Two years on, ActionAid’s colleagues and partners in Gaza demand a ceasefire now:
“The world’s silence and inaction have been devastating”
After two years of Israeli assault which has razed most of Gaza to the ground, killed tens of thousands of people and left the population displaced and starving, ActionAid’s colleagues and partners are calling for a permanent ceasefire now as they share how their lives have been ripped apart by the ongoing genocide.
Faten Abu Shamaleh, Project Coordinator at Wefaq Society for Women and Childcare, ActionAid’s partner in Gaza, said: "It feels like judgment day, every day is a torment, and it has not ended. I have been forcibly displaced more than ten times. On one occasion our tent was bombed. We survived, but my husband was later captured by the IDF in front of me and my children. After that, I had to flee to Rafah with nothing, no clothes, no money, no furniture. The sequence of displacement continues; I am currently displaced again.
"There isn’t a single day when we feel secure or fed. Everyone eats very little, afraid food will run out. Nothing is safe. Delivering humanitarian aid often means risking our lives under bombardment. But the hardest moments are when we have nothing to give, when I see children without shoes, shivering in the cold, and I am unable to help. That pain is unbearable.
"The world’s silence and inaction have been devastating. Children have been amputated, disfigured, scarred for life. They are growing up without identity, ignored for two years. They will need urgent humanitarian and psychological support for years to come."
Tariq, a former teacher and youth network member at Wefaq, said: “[In] Two years of war...my life has been turned completely upside down. I lost my job as a teacher, and then one by one, I lost my friends, I lost my daily routine, my peace of mind, and after being forcibly displayed from our home in Rafah, I lost my spirit and passion for life.
“Everything changed for the wars, we became homeless, wandering without shelter or stability. The hardest moments I faced while providing humanitarian aid as a community volunteer working in the relief field were during my visits to the tents of displaced families. Witnessing their suffering, whether in the heat of summer or the cold of winter, was emotionally overwhelming. As for the hardest moments in receiving aid, they came when I myself became displaced, when my world shifted from being someone who offers help to someone in need of it. I remember standing in line for water with a heavy ache in my heart, feeling that my dignity had been wounded. I was standing beside the children who, if not for the war, would have been my students in the classroom, not my companions in a line of basic survival.”
Alaa Abu Samra, Emergency Response Programme Manager at ActionAid, said:
"Two years of war means more than 65,000 lives lost, most of them children, women, and civilians. Hundreds of thousands wounded, thousands permanently disabled. Families displaced again and again, forced to sleep in tents or the open air, with no safe zone at all. Clean water is scarce, diseases are spreading, and children are growing up without dignity or privacy.
“Two years of war also means silence from the world, silence that has enabled killing and suffering to continue. Yet despite everything, our people still hold on to dignity, still support one another, and still hope for life again."
Taahra Ghazi, co-CEO of ActionAid UK, said: “Two years of violence has turned Gaza into hell on earth and right now, the humanitarian situation is the worst it’s ever been. People have nothing left: they are starving, displaced and traumatised, facing danger wherever they turn and with no hope of securing even the very basics they need for survival.
“It’s entirely unfathomable that the world has allowed this brutal bombardment to drag on for so long. There is no excuse: states, including the UK, have legal obligations to act when genocide is being perpetrated and when international humanitarian law is being violated. Yet the UK has so far failed to use the diplomatic levers available to it to bring this to an end. Let there be no doubt: without tangible action, the UK government remains complicit in the ongoing horror in Gaza. We call on the UK to halt all arms sales to the Israeli government and impose sanctions immediately.
“Enough is enough: there must be a permanent and immediate ceasefire now, including the release of all the hostages, as well as Palestinian detainees. All border crossings must be opened so that critical humanitarian supplies can enter Gaza quickly and at scale, if there is to be any hope of averting more deaths.”
[ENDS]
More quotes and video testimonies from our partners and colleagues in Gaza are available.
The following spokespeople are available for interview:
Jamil Sawalmeh, country director at ActionAid Palestine. Based in Ramallah, West Bank.
Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine. Based in Bethlehem, West Bank.
Hannah Bond, co-CEO of ActionAid UK. Based in London.
Please contact the press office at uk.media@actionaid.org or on 07753 973 486.