, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Before recent hostilities, about 500 trucks full of supplies entered Gaza daily, according to the United Nations, providing commercial goods, fuel, and humanitarian aid to the territory that has been under Israeli blockade for 16 years.

After recent fighting began, the number of trucks entering Gaza declined substantially. 

In February, about 100 trucks per day entered Gaza, according to the United Nations, bringing much less food, water and other goods than the territory’s 2.2 million people need to survive, according to aid experts. 

The impact of this drop in goods has been devastating for people across the coastal territory, but it’s been most acutely felt in northern Gaza, where aid is most scant, according to the deputy chief of the World Food Program.

Between Jan. 26 and Feb. 15, just two of 31 surveyed international humanitarian agencies had delivered any aid to North Gaza, according to an Association of International Development Agencies report.

On Feb. 20, the World Food Program also paused aid delivery to northern Gaza due to safety concerns. 

In the absence of flour, rice and other staples, people eat animal feed to survive, said Dr. Abedelwahab Abu Warda, one of the few remaining surgeons at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. 

“No aid is coming to us,” said Dr. Abu Warda, who is using GoFundMe to fundraise money to purchase food at makeshift markets and to evacuate his family from Gaza.  

At clinics and shelters in December and January, aid workers in northern Gaza found that about one in six children under the age of two is “acutely malnourished,” according to a report by the Global Nutrition Cluster. 

Last week, a two-month-old Palestinian boy died from starvation in northern Gaza, according to reports from three news outlets. 

“The delivery of aid is a matter of life or death for children in Gaza,” said a UNICEF spokesperson. “The needs are immediate and immense in terms of water, food, medicine and fuel.” 

Why is there no aid in the north? 

According to UN data, the absence of aid isn’t caused by a lack of donations. 

As of late February, 98 per cent of the United Nation’s 2023 flash appeal for Gaza was funded — $615 million U.S. of a requested $629 million, including $34 million from the Canadian government.

In November, Canadian donors also contributed $14.5 million to Humanitarian Coalition’s Gaza relief campaign — one of the organization’s most successful fundraisers ever.

International agencies that responded to AIDA’s survey said the challenge instead is hold-ups and delays by Israeli officials at the two open border crossings into Gaza.  

A spokesperson for the Israeli government did not respond by publication time. However, the government has elsewhere denied blocking aid and blames Hamas for looting aid trucks and using civilian infrastructure for military operations. 

International agencies that responded to AIDA’s survey also said they are struggling to move within Gaza because of the extreme danger faced by staff due to constant and unpredictable Israeli bombardment. 

Since the beginning of hostilities, nine international humanitarian aid agency workers have been killed in strikes or sniper fire, according to the AIDA report.

An additional 158 staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have also been killed since the beginning of the fighting, according to the agency.

Israel has said it tries to avoid harming civilians, blaming the high death toll on Hamas. 

Agency exhausts relief funds

Despite the challenges in delivering immediate aid and the strong fundraising campaign, Morgan said Canadians should continue to give. 

Some trucks are getting through, and donors’ gifts are helping to make that work possible, he said. 

Since Oct. 7, Humanitarian Coalition member agency Islamic Relief has distributed more than 1 million ready-to-eat meals, 25,000 blankets and mattresses, and 43,000 hygiene kits in Gaza, according to the organization.

In addition, the longer the conflict goes without a ceasefire, the more of the total pot of donations will need to be put toward relief rather than long-term recovery, Morgan said. 

“One of our member agencies has already exhausted the funds that they planned to use for food support and has now had to tap into some of the funds they planned to use for the recovery phase,” he said.

This dynamic is challenging because disaster donations are heavily driven by media coverage, which is most widespread when a disaster unfolds, said Gregory Witkowski, affiliate faculty at the New York-based National Center for Disaster Preparedness. 

“But really, the need for money starts after the war ends,” he said. 

In January, Palestine Investment Fund chairman Mohammed Mustafa estimated the cost to rebuild the estimated 350,000 homes in Gaza damaged by Israel’s bombardment at $15 billion. 

The number of damaged homes in Gaza has since grown, amounting to what some researchers are referring to as “domicide.”  

Witkowski said post-conflict government aid would often help finance infrastructure rebuilding but not gender-based violence support or other necessary post-war social programs, making private donations critical. 

Asked how she’d respond to a donor discouraged their gift might not help people in Gaza immediately, Patricia McIlreavy, CEO of the U.S.-based Center for Disaster Philanthropy, said donors should see relief and recovery as part of an essential continuum.   

“We should not think of the help required as relief or rebuilding but as relief and rebuilding,” she said. 

“Both are vital if there is to be any hope of recovery.”

Hunger strike for an arms embargo

In addition to encouraging monetary donations, Humanitarian Coalition’s member agencies and other charities are also using their advocacy muscle to push for a ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages and unjustly detained civilians. 

Some charities are also echoing the demands of social movements in calling for a halt in the sale of Canadian arms to Israel. 

In late February, Islamic Relief Canada CEO Usama Khan said he was participating in a rotating hunger strike for an arms embargo alongside staff at Oxfam Canada and Oxfam-Québec.  

“The reality is Israel is starving Gaza,” said Khan in a digital newsletter. 

“I urge you to join us today in our strike, demanding Canada halt the transfer of weapons and immediately suspend all arms export permits to Israel.” 

In a February press release, the Israeli government said calls for an arms embargo are “calls of support for the Hamas terrorist organization.”

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