Updates from Gaza
The situation in Gaza is devastating.
Our team in Gaza continue to respond to enormous health needs, through our Primary Healthcare Clinic in al-Qarara and support activities at the Outpatient Clinic in al-Mawasi.
Across both clinics, we see an average of 600 patients every day.
On this page, you can learn more about EMERGENCY’s work through updates from our colleagues in Gaza.
24 October 2025
The people of Gaza urgently need a permanent ceasefire and unconditional humanitarian aid.
Despite the agreements, the situation remains critical. “Peace continues to be a mirage,” says Niccolò Parrino, EMERGENCY’s Logistician in Gaza.
Listen to his update:
10 October 2025
🎧 Listen to an update from Alessandro Migliorati, EMERGENCY’s Head of Mission in Gaza, following the announcement and implementation of an initial peace agreement in Strip.
We remain to support the population, whose needs are enormous and who have been living in devastating conditions for two years.
21 September 2025
On the International Day of Peace, we reaffirm our rejection of war.
History consistently demonstrates that in its wake, there is only destruction, and 90% of victims are civilians. Instead, we call for peace, and acknowledge those who are directly working to build it, every day.
In Gaza, in Sudan, in Ukraine, our colleagues continue to treat the wounded and vulnerable in the midst of violence. In Iraq and Afghanistan, they encounter the long shadow of war in the faces of landmine victims. On board Life Support, they regularly rescue people fleeing conflict and persecution, and are now joining as a observer vessel to the Global Sumud Flotilla on its mission to create a humanitarian sea corridor to Gaza.
No matter your distance from the frontline, conflict demands a response from our collective humanity: reject war.
19 September 2025
Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to flee from Gaza City. This is despite almost 90% of the Gaza Strip being within militarised zones: there are no safe places to go, nor enough money to make the journey.
From our clinic in the Khan Younis area, our Medical Coordinator Giorgio Monti provides an update:
“I noticed something that struck me deeply: fleeing from Gaza City, the displaced people have brought dismantled doors and window frames to sell at the market as firewood: They seem absolutely sure that they will never return to those homes.
There are many attacks, especially at night.
The population are facing extreme difficulties. They struggle to escape because it is very difficult to find transport. People have nothing: clean water is scarce, food is unavailable, the health system is devastated.
People are much more worried, much more nervous, depressed and disillusioned.”
16 September 2025
GAZA IS BURNING.
The population that remains in Gaza City is trapped between bombs and destruction.
Without food, water or shelter, the displaced population is completely exhausted. There is nowhere safe for those trying to survive.
There is an international, humanitarian duty to stop this catastrophe.
Our governments must act, now!
3 September 2025
“Trucks full of food, medicines, fuel, gas are waiting just outside the Strip.
Israel must stop the siege. A full scale humanitarian response must be granted unconditionally.”
Listen to the update from Eleonora Pepi, EMERGENCY’s Logistician in Gaza.
2 September 2025
EMERGENCY will join the Global Sumud Flotilla en route to Gaza with its search and rescue ship Life Support, to act as an observer and provide medical and logistical support to the participating vessels.
The ship will depart from Catania, together with the vessels that are part of the Italian delegation.
What is happening in Gaza is unacceptable. EMERGENCY’s staff, who work in two health clinics in the Khan Younis governorate, report an extremely grave situation.
For this reason, EMERGENCY’s ship Life Support will set sail alongside the Global Sumud Flotilla, a non-violent maritime mission composed of delegations from 44 different countries.
29 August 2025
At 02:40 a.m. local time, a property just a few metres from EMERGENCY’s guesthouse in the Gaza Strip was bombed.
EMERGENCY’s team were unharmed.
“We were suddenly woken up by a loud roar caused by the bombing of the house next to ours. We don’t know the actual number of casualties because we only saw the ambulances taking people away. The bombings continued throughout the night,” says Francesco Sacchi, EMERGENCY’s Project Coordinator in the Strip.
The EMERGENCY team is clearing rubble at the external entrance to the guesthouse, which is blocking the exit of vehicles and people.
“We did not receive any warning from the authorities about the imminent attack. No one is safe inside the Gaza Strip. We continue to call for respect for civilians and a definitive ceasefire.”
21 August 2025
Planned forced displacements in Gaza
“For days, we have been watching new tents being set up in the coastal area of Deir al-Balah. With the invasion of Gaza City, many people who had returned north during the ceasefire are coming back. But not everyone. Many families are exhausted by repeated forced displacements and will face the risks of not complying with the evacuation orders.”
Francesco, our Project Coordinator in Gaza, sends an update.
The Israeli plan is to forcibly displace large numbers of people from Gaza City. This means forcing thousands of people to move once again, to find a place to camp in areas that are already overcrowded, with increasingly limited living space for civilians.
Completely exhausted by these two years of war, many families will be forced to ignore evacuation orders.
Amid bombs, hunger, lack of water, and constant forced displacements, hundreds of thousands of people have been trying to survive every day for almost two years.
This catastrophe must be stopped.
8 August 2025
Red lines crossed with approval of Gaza City occupation.
The Israeli government has approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to take over Gaza City, an operation that will require the evacuation of the area – currently home to around one million people – by 7 October 2025, and will involve a total military siege.
EMERGENCY’s comment:
“Military escalations and the total occupation of Gaza in order to free the hostages is a strategy that is doomed to fail, and will only cause further suffering. We all know that the only road to peace is a permanent ceasefire to stop the massacre of civilians, the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors, unhindered entry and access of aid, and the restoration of and respect for international law.
For five months there has been a blockade, at first total and now partial, on the entry of humanitarian aid. Inadequate and dangerous distribution of aid by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has demonstrated since its implementation that it does not work, has only caused further death and distress to the population. With this decision, the situation is only going to worsen. All the red lines have already been largely crossed, and each time a new one is drawn, it is quickly crossed in turn.”
EMERGENCY reiterates its calls for international pressure on the Israeli government to implement an immediate ceasefire and to guarantee the full, impartial access and distribution of humanitarian assistance to the Gazan population.
2 August 2025
“Absolutely not what humanitarian aid is meant to be.”
Airdrops of aid are a doomed strategy. They do not guarantee access to food and the essential goods needed for survival, they are dangerous, and they trample on the dignity of the intended recipients.
The aid that Israel is allowing to enter by land is incredibly insufficient, while distributions by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are often ending in injuries and deaths. In just two months, over 1,000 Palestinians have died while trying to receive essential food and aid.
“With all these methods of aid, rather than providing assistance, what we are in fact seeing is the creation of conditions so desperate that people are injured either directly by military forces or by virtue of the desperation to get this aid in the first place,” says Mina, a doctor with EMERGENCY in Gaza.
We demand the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and its fair distribution, as soon as possible.
30 July 2025
“The population is wasting away.”
After months of blockade, the aid that has been allowed into Gaza in the last few hours cannot undo the profound effects of prolonged deprivation of food and water. The ongoing humanitarian catastrophe will have a severe lasting impact on the population: the top priority must be to ensure there is enough safe, healthy and nutritious food for everyone, without interruption.
In our clinic in Gaza, we distribute ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to children between six months and five years old. We provide this to around 60 children a week, performing screenings and ongoing checks to assess their conditions before and after receiving treatment.
In July alone, 63 people have died of starvation in Gaza. 24 were children under the age of five.
Children need protein and healthy fats to grow, but months without food or adequate nutrition have had irreversible consequences on their physical and cognitive development, especially toddlers under two years old.
As Raffaela, our gynaecologist and Medical Coordinator in Gaza tells us, “The hunger in Gaza is unbearable. A nine-year-old girl arrived at the clinic weighing just 16 kilos. Every day, with my own eyes, I see the population wasting away.”
23 July 2025
The Impact of Evacuation Orders in Central Gaza
“We faced a massive evacuation ordered by the Israeli army in the Deir al-Balah region and have since faced the most intense bombing and violence since I arrived here well over a month ago,” reports Mina Naguib, EMERGENCY doctor in Gaza. “The evacuated region contained one of the two main thoroughfares, which blocked us from accessing our outpatient clinic. Gaza’s population is now living in just 12% of the land, without access to food.”
On 20 July, the evacuation order that struck Deir al-Balah forced between 50,000 and 80,000 people to flee. Some of our staff were unable to reach our healthcare clinics: the roads were blocked and dangerous due to the Israeli army’s military operations.
Living space in Gaza is shrinking daily. Thousands of families, already exhausted by hunger, thirst and displacement, are being forced to move at very short notice, sometimes in a matter of minutes.
The population urgently needs everything: food, water, care.
“The international community must push for an immediate ceasefire and flood Gaza with aid, which Israel is not allowing,” Dr Mina concludes. “The situation has become increasingly intolerable. If intervention does not take place soon, we will see death on a scale that surpasses the tens of thousands already killed.”
It is unacceptable for the essential work of humanitarian organisations to be impeded by military orders and bombardments.
Ceasefire. Stop this horror.
21 July 2025
Reduced Medical Activities Following Evacuation and Attacks in Deir al-Balah
Yesterday, 20 July, the Israeli forces ordered massive evacuation orders in south-western Deir al-Balah. EMERGENCY’s international team members remain stuck in their accommodation, while some of our Gazan team members have had to flee with their families. As a result, our healthcare clinics in al-Mawasi and al-Qarara, in Khan Younis, are operating at reduced capacity despite the serious needs.
“Throughout the night, there were a series of bombings, explosions, sounds of approaching helicopters, bursts of fire from automatic weapons, and drones. This latest evacuation has compromised the only road that was still partially passable in that area, and now prevents us from reaching our medical facilities,” said Alessandro Migliorati, EMERGENCY’s Project Coordinator in Gaza.
“Some of our Gazan staff also live in the affected areas. Some of them are being forced to move to tents for the third or fourth time. The few areas that remain available for newly displaced people are in even worse conditions than the others, especially considering that to reach them, one must cross a road that is also subject to an evacuation order.”
We once again strongly call for international pressure on the Israeli government to implement an immediate ceasefire and to guarantee humanitarian assistance to the Gazan population.
15 July 2025
H.’s Story
H. was standing next to his mother, queuing with hundreds of others around one of the few remaining food distribution points in Gaza.
“Those who arrive first try not to lose their place. Those who arrive later try to find room for themselves so they don’t end up with nothing,” the patients at our clinic tell us. In Gaza, it is increasingly difficult to eat even one meal a day and, very often, finding that meal is dangerous.
With one hand, H. held tightly onto his mother. With the other, he held his empty bowl. While waiting, he was swept away by the crowd and collided with one of the boiling pots. He arrived at our clinic with second-degree burns on his chest.
While we were treating him, we managed to distract him for a few moments with a glove turned into a balloon.
H. lives in a refugee camp in Gaza, where poor sanitary conditions and a lack of safe, clean water have exposed his wound to infections. We showed his mother how to protect the wound even in such difficult circumstances, and regularly checked in on H. Now, he is doing better.
H. is a victim of hunger caused by the inhumane blockade on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. The United Nations reports over 70,000 diagnosed cases of acute or severe malnutrition among children in the Strip.
All of Gaza is hungry. The situation is intolerable.
11 July 2025
“A horror within a horror.”
Several children were killed and injured in a strike whilst waiting for therapeutic food and treatment at a clinic in Deir al-Balah yesterday.
Our colleagues in Gaza report that strikes have intensified in recent days, and so have civilian casualties.
We demand a permanent ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid.
8 July 2025
“There is food outside, but this food is not getting in.”
In Gaza, we see the consequences of hunger, malnutrition and famine every day: for people to have the chance to survive, humanitarian aid must be brought in as soon as possible.
From our Outpatient Clinic in Khan Younis, our Medical Coordinator Giorgio provides an update:
“I want to talk about hunger, malnutrition, and famine. These are very serious problems when viewed from a clinical perspective, with an increase in pain, increasingly severe organ damage, and a rise in psychiatric and psychological problems.
Who is the most vulnerable? Children.
The United Nations has released an extremely alarming report which states that in the northern part of Gaza, which is the worst affected, four out of five families are skipping a meal every day because they cannot find enough food. In the rest of Gaza, half the population faces the same issue.
It is too late. We must act. We must do something.
Meanwhile, there is food outside, but this food is not getting in. This war is not ending. It must be stopped immediately. Humanitarian aid must be allowed in.
These people must be given a chance to survive.”
8 June 2025
The daily struggle is to stay alive
A few days ago, one of our Gazan colleagues told us that he had survived a bombing by accident: he had been on his way to a gathering place for displaced people in search of an internet connection. Shortly before he arrived, the area was hit.
When he eventually reached the site, he found that some of his friends had been killed. He was saved only by a handful of minutes.
In Gaza, every aspect of daily life has been shattered and disrupted.
In a routine marked by terror, hunger and a lack of basic necessities, the absence of electricity is further isolating the population. Recharging a phone or connecting to the grid cannot be taken for granted. Yet in such an extreme context, staying connected to the world is an essential need: to receive news of loved ones, to learn critical information, to share an unimaginable situation.
In Gaza, the daily struggle is to stay alive.
4 June 2025
Chaos and insecurity at aid distribution points
“I couldn’t take anything. I left empty-handed and I returned empty-handed, because of the crowds waiting to receive something, the gunshots, the checkpoints. So I left.”
One of our Gazan colleagues recounts how people’s lives are being put at risk amid panic, chaos and insecurity at the distribution points set up to deliver what little humanitarian aid is allowed into the Strip.
“When the delivery of humanitarian aid was managed by the United Nations, there were about 400 active distribution points. Today there are only four, serving more than two million people. The consequences are horrific: there are already more than 100 dead and injured,” says Andrea Bona, our doctor in Gaza.
After two months of blockade, the suffering of civilians in Gaza is an unspeakable atrocity. What we bear witness to every single day is difficult to see, to understand or to accept.
The people of Gaza are at risk of famine: humanitarian aid must enter as soon as possible and be distributed unconditionally and safely.
27 May 2025
Forced evacuations in Khan Younis
More than 80% of Gaza is subject to forced evacuation orders. One of the latest involved Khan Younis, the governorate where our clinic is located.
“This morning, the number of patients has doubled, if not tripled: it is a consequence of the displacements towards the coastal areas,” says Giorgio Monti, our Medical Coordinator in Gaza. “We have already seen 300 people.”
It has become increasingly difficult for people to escape the bombardment. Those who manage to survive the attacks are suffering from constant displacement, combined with hunger, lack of water and care.
22 May 2025
Explosions. Columns of smoke. This is “normalcy.” We see them rising into the sky from our house, car, clinic. No place is safe here. Here, people are denied everything.
“This is every day,” says Eleonora, our nurse in Gaza. “On our way to and from work, we see columns of smoke rising over Khan Younis. The sound of explosions is constantly around us, even when we visit our patients.“
Without food, water, care, every day that passes without the necessary aid entering turns into a death sentence for millions of people.
In Gaza, every limit has already been crossed. An immediate ceasefire is needed. We need all the aid that remains blocked to be made unconditionally accessible to the population as soon as possible.
20 May 2025
EMERGENCY on the entry of the first five aid trucks
Yesterday, five trucks of aid crossed the Kerem Shalom crossing. The first to enter Gaza since 2 March. Before 7 October, 500 trucks entered every day.
The population is living in dire, inhuman conditions. After more than two months of an aid blockade, there is a shortage of medicines, a shortage of fuel, a shortage of food, a shortage of everything.
“I have never seen such devastation,” says Giorgio, our Medical Coordinator. “The survival of the population is unsustainable.”
In addition to the bombs, people are endangered on a daily basis by the lack of access to medical care, water, sufficient food.
We demand respect for civilians and the immediate, impartial and independent distribution of essential aid.
We demand respect for medical facilities, for patients, for aid workers.
We demand a CEASEFIRE NOW.
19 May 2025
Today is more difficult than usual
The morning of 19 May, an Israeli military operation struck Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. The same governorate where our clinic is located.
Our Medical Coordinator Giorgio Monti sent an update:
“When there is talk of the end of the war, when there is talk of accords… well, on the ground these words seem empty, they seem so far away.
I am in the clinic and this morning, being in the clinic is news. An attack at dawn this morning in Khan Younis has created many problems. Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital in the area, is closed because it was hit. Many centres remained closed for security reasons. A couple of our nurses called and said they could not leave their homes, they were in danger and therefore could not reach the hospital.
We decided to open anyway.
We found a small crowd of patients waiting for us: children, mothers, people with chronic diseases and acute illnesses. So, today is a special day. It’s a bit more difficult than usual. A few more worries. In the meantime, we keep going and keep working every day, trying to wait for the day when there will be no more need for these worries.”
CEASEFIRE NOW.
8 May 2025
The words of the people we meet every day
“Without food, water, shelter or medicine, the conditions for the population in Gaza are worsening day by day. We are doing what we can, but with the aid blockade it is becoming increasingly difficult.”
In Gaza, attacks are constant and the aid blockade is increasingly impacting the health and survival of the most vulnerable. The number of patients we see has nearly doubled, and needs continue to multiply.
“Until mid-March, we were seeing an average of 70 patients a day. After the ceasefire ended on 18 March, the number rose to 135 per day,” reports Andrea Bona, our doctor in Gaza.
“We are fed up with burying our dead”; “I don’t know how to feed my family”; “We can’t take this anymore”: these are the words of the people we speak to every day.
7 May 2025
Nearly 10 weeks into aid blockade, lack of food and medicine
On 5 May, the Israeli government announced its approval of a plan for military escalation in the Gaza Strip and for privately contracting the distribution of humanitarian aid.
We have been present in Gaza since August 2024, witnessing a dramatic situation nearly 10 weeks since the beginning of the blockade on the entry of any humanitarian aid.
According to a report by the UN World Food Programme, the price of essential foods has increased by 1,400% compared to the ceasefire period.
Food supplies are running out, putting the health and lives of the most vulnerable members of the population at risk.
30 April 2025
Prices of essential foods have skyrocketed
The blockade of aid to Gaza aggravates an already severe situation, leaving more than two million civilians without access to food, water, medicines and essential care.
Every week, the health and humanitarian conditions continue to worsen. People are struggling to find food and care for themselves.
Our staff have started to ration stocks of medicines and medical supplies, which are essential for the continuity of our work.
Alessandro Migliorati, logistic coordinator for EMERGENCY’s projects in Gaza, shares what our team is seeing every day:
“Raw materials have reached crazy prices: 50 euros per kilo of flour, 7 euros per kilo of sugar, 13 euros per litre of petrol. And to even find these goods is incredibly complicated. The bakeries have been closed for weeks, so there is no more bread. Medicines and food supplies no longer arrive.”
24 March 2025
Attack on Nasser Hospital: Our Team’s Testimony
Three EMERGENCY staff members were working in the Intensive Care Unit of the Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip when it was attacked last night, on 23 March.
They are unharmed but shaken.
“We were preparing two patients for the operating theatre, both of whom were seriously injured by explosions yesterday,” says Filippo Pelagatti, EMERGENCY’s anaesthetist in Gaza. “Then we heard an explosion and the walls started shaking. We were taken to a safe room on the ground floor together with the hospital’s staff. As soon as possible, we went back to our patients. Without that surgery, they would have died.”
19 March 2025
“It already feels apocalyptic.”
“The latest bombings in Gaza struck people at their most vulnerable moment: whilst they were sleeping. With the roar of the explosions, the windows of our compound literally burst open. Nobody saw it coming, there was no warning.”
Even now, the attacks continue, albeit with less intensity.
Giorgio Monti, our Medical Coordinator, reports on recent events in Gaza.
18 March 2025
Renewed Attacks in Gaza: Health Activities Temporarily Suspended
Following the attacks last night in the Gaza Strip, EMERGENCY has temporarily suspended the movement of its personnel pending a better understanding of how to guarantee the safety of its national and international colleagues.
As a result, activities at the Primary Healthcare Clinic in al-Qarara (Khan Younis), first opened in January 2025, are currently suspended.
28 January 2025
Our clinic opens in al-Qarara
EMERGENCY has opened a new primary healthcare clinic in the Gaza Strip, in al-Qarara (Khan Younis).
“Our clinic will respond to the enormous needs of the population in this area, which continue despite the ceasefire,” says Francesco Sacchi, EMERGENCY’s Head of Mission in Gaza. “The construction of the clinic has had to contend with long bureaucratic delays and the enormous difficulty of finding materials, due to the insufficient flow of humanitarian aid in recent months.”
17 January 2025
The ceasefire does not mean the end of the suffering
“We have anxiously waited for this ceasefire, which is a great achievement. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that everything is over,” commented Francesco Sacchi, EMERGENCY’s Head of Mission in Gaza. “The issues generated by the last 15 months of violence are enormous. The humanitarian situation is catastrophic, and there is a long and difficult road ahead to reach a semblance of normality. For those who have been forced to leave their homes in northern Gaza in recent months, simply returning is difficult, since much of the territory has been completely destroyed by bombing.”
15 January 2025
Potential Ceasefire in Gaza
If approved, the proposed ceasefire in Gaza would be the first concrete step towards ending violence that, in the space of more than 15 months, has left more than 47,525 dead, 117,168 injured and 1.9 million displaced.
9 January 2025
“Eat? Eat what?” | A story from Gaza
Gaza. A man of around 25 years old arrives at the clinic. He is very thin, walking with two crutches. A scarf covers his right leg and foot, hiding the surgical rods that have been placed to stabilise the most complex fractures.
He weighs just 40 kilos. When we tell him that eating is important for recovery, he laughs: “Eat? Eat what? At the market there is no meat, and an egg and a kilo of flour cost almost $15…”
25 October 2024
“The needs here are all-encompassing.”
“Stress, fear, pain: this is life for people in Gaza. And leaving the territory is unimaginable, because all the crossings are closed or inaccessible,” reports Stefano Sozza, EMERGENCY’s Head of Mission.
7 October 2024
Update from Stefano Sozza, Head of Mission
19 September 2024
There are no safe places in Gaza.
In recent weeks, the EMERGENCY team in Gaza has been conducting site visits for a health clinic that will provide essential first aid and medical care.
Stefano Sozza, Head of Mission, recounts, “There are no safe places in Gaza. Displaced families live in dilapidated structures, tents or very basic shelters consisting of a few wooden planks and tarps.
10 September 2024
We call for protection of civilians and humanitarian workers, and a cessation of hostilities.
There are dozens of dead and wounded following last night’s military operation in al-Mawasi, Gaza, west of Khan Younis.
In the area, defined by the parties as a humanitarian zone, thousands of displaced people arriving from places that have been evacuated – now covering about 86% of Gaza — are concentrated in tent camps. As of 12 August, the humanitarian zone has shrunk to around 46 square kilometres, down from 58.9 square kilometres at the beginning of 2024.
“The consequences of the violence that war brings are everywhere,” explains Stefano Sozza, EMERGENCY’s Head of Mission in Gaza. “Those who pay these consequences are always the civilians. This is why we appeal for a cessation of hostilities as soon as possible.”
27 August 2024
We are in Gaza to open healthcare clinic
After several months of waiting to obtain humanitarian permits, EMERGENCY has entered the Gaza Strip to provide healthcare support to a population devastated by war.
During this period, EMERGENCY has been working to define the project and establish coordination with UN agencies and other partners in the area.
“The possibility of bringing aid to the Strip has to deal with great limitations in the access of humanitarian organisations, amid difficult security conditions,” explains Stefano Sozza, EMERGENCY’s Head of Mission in Gaza. “Meanwhile, humanitarian space has been continuously shrinking since November. Today, about 305 square kilometres, or almost 84% of the Gaza Strip, have been placed under evacuation orders.”
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