Raising the voices of people living under bombardment in Gaza  

Humanitarian reform
Written By Anja Piskur

Three months after the outbreak of the region’s newest war on 7 October 2023, Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) and Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) spoke to people in Gaza to find out what the humanitarian situation looks and feels like from their perspective.  

Image: Motaz Azaiza, Gaza, January 2024

Access challenges for international actors are well known. In the absence of external support, we explored how communities had been supporting each other. What do people’s daily lives look like and how have they changed? What were people’s main priorities? What did they want the international community to know? The results painted an alarming picture, of people doing what they could to take care of each other amid mounting deprivation and crippling fear. Our report, published in January 2024, before any other large-scale quantitative analysis of the humanitarian response, was used across the world for humanitarian diplomacy and advocacy, as well as by actors looking to better support community-led responses.

Our work aims to inform the ongoing humanitarian response, as well as informing the media, engaged governments, human rights actors and humanitarian funders. It also seeks to raise people’s voices: allowing people simply to share what they want to share during an acute crisis and to ensure they have a global audience. Through this work, we aim to stay engaged with the people of Gaza over time, helping to provide an accurate, nuanced humanitarian narrative which – we hope – will support efforts to align aid priorities with what communities most affected by the crisis really need and to increase pressure on power-holders to act to bring a stop to the unthinkable horrors being committed before their eyes. 

“I hope that the world stands with us and calls for a ceasefire.”
— Woman in Deir al Balah
“The Palestinians in general, especially in the Gaza strip, should not be viewed as either inferior to the rest of humanity or as superhuman. Look at us as normal human beings.”
— Man in Deir al Balah
 
Anja Piskur
Previous

Tracking community perceptions for a more people-centred aid response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Next

Understanding community perceptions on sexual exploitation and abuse in Ukraine