Gaza Crisis Appeal: situation in Gaza and Interpal’s response

In the early morning of the 23rd January, over 350,000 Palestinians surged into Egypt from the Gaza Strip after parts of the border wall were destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans rushed over the border, some frantically searching for loved ones, most desperate for food and fuel, which due to blockades on Gaza’s borders are in short supply.

 

The chaos only highlights the extreme hardship endured by the Palestinian people. Approximately 1.5 million people are living under conditions of siege. Most are living well below the poverty line of US $2 dollars per day with little access to the basic necessities such as fuel, food, electricity and medicine.

The policy of stranglehold blockade on the Gaza Strip, Palestine has escalated, entering a catastrophic phase with the total shutdown of electricity, with all aspects of daily life grinding to a halt, in addition to the complete closure of all the border crossings, turning the area into a giant prison.

 

Following this latest evidence of the Gaza crisis, Interpal took immediate action by responding to urgent appeals from partner organisations on the ground. $100,000 was distributed immediately after the electricity cut for fuel, food and medical supplies. Following the break of the wall, Interpal and its partners immediately responded by allocating $1m to be distributed by Emergency Relief Committee, one of Interpal’s partners based in Egypt. Interpal also pledged a total of $500,000 in response to UNRWA’s emergency appeal for 2008.