Overview

The occupied Palestinian territory faces a protracted and deepening crisis, marked by decades of Israeli military occupation, widespread violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, and internal political divisions, where millions of Palestinians have long struggled to live with dignity under occupation.

The Gaza Strip has endured over five decades of conflict, hunger and despair. The besieged enclave has been under intense attacks and relentless bombardment since October 2023 when Palestinian armed groups attacked multiple locations in Israel, killing about 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals. Since then, over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 125,000 have been injured and over 2 million – half of whom are children – have been displaced and left without access to water, food, or medical care.

In January 2025, a short-lived ceasefire was reached which was followed through by a total blockade on humanitarian aid and resumption of attacks in March. Since April 2025, following the renewed and relentless bombardment of Gaza, UN agency leaders confirmed: “For over a month, no commercial or humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza.”  Later in May, following international pressure from western leaders and an 11-week blockade, Israel allowed aid into Gaza, while continuing to delay distributions. Amounts allowed into Gaza were described as a “teaspoon” in comparison to the overwhelming needs of people inside Gaza. By end of May 2025, more than 5,000 children were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, and this is rising at an alarming rate. In July, UNRWA said that one in five children in Gaza city is malnourished.

International humanitarian law has been flagrantly and repeatedly ignored, with frequent attacks on schools, shelters, and hospitals. Hundreds of aid workers have been killed. UN special procedures experts urge that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide.  

Against this backdrop, the international community has been facing extreme barriers to delivering humanitarian assistance to the population. UN agencies and other international organisations have expressed grave concerns about their inability to deliver life-saving goods and services. This, in addition to severely depleted economic and natural resources, forces Gazans to do what they can to survive within their own communities: maximising self and mutual aid and community-based initiatives, while the majority of the population is at risk of famine and disease.

Our work

Since late 2023, Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) and Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) set about talking to people in Gaza to find out what the humanitarian situation looked like from their perspective. Access challenges for international humanitarian actors are well known: in the absence of external support, how have communities been supporting each other? What does this crisis  look and feel like to people on the ground? What are people’s main priorities? What do they want the international community to know? Our research, combining surveys with in-depth discussions, is being shared and cited widely, helping to inform humanitarian and broader decision-making.