The ceasefire in Gaza is not the end, it is a beginning

Reham's destroyed home | contributed

The welcome news of the ceasefire in Gaza has highlighted the depth of the emergency we face. My colleague Reham who works for one of Christian Aid’s DEC-funded partners, the Women’s Affairs Centre, told me she felt a numbness the moment the ceasefire was announced and then after a few seconds burst into tears, feeling a release of sorrow and pain that had been kept inside her over the past two years.

For her, the ceasefire means the chance of sleeping through the night without fearing she will be killed. But it also signals a moment of reckoning with all that has been lost. Everyone in Gaza has been profoundly affected and are grappling with the horrors in front of them.

This includes staff from our partner organisations who are tirelessly delivering aid in the most extreme conditions. They also face hunger, lost loved ones and destroyed homes. The bones of Reham’s home stand among a sea of grey rubble.

My colleagues in Gaza describe a mixture of happiness and sorrow, a fear that the ceasefire will not hold, but a fragile feeling of hope for recovery and that life may slowly start to come back.

Informal education | contributed

The scenes meeting the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning home, or to where their homes once stood, are apocalyptic.  Many cannot move yet because of a shortage of fuel for transport, or because there is simply nowhere to go. They are confined to tents in camp cities and shelters across the strip.  Gaza City and northern Gaza feel lifeless, without electricity, clean water sources, or previously busy bakeries. Winter is on the way and already temperatures are starting to drop. Those living in very old tents fear the impact of the cold, particularly on the elderly and children.

The needs are huge. Most civilian infrastructure including schools, hospitals, roads, water and sewage networks have been severely damaged or completely destroyed. Now, in the relative safety that the ceasefire brings, the aid effort can accelerate and Christian Aid and our local partners are scaling up our response. 

Katie Roxburgh | contributed

The essentials are food, meals, clean water and medical care as well as support for families to remove rubble from their homes and streets and begin the reconstruction effort. Christian Aid is continuing to take a community-led approach, prioritising the needs of local people as they describe them to us.

This means providing cash grants to community groups to carry out projects, getting machinery for rubble removal for homes and community centres, stocking community kitchens, and repairing water pipes and wells. Our agricultural partner is helping the economic recovery by giving farmers seeds, tools and machinery, to work their land again and replant crops.

Our guiding principle is to get money directly to the people in Gaza who need it most. In one shelter supported by our partner in Khan Younis, they have been preparing for winter and need warm clothes for their children. They used their small cash grant to buy blankets in the market (the only thing available), and one woman with good tailoring skills worked with others in the shelter to teach sewing. They have now made jumpers and other clothes for children, with shells from the beach as buttons.

In another shelter, teachers who’ve been unable to work for two years because of the destruction of schools, have come together to volunteer their time to teach children, with great benefits for their wellbeing and their futures. Their cash grant was used to buy learning materials and food and water for the children attending the sessions. Other grants have been used for adapting shelters to make them disability-friendly. Christian Aid’s approach aims to ensure dignity and a recognition of how people in crisis are able to adapt and support each other. Used properly, and directed to those with specific needs, even small cash injections can make a huge difference.

A clay oven up and running for bread baking | contributed

The ceasefire is bringing a long overdue increase in aid into Gaza, but there is still a massive shortfall. The international community must continue to apply pressure on the Israeli government to let hundreds more aid and commercial trucks enter Gaza daily. The reopening of crossings is already increasing availability of food in the markets and bringing prices down – a lifeline for people and a clear indication of how the situation will continue to improve if the flow of aid continues to increase. Our partners can use money raised here in Scotland to buy and distribute essential items that were not previously available, particularly medicines.

My colleagues working for our local partner organisations in Gaza have not stopped for a moment over the past two years, working in unimaginable conditions. Now the ceasefire allows them a small amount of breathing space to take stock, and a chance to help even more people. But they desperately require additional support to meet the overwhelming need. One Palestinian colleague shared his feelings on the ceasefire today: ‘peace for us is not just the absence of bombs, but the presence of dignity and safety for our people’.

With continued support, Christian Aid can keep this sentiment at the forefront of all our efforts in the difficult days ahead.

To support Christian Aid and the DEC’s other member charities responding in Gaza and the wider region, please donate now https://donation.dec.org.uk/middle-east-appeal

Katie Roxburgh – Christian Aid Middle East programme manager