October 7, 2024
How long has the current situation in Gaza gone on?
Today marks one year of humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza like the world has never seen.
For 365 horrific days, since October 7th, 2023, the people of Gaza have suffered unparalleled deprivation and unprecedented loss in every possible aspect of life.
1.9m (90%) serially internally displaced
2.14m suffering a staggering 97% per person water decrease
2.1m (96%) severely food insecure (495,000 in famine)
17,000-18,000 children orphaned
Has Zakat Foundation of America helped in Gaza?
Yes. We’ve been helping the people of Gaza since our founding in 2001. In 24 years, we’ve built a robust humanitarian aid network in Gaza.
That presence of our aid workers in Gaza was crucial in making us among the earliest independent international charities to get desperately needed food, water, and medical aid into cut-off Gaza.
How much aid has Zakat Foundation of America provided in Gaza?
At this grim one-year anniversary of the humanitarian tragedy playing out in Gaza before the world, we have delivered nearly 1.2 million relief Items to at least 544,963 people, through our 15 different aid programs – including becoming the first and only non-governmental aid organization to airdrop and distribute 8.8 tons of food aid to Gaza’s starving when every other way was blocked.
How bad is Gaza’s food insecurity?
It is utterly catastrophic.
“The nature of food insecurity across the entire Gaza Strip is unprecedented this century,” according to a recent study from the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
Was Gaza in need of humanitarian aid before October 2023?
Yes, but there’s no comparison to the people of Gaza’s humanitarian need now, either historically or anywhere in the world today.
The need for humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza is not new. About 40 percent of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees. But this need, along with Gaza’s population density, has increased dramatically since Gaza’s closure in 2007.
In 2012, the UN issued an important humanitarian report on living conditions in Gaza, which raised the alarm that Gaza would be ‘unlivable’ by 2020. It asked for humanitarian agencies to increase aid to the people of Gaza.
We broadened and increased our relief efforts in medical, nutritional, water & sanitation, shelter, educational, mental health, and winter clothing & warmth aid for Gaza’s people.
In 2017, the UN followed up with another dire warning: Gaza’s “deterioration has accelerated.” The new report declared Gaza a “socio-economic, humanitarian, and human rights disaster” and again called for the world to dramatically increase aid to its “two million people trapped in this sad reality.”
But the humanitarian need in Gaza over the last two decades, though grave, is nothing like the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe taking place there since October 2023.
Gaza has “the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country,” according to IPC Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
This statement is from the global network of scholars and organizations who created the world’s food insecurity classification system in 2004 and who continuously gauge the food security of the people of the world by country and region.
Did Zakat Foundation of America have humanitarian access to the people of Gaza?
No charities, including Zakat Foundation of America, have “humanitarian access” in Gaza by that term’s real definition.
But we have been able to get humanitarian relief into Gaza, though this cannot be classified by any relief organization – including UN relief agencies – as having “humanitarian access.”
Humanitarian access is always key to delivering lifesaving aid to the afflicted. It means unconditional humanitarian visas, open crossings, accessible roads for transporting aid to victims, and accountability for monitoring that aid (to measure its distribution and effects).
More than anything, humanitarian access requires the freedom to talk to disaster victims, especially the most vulnerable, children, women, the elderly, and the sick and injured. This is what makes it possible to deliver the aid the suffering need in the way they need it.
What Zakat Foundation of America does have in Gaza is a well-established local and regional network of relief workers, partners, and volunteers. This has made it possible for us to deliver directly into the hands of Gaza’s innocent over 1.17 million aid items (and counting) from October 2023 to today, benefiting thousands of recipients.
Have Zakat Foundation of America’s humanitarian aid workers been at risk?
Absolutely, as have all aid workers in Gaza.
“The risks that the NGOs and the United Nations are taking in Gaza to save lives is unprecedented. Nowhere in the world have we accepted this level of risk for our staff,” said UN Regional Information Centre (UNRIC) representatives in a recent press briefing about humanitarian aid work in Gaza.
The extraordinary risk makes these aid workers in Gaza the true humanitarian heroes of our time. The risk they take in delivering our aid to the people of Gaza cannot be overstated. Many of our aid workers have paid for their humanitarian service in Gaza with life and limb.
How much of the donations Zakat Foundation of America collects gets to the people of Gaza?
Every penny. All the emergency aid donated through the Zakat Foundation of America for the people of Gaza – 100% – goes exclusively to the people of Gaza in the form of humanitarian aid.
Can you tell me about Zakat Foundation of America’s humanitarian programs this past year for the people of Gaza?
Yes. Zakat Foundation of America conducted – and is still conducting – seven food programs, two water programs, and six other emergency aid item programs in Gaza.
Let’s look at them:
Food Aid
Our donors fed the starving of Gaza at least 2,603,110 meals from October 2023 to October 2024 through seven programs:
Hot Meal Programs: We have delivered 845,710 warm meals to Gaza’s starving, all of which you have generously sent.
We hired teams of cooks who prepared and served more than 493,450 hot meals at various UN shelters throughout Gaza – each one with bottled water – before Ramadan as part of our ongoing 1 Million Hot Meals for Gaza campaign.
Takiya - Soup Kitchens: We provided at least 292,800 hot soup meals as part of our campaign. Our Soup Kitchens feed an average of 4,200 people per distribution day, with about 69 distribution days from March through September 2024, with at least 49,300 families having benefited from the warm sustenance.
Food Baskets: We also also sent at least 21,132 food baskets to Gaza’s beleaguered, feeding a minimum of 239,530 people.
What’s in a Food Basket? Typically, our food packages contain varieties of rice, lentils, bulgur, fava beans, and pasta varieties (spaghetti, noodles, etc.); flour, yeast, and sugar; sesame seed oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, and cooking cream; canned corned beef, canned tuna, and dried luncheon meats; triangle cheese, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, cream cheese; jam, tomato paste, tomato sauce, hot sauce, and thyme (za‘tar) and chocolates, and tea. (some items interchangeable)
Ramadan Iftar-Meals: In Ramadan, we delivered hearty food baskets to at least 9,910 displaced families and warm meals, feeding a minimum of 59,460 people, many of whom had been left to forage for scraps and eat fodder, grasses, and wild plants.
Udhiyah-Qurbani: Sacrificial animals were extremely rare in Gaza during the Hajj season, and very difficult to bring in. We sacrificed, on behalf of donors, and distributed about 1,080 4.4 lb. fresh, Islamically-slaughtered meat packages from their Eid Al-Adhah sacrifices to feed at least 6,480 starving people.
Airdrop of 8.8+ Tons of Rice Bags: Donations for Gaza enabled Zakat Foundation of America to team up with the Royal Jordanian Air Force to drop (without loss) 4,000 bags of rice (4.4 lb. each, totaling 17,637 lb.) in Central Gaza and Khan Younis. That’s enough for at least 40,300 meals for the hungry.
55 lb Flour Bags: Sadaqah for Gaza bought 1,000 55 lb. bags of flour that Zakat Foundation of America delivered to the hungry there, enough to feed at least 50,000 people.
Water:
Zakat Foundation of America provided 2.68 million liters of water to quench the thirst of at least 66,650 of Gaza’s dangerously dehydrated.
The people of Gaza now spend most of their waking hours foraging for food and seeking water for their families.
Water Tanks: Charitable gifts sent to Zakat Foundation of America for Gaza enabled us to procure 707,981 gallons of water in tanks that we brought into Gaza and stationed at key distribution points for thousands of internally displaced people. We distributed the water six days a week for three months. We are ready to continue this lifesaving relief at every allowable opening, with a plan to stabilize water distribution times and places as soon as possible.
Bottled Water: Donations for the people of Gaza also enabled Zakat Foundation of America’s aid workers to distribute bottled water with every hot meal served to its hungry and thirsty. We handed out at least 493,450 16 oz. water bottles with hot meals.
Zakat Foundation of America provided essential medical, hygiene, winter warmth & shelter supplies to heal, cleanse, and comfort the suffering bodies of 33,230 people.
Medicines and medical supplies are among the most severely restricted aid items for entry into Gaza. Zakat Foundation of America was able to procure and deliver medical, hygiene, and winter warmth care kits to hospitals for the injured, medicines and supplies for Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients, and hygiene and winter aid items directly to families and individuals.
Medical Kit Items: We’ve sent critical medical supplies to Gaza – including Bag Valve Masks to assist with breathing, Portable Ultrasound Machines for diagnostics, Syringes for administering medicines, including insulin, as well as Neck Injury Collars and Wound Dressings. These items are vital for treating patients with urgent care needs, helping us give life saving support to Gaza’s suffering.
Family Hygiene Kit Items: These contain Antiseptic Liquid, 2 Boxes of Facial Tissue, Cotton Diapers (washable), Feminine Napkins, Towels, Tooth Paste (5-pack), Shampoo, Bar Soap (packs), Loofa, Detergent, Dish Soap, and Wet Towel Packets.
Family Winter Warmth Kit Items: Tents, Comforters, Clothing (coats, gloves, hats, socks, and sweaters)
Is the humanitarian aid Zakat Foundation of America has delivered to the people of Gaza enough?
In no way is the humanitarian aid that has reached the Palestinians of Gaza enough, not by any measure.
All the humanitarian aid from all governmental and non-governmental relief organizations that has reached the suffering people of Gaza is like a drop in their ocean of need.
We must give for Gaza now more than ever!
In Gaza, we are talking about millions of people and their needs. All the aid we have given and services provided, in reality, is very small compared to the needs of this population that has been cast to the curb by the outside world.
It is our duty to stand with Gaza, support Gaza, and extend our helping hand to Gaza.
We are asking you, please, to support our humanitarian efforts in Gaza with all you can. Without our help and yours, Gaza will not be able to stand.
How can I help the people of Gaza?
The world has turned away from the unspeakable suffering, the unbearable pain and loss of our brothers and sisters, our children, in Gaza.
But we have not and cannot, for we are as the Prophet, on him be peace, described us:
The likeness of the believers in their tenderness, mercy, and compassion for one another is that of a body. If a limb aches, the whole body responds to it with fever and sleeplessness.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
And also he said of us:
The Muslims are like one person. If their eye aches, all of them aches. And if their head aches, all of them aches.” (Muslim)
Today reminds us: Our unified response to Gaza, with prayers of supplications, and with relief and aid, has only just begun. You can help by donating whatever you can to Gaza
$60 Sends a Food Basket Feeding a Family of 5 for 10 Days
$75 Supplies a Large-Box Hygiene Kit to a Family of 5
$100 Provides a Hot Meal for 20 People
$250 Warms a Family with Winter Clothing & Blankets
Zakat Foundation of America has begun a new campaign to close this year: we are striving to provide lifesaving aid to another 100,000 families in Gaza before year’s end, insha’Allah.
