Gaza, Gaza, Food and Water

The only reason aid is not reaching Palestinians in Gaza is because the Zionist State is blocking it.

In the early months of the genocide, I went to every rally and protest I could attend. I was splitting my time between Philadelphia and New York City and (apologies to NYC) I far preferred the Philly protests. But I was always glad to march, scream, pump my fists. One of the rallying cries was “Gaza, Gaza, food and water” because the Zionist State was and continues to actively starve Palestinians in Gaza, as well as deny them access to water, fuel, medical supplies, and other necessities for life. In addition to actively bombing them, destroying the land, and assassinating anyone telling the story of Gaza. I cannot believe this has been going on for 635 days.

I’ve been humming this chant to myself for months now. Gaza, Gaza, food and water. I see images of children starving to death, I hear stories of desperate parents who cannot get formula for their starving babies, I watch videos of soldiers gunning down starving people in search of aid. I see everything (I have access to, which is a lot). I still do not understand how this is happening (even as I know exactly how and why this is happening). My brain and my heart are out of sync.

Today I want to give a little background on the food and water situation in Gaza. And, again, I cannot stress this enough - the only reason aid, including food and water, is not reaching Palestinians in Gaza is because the Zionist State is blocking it. Read on to find out exactly what this means.

First: Understanding the Water Crisis in Gaza

In the immediate aftermath of Al Aqsa Flood, the Zionist State cut off water and electricity to Gaza for more than a week, exacerbating a water crisis years in the making. On October 16th, 2023, the UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, said: “It has become a matter of life and death. It is a must; fuel needs to be delivered now into Gaza to make water available for 2 million people.”

The Zionist State has been manufacturing a water crisis in Gaza for decades. Even before Al Aqsa Flood, Gaza had no reliable source of surface water and its only main freshwater supply was a shallow aquifer. Over-pumping was a huge problem, not just from inside Gaza but also by the Zionist State, who has been stealing water from Gaza for ages. This over-pumping had severely depleted the aquifer in recent years, increasing its salinity. Additionally, seawater, wastewater, and agricultural run-off also continually contaminated it. This 2019 report shows that 97 per cent of the aquifer’s groundwater didn’t meet World Health Organization (WHO) water quality standards. As a result, most of Gaza’s population relied on private water tankers and small-scale desalination plants to supply drinking water.

Prior genocidal policies, implemented by by the Zionist State, also severely damaged Gaza’s water system. For example, both the Zionist State and Egypt placed restrictions on the importing of equipment needed to maintain water infrastructure, including water pumps. This has meant that people in Gaza have been unable to build water infrastructure and have been prevented from properly updating or repairing the water infrastructure, so often targeted by Israeli forces.

Again, this is all data from before the genocide. Over the past 20 months, this situation has gone from dire to catastrophic.

As early as October 2023, reports emerged of cholera outbreaks in Gaza. This was in large part due to Zionist restrictions on and destruction of water sources, which forced Palestinians in Gaza to drink contaminated water. I remember when this caused a spark of outrage. Now, it’s simply accepted as Israeli policy. Drought, as a weapon of war.

Second: Understanding the Food Crisis in Gaza

On June 20th, 2025, UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) put out Situation Report #176, which included a summary of the food, water, and fuel status of the Gaza Strip, as well as the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. They reported that from May 19th through June 20th, the Israeli authorities only allowed a select number of UN agencies and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to resume the delivery of limited aid into Gaza. This followed an almost 80 day siege on the entry of aid and other supplies into the Gaza Strip, including food, medicine and fuel. These NGOs and INGOs have contributed to the disastrous conditions in Gaza and cannot be trusted. According to The Sameer Project co-founder, Hala Sabbah:

“We have UNRWA, who's still present, World Food Programme, World Central Kitchen, are the key ones, and then you have the ones that focus on evacuating children like HEAL and PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund). Now the challenge that comes with these NGOs is that, first of all, they have huge funding, right? Like they have a lot of money. We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. However, their work is super bureaucratic, and they do normalize and talk to the occupation. So they do have relationships with COGAT. And what we are finding strange on the ground, especially over the last two months, so since around October, is that the food in the south, where there's a million and a half people, has decreased drastically.

So if… prior to the genocide, there used to be around 500 trucks coming in per day to Gaza, because there was a siege, right, for 17 years. And then when the genocide started, it dwindled down to around 120 trucks per day for all of Gaza. And then in October, there were days where no trucks came in at all, and if some trucks came in, it would be 50 trucks.

So, famine is a fact right now in the south of Gaza, and what's quite shocking is that you have organizations like World Food Program having trucks full of flour that are just locked up in the middle of Gaza, and not understanding why, right? World Central Kitchen is also extremely problematic. They had three of their people get killed, targeted in a car just a couple of weeks ago. May their souls rest in peace, and the occupation has accused them of being connected…to Hamas. And World Central Kitchen has these people working for very little wages during a genocide where they are impacted, their families are impacted, they are exhausted, they are highly traumatized. And their first response on social media was, “we did not know that they were involved in October 7th.” So not providing even condolences to their own team members…I think that is very telling about what these NGOs care about. They don’t…care about feeding people, they don't care about supporting us during a genocide. They are doing this because it's part of their colonial narrative of, “look at us, we are the heroes who are feeding these poor little brown children.

The goal of these NGOs is not the liberation of Palestine. The goal of these NGOs is not to end colonization. The goal of these NGOs is to numb people and to control people by hanging the food and then making these people do whatever they want to get that food.”

(From Millennials Are Killing Capitalism: “A Form of Resistance Towards Liberation” - Hala Sabbah on The Sameer Project, Dec 20, 2024 - you can listen to the whole interview here. )

Food aid has also continuously been used as a genocidal trap. The latest iteration of such a sadistic ploy is the newly-formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). This organization publicly launched early this year and is run by a group of American security contractors, ex-military officers, and humanitarian aid officials. It is also a joint partnership between the Zionist State and the United States, which should create a field of red flags so bloody it can be seen from space. GHF has been condemned by eleven international humanitarian organizations, who labeled it:

“A project led by politically connected Western security and military figures, coordinated in tandem with the Israeli government, and launched while the people of Gaza remain under total siege. It lacks any Palestinian involvement in its design or implementation.”

GHF is now one of the main forces behind the ongoing flour massacres, which used to somehow seem singular enough to cause momentary outrage. Now they are simply business as usual. I imagine we’ve all been watching these flour massacres. Everyday I wake to images and videos of people who have been murdered while trying to receive aid. GHF has murdered hundreds of starving people since they began operating.

GHF aside, it’s impossible not to see these food distribution centers as traps. On the one hand, there’s not enough food to go around. OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) reported that the Zionist State first limits the number of the trucks that can show up at crossing points for distribution inside Gaza. Even after these restrictions, only a small fraction of this aid collected by a handful of NGOS/INGOs can even be delivered. UNRWA claims they hasn’t been able to bring in any supplies for more than three months (since March 2nd).

This date is important - beginning on March 2nd, COGAT created a new mechanism that limits food distribution to a small number of hubs under guard of armed contractors, where people must go to pick it up. Currently four hubs have been set up, all close to Israeli military positions. The hubs are guarded by private security contractors from GHF and witnesses have accused Israeli forces of opening fire at crowds of people near the sites. These hubs are death traps.

Third: Obviously Money is a Big Part of the Story Here

As a final note, so many private companies are also benefiting from this aid disaster. For example, GoFundMe has continuously frozen or blocked fundraising campaigns for Palestine, as reported here by Al Jazeera (The Sameer Project does not use GoFundMe and is currently switching to a new grassroots fundraising platform, which I will write more about at some point). Just another reason to NOT use GoFundMe, not support INGOs/NGOs (who are working with a genocidal state), and direct your money and attention towards genuine mutual aid organizations, like The Sameer Project.

The takeaway - not only is the Zionist State committing genocide, but numerous organizations, from weapons manufacturers (the biggest being the United States), to NGOs/INGOs, and private companies like GoFundMe are making a lot of money off this genocide. In addition to boycotting Israeli goods, pushing your institutions to divest, screaming on the streets, talking about Palestine ALL THE TIME, and getting involved with organizing groups fighting for Palestinian liberation, please make sure your money is going to mutual aid initiatives that are controlled by Palestinians in Gaza. Like the Sameer Project. Good luck out there, everyone. I’m sending you all love and energy for the good fight.