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Oxfam reaction to the Israeli cabinet’s decision to take direct military control of Gaza City

Reacting to the recent announcement of the Israeli cabinet’s decision to take direct military control of Gaza City, Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s Policy Lead in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said:

“This decision marks a dangerous escalation in the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian territory — a brazen act of erasure carried out in full view of the world and in open defiance of the UN General Assembly’s call to end the occupation. It signals a clear intent to entrench Israel’s control over Gaza rather than to end the genocide.

“Two million Palestinians have endured starvation, bombardment, and the systematic stripping of their rights. Forcibly displacing them now would deepen an already devastating pattern of destruction and suffering.

“For humanitarian agencies like ours, this decision cements an already impossible operating environment. Reports of plans to confine civilians in tightly controlled camps are profoundly alarming, evoking some of the darkest chapters of recent history. Should this lead to the evacuation of Gaza City, it would have catastrophic consequences for our ability to deliver aid, and for our staff, the vast majority of whom live and work there.

“Up to one million people are estimated to still be in Gaza City. Any attempt to forcibly remove them would constitute one of the largest and most dangerous evacuation to date, and would be utterly catastrophic.

“Every powerful nation must act, using every diplomatic, legal, and economic tool at its disposal, to stop this atrocity. History will not be kind to those who chose silence in the face of Gaza’s obliteration.”

Contact information

Spokespeople available. For more details, please contact:  [email protected]

Oxfam reaction to SOFI 2025 report

In reaction to the United Nations’ 2025 edition of “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI) report launched today, showing only a slight progress in reducing hunger and warning that over half a billion people could be chronically hungry by 2030—nearly 60% of them in Africa — Emily Farr, Oxfam’s Food and Economic Security Lead, said:  

“We are witnessing the collapse of a moral contract. While some regions have seen some modest gains, the world is veering dangerously off track, leaving the poorest and more vulnerable behind.  As top donors, including the G7, push through a historic 28% cut to aid by 2026, 2.6 billion people —over a third of humanity —still cannot afford a healthy diet. These are not just statistics. These are lives unravelling and futures stolen. 

“This is not a crisis of scarcity — it is a crisis of inequality.  Climate chaos, conflict unchecked, and broken policies—driven by greed and impunity—are tearing apart global food systems and entrenching inequality. In 2024 alone, billionaires’ wealth soared by $2 trillion while poverty barely budged.  Since 2015, the world’s richest 1% have amassed $33.9 trillion — enough to end global poverty 22 times over. Yet hunger persists, not by accident, but by design. As fields flood and crops wither, aid is slashed, and a few corporate giants profit from the wreckage.  

Low-income countries are paying the highest price for a crisis they did not create. While global food price inflation peaked at 13.6 percent, it soared to 30 percent in the poorest economies— wiping out household budgets and access to food. In Africa, 1 in 5 people remain chronically hungry, with women and children hit hardest by deep cuts in nutrition programs. 

“We cannot afford a global food system built on injustice and indifference. Despite a modest improvement, we are nowhere the pace needed to meet global goals. The tide can still be turned, but only if governments act with urgency and unity: restore gutted aid, crack down on food profiteers, and invest in local farmers and local food systems that feed people, not profit margins.” 

Notes to editors

Contact information

Spokespeople available. For more details, please contact:  [email protected]

Six Months into Congo’s War, Cholera Is Killing More Than Four People Every Day

  • Aid cuts and humanitarian deadlock are fuelling a full-blown public health disaster.
  • In Sake and Minova, 500 people are sharing a single water tap.

Six months since the renewed war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a full-blown public health emergency is accelerating, Oxfam warned today.

Since January, more than 35,000 suspected cholera cases and at least 852 related deaths have been reported – an average of more than four deaths every day and a 62 percent increase compared to 2024.

After M23 fighters seized Goma in January civilians were ordered to return to their villages within 72 hours. More than 3.16 million people have since returned back only to find their homes reduced to rubble, and aid system on the verge of collapse.

Water networks, including storage facilities have been obliterated, leaving families to drink from contaminated streams and stagnant lakes. Basic health services have crumbled, with hospitals out of medicine and sanitation systems in ruins. In some of the hardest-hit areas, like Sake and Minova, 500 people are now sharing a single water tap.

Dr. Manenji Mangundu, Oxfam’s Director in DRC said:

“This is a full-blown public health emergency. Families are returning to ruins—no shelters, no toilets, no clean water. In many areas, latrines have been flooded or stripped for firewood, forcing people to defecate in the open and contaminate the only water available. The air reeks of sewage. Hospitals are out of medicine, and we can’t reach cut-off communities with even the most basic aid.”

In South Kivu’s Uvira region, cholera is surging with 100 new cases being reported each day. Floodwaters from Lake Tanganyika routinely inundate homes and latrines overflow into the lake, even as families are forced to drink lake water.

The forced closure and destruction of more than 20 displacement sites in Goma alone has left 700,000 people without safe shelter, clean water or basic sanitation In Rusayo, Lushagal, and Bhimba —where Oxfam had been supporting over 100,000 people—entire sites have been razed or abandoned, including more than $700,000 worth of water and sanitation infrastructure, such as pipelines, latrines, and tanks.

Despite a US-brokered ceasefire, insecurity, roadblocks, and ongoing clashes have severed vital supply routes, cutting off communities from lifesaving food, clean water, and medicine. Aid agencies like Oxfam are now being forced to detour through Rwanda, severely hampering relief efforts. Cross-border access through Burundi has been entirely blocked, while illegal taxes and bureaucratic obstruction are further choking humanitarian deliveries.

Deep aid cuts since the start of 2025 have pushed the humanitarian response to the brink of failure. Only a fraction of the $2.54 billion needed this year as humanitarian aid in DRC has been received to date—forcing agencies like Oxfam to scale back or suspend life-saving operations. Even a UN investigation into possible war crimes has been frozen for lack of funding.

“People are suffering because we cannot reach them,” said Balume Loutre, Oxfam’s Public Health Engineering Team Leader in Eastern DRC. “They’re drinking from contaminated water sources, and we lack the resources to deliver even basic aid. In some villages, 15,000 families need help, but we can only support 500. We’re forced to make impossible choices, leaving thousands behind.”

The situation is particularly alarming for women and girls. Since the cuts to USAID funding, more than 8,200 people living with HIV have lost access to antiretroviral treatment. Emergency post-rape care kits are vanishing, even as a child is reported raped every half an hour in eastern DRC, according to UNICEF.

Despite the collapse of the aid system, Oxfam and its partners continue to deliver lifesaving assistance – constructing water systems, building latrines and distributing soap and hygiene kits, food and seed. But urgent funding is needed to reach 400,000 people in high-risk cholera zones.

“We need an immediate injection of funds, and all warring parties to commit to a permanent ceasefire and allow aid to flow freely. After six months of chaos, people need dignity and respite from relentless violence. The world cannot look away,” said Mangundu.

Notes to editors

  • M23 fighters seized Goma in January, civilians were ordered to return to their villages in 72 hours, leaving at least 700,000 people hosted in 20 camps in Goma without shelter, food and water, according to the
  • 26 weeks into 2025, the DRC’s Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene and Social Welfare had registered 33,864 cases of cholera 757 deaths, to which 2,085 cases and 95 deaths were added in week 27.
  • The national death rate linked to cholera was 36% in 2024 while it was at 2.2%in early July 2025, a 62% increase.
  • According to OCHA, the humanitarian response needs for the year 2025 in DRC is $2.5 billion, but only $320 million has been received.
  • Info on UN investigation stalled due to funding based on Reuters.
  • According to OCHA-DRC’s there are 2.09 million returnees in North Kivu, 657.11k in South Kivu and 413.3k in Ituri.
  • UNICEF reported that children could account for 35% to 45% of nearly 10,000 cases of rape and sexual violence in January and February 2025 alone, which amounts to child raped every half an hour. The UN registered 67,000 incidences of rape in the last 5 months, approximately 450 cases/day, equivalent to a rape every half an hour.
  • Oxfam is currently providing water, food and protection having reached around 100,000 people in the most hit areas and aims to reach 400,000 people.

Contact information

Spokespeople available. For more details, please contact:  [email protected]

More than 100 organisations are sounding the alarm to allow lifesaving aid into Gaza

JOINT STATEMENT

“As mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away.” 

As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes. 

Exactly two months since the Israeli government-controlled scheme, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, Oxfam and more than 100 organisations are sounding the alarm, urging governments to act: open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, UN-led mechanism; end the siege, and agree to a ceasefire now. 

“Each morning, the same question echoes across Gaza: will I eat today?” said one agency representative. 

Massacres at food distribution sites in Gaza are occurring near-daily. As of July 13, the UN confirmed 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food, 201 on aid routes and the rest at distribution points. Thousands more have been injured. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have forcibly displaced nearly two million exhausted Palestinians with the most recent mass displacement order issued on July 20, confining Palestinians to less than 12 per cent of Gaza. WFP warns that current conditions make operations untenable. The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime. 

Just outside Gaza, in warehouses – and even within Gaza itself – tons of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organisations blocked from accessing or delivering them. The Government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.

An aid worker providing psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: “Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.” 

Doctors report record rates of acute malnutrition, especially among children and older people. Illnesses like acute watery diarrhoea are spreading, markets are empty, waste is piling up, and adults are collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration. Distributions in Gaza average just 28 trucks a day, far from enough for over two million people, many of whom have gone weeks without assistance. 

The UN-led humanitarian system has not failed, it has been prevented from functioning. 

Humanitarian agencies have the capacity and supplies to respond at scale. But, with access denied, we are blocked from reaching those in need, including our own exhausted and starved teams. On July 10, the EU and Israel announced steps to scale up aid. But these promises of ‘progress’ ring hollow when there is no real change on the ground. Every day without a sustained flow means more people dying of preventable illnesses. Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive. 

Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions. It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage. The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access. 

Governments must stop waiting for permission to act. We cannot continue to hope that current arrangements will work. It is time to take decisive action: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire; lift all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all land crossings; ensure access to everyone in all of Gaza; reject military-controlled distribution models; restore a principled, UN-led humanitarian response and continue to fund principled and impartial humanitarian organisations. States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition. 

Piecemeal arrangements and symbolic gestures, like airdrops or flawed aid deals, serve as a smokescreen for inaction. They cannot replace states’ legal and moral obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access at scale. States can and must save lives before there are none left to save. 

Signatories:  

  1. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
  2. A.M. Qattan Foundation
  3. A New Policy
  4. ACT Alliance
  5. Action Against Hunger (ACF)
  6. Action for Humanity
  7. ActionAid International
  8. American Baptist Churches Palestine Justice Network
  9. Amnesty International
  10. Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz
  11. Associazione Cooperazione e Solidarietà (ACS)
  12. Bystanders No More
  13. Campain
  14. CARE
  15. Caritas Germany
  16. Caritas Internationalis
  17. Caritas Jerusalem
  18. Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)
  19. Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM)
  20. CESVI Fondazione
  21. Children Not Numbers
  22. Christian Aid
  23. Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
  24. CIDSE- International Family of Catholic Social Justice Organisations
  25. Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud (CISS)
  26. Council for Arab‑British Understanding (CAABU)
  27. DanChurchAid (DCA)
  28. Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
  29. Doctors against Genocide
  30. Episcopal Peace Fellowship
  31. EuroMed Rights
  32. Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
  33. Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e.V.
  34. Gender Action for Peace and Security
  35. Global Legal Action Network (GLAN)
  36. Global Witness
  37. Health Workers 4 Palestine
  38. HelpAge International
  39. Humanity & Inclusion (HI)
  40. Humanity First UK
  41. Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
  42. Insecurity Insight
  43. International Media Support
  44. International NGO Safety Organisation
  45. Islamic Relief
  46. Jahalin Solidarity
  47. Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
  48. Kenya Association of Muslim Medical Professionals (KAMMP)
  49. Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation
  50. MedGlobal
  51. Medico International
  52. Medico International Switzerland (medico international schweiz)
  53. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
  54. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
  55. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
  56. Médecins du Monde France
  57. Médecins du Monde Spain
  58. Médecins du Monde Switzerland
  59. Mercy Corps
  60. Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)
  61. Movement for Peace (MPDL)
  62. Muslim Aid
  63. National Justice and Peace Network in England and Wales
  64. Nonviolence International
  65. Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC)
  66. Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)
  67. Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)
  68. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
  69. Oxfam International
  70. Pax Christi England and Wales
  71. Pax Christi International
  72. Pax Christi Merseyside
  73. Pax Christi USA
  74. Pal Law Commission
  75. Palestinian American Medical Association
  76. Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF)
  77. Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)
  78. Peace Direct
  79. Peace Winds
  80. Pediatricians for Palestine
  81. People in Need
  82. Plan International
  83. Première Urgence Internationale (PUI)
  84. Progettomondo
  85. Project HOPE
  86. Quaker Palestine Israel Network
  87. Rebuilding Alliance
  88. Refugees International
  89. Saferworld
  90. Sabeel‑Kairos UK
  91. Save the Children (SCI)
  92. Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund
  93. Solidarités International
  94. Støtteforeningen Det Danske Hus i Palæstina
  95. Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER)
  96. Terre des Hommes Italia
  97. Terre des Hommes Lausanne
  98. Terre des Hommes Nederland
  99. The Borgen Project
  100. The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM)
  101. The Glia Project
  102. The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P)
  103. The International Development and Relief Foundation
  104. The Institute for the Understanding of Anti‑Palestinian Racism
  105. Un Ponte Per (UPP)
  106. United Against Inhumanity (UAI)
  107. War Child Alliance
  108. War Child UK
  109. War on Want
  110. Weltfriedensdienst e.V.
  111. Welthungerhilfe (WHH)

Contact information:

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact [email protected]

Disease ripping through Gaza as Israeli military continues to deliberately block aid

Deadly diseases are now ripping through Gaza even as millions of dollars’ worth of humanitarian aid piles up in warehouses across the region, says Oxfam. 

Water-borne diseases that are both preventable and readily treatable have increased by almost 150% inside Gaza over the past three months as Israel continues to deliberately block aid. 

Available multi-agency health data shows that the numbers of Palestinians presenting to health facilities with acute watery diarrhea have increased by 150 per cent, bloody diarrhea by 302 per cent, and acute jaundice cases by 101 per cent. 

Even these figures will be grossly under-reported because most of the two million people trapped by Israel’s continuing siege have little access to the few healthcare facilities that have managed to keep operating. 

This surge of disease can quickly turn deadly especially as Palestinians living in Gaza have been deprived of enough food, water, shelter, and adequate healthcare for over 21 months. Their community and family networks have been shattered, and people made more vulnerable by repeated forced mass displacements and continuing violence. 

Israel has put Gaza under a near total blockade since March 2 of this year stopping all but a trickle of aid. There are no longer any humanitarian aid reserves held by international agencies inside of Gaza.

As a result, international humanitarian donors and agencies have been forced to accumulate more than 420,000 pallets of aid that now sit in limbo inside warehouses across the regions. This covers an area of around 75 hectares, or enough to cover 101 football fields.

This aid includes shelters, food and supplements to combat malnutrition, and water equipment, sanitation items and medicines that would be vital to tackle diseases and   

Oxfam alone has over 110,000 items of humanitarian aid in one warehouse including water bladders and tanks, hygiene, dignity and water testing kits, food parcels, soap, nappies, pipes and latrine slabs. 

Oxfam is waiting for clearances and permissions to enter, however the Israeli authorities have recently denied water and sanitation items and food parcels. 

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel policy lead, said that time is running out to prevent an epidemic across Gaza and the mass death that would inevitably result. 

“The conditions that Palestinians in Gaza are being forced to endure have created a petri dish for disease. These are diseases that thrive where people lack water – clean or otherwise – and are stuck in over-crowded unsanitary environments with almost no food,”  Khalidi said.  

“There is a grim and deliberate inevitability as to what Israel has created in Gaza. Each day that its siege continues and it denies aid, starvation becomes increasingly widespread and human deaths from entirely preventable diseases becomes an absolute certainty.” 

“As Gaza bakes in the summer sun and the hottest month of the year looms, it is increasingly urgent that Israel’s siege must end. It is shameful Israel has been allowed to besiege Gaza and create this catastrophe. Nothing other than complete access to Gaza to deliver aid at scale can alleviate the conditions that people have been forced to live in.” 

“Each day we wait for a ceasefire, more lives are lost through violence, hunger and disease. Palestinians in Gaza cannot wait a day longer for this hell to end. There must be a full and complete ceasefire, and all required aid must be able to enter via all crossings into Gaza so that Palestinians can finally begin to recover and rebuild.” 

Notes to editors

  • Health data is drawn from Gaza health cluster data epidemiology on WASH related disease trends March-June 2025 
  • Calculation of aid pallets based on Palestine logistics cluster data 
  • Oxfam has aid waiting for clearance in warehouses in Jordan and in Egypt. 

Contact information

For more information and for interviews, please contact:

Media at Oxfam Aotearoa | [email protected] or

Oxfam Media office | [email protected]   

Jacqui Crocoran | Oxfam Media Lead in Jerusalem, Occupied Palestinian Territory |  [email protected]

International Court of Justice climate ruling a powerful tool for holding countries to account

The International Court of Justice has ruled that governments must phase out fossil fuels, rapidly reduce emissions, provide remedy to those facing climate damages and provide climate finance to developing countries.  

Ilisapeci Masivesi, Director Programmes, Impact and Partnerships at Oxfam in the Pacific said:

 “There are many Pacific Islanders who feel incredibly optimistic today. Not just because this ruling from the International Court of Justice is going to set the benchmark for future climate issues but also because this moment is proof that when people mobilise as a collective, they can do anything.

I’m sure there are many who would have thought that a group of young Pacific Islanders wouldn’t be able to take this campaign all the way to the International Court of Justice, but today’s historic ruling changes that and is a reminder to young people all over the world that we can hold big polluters to account in our fight for the phaseout of fossil fuels, a just energy transition and fair climate financing for all.” 

Oxfam climate change policy lead Nafkote Dabi said:  

“Oxfam is proud to have supported young climate defenders from the Pacific and elsewhere who bravely took their fight for justice from a classroom in Vanuatu to the world’s highest court. They won the world a tremendous victory today.   

This ruling elevates national climate commitments everywhere by confirming that countries must reduce emissions enough to protect the universal rights to life, food, health and a clean environment. All countries, particularly rich ones, now have to cut their emissions faster and phase out fossil fuels. Rich countries have to increase their financing to Global South countries to help them reduce emissions and protect their people from past and future harm. This is not a wish-list – it is international law.  

We now have a powerful tool for holding countries to account for their obligations, especially in protecting the world’s most marginalised people and future generations of humanity. The ICJ rejected arguments by the likes of the US and UK that governments are bound only by climate treaties such as the Paris Agreement and did not have stronger obligations under international law. This ruling will inject new impetus into negotiations at the COP30 Summit in Brazil this November.” 

Oxfam Aotearoa climate justice lead Nick Henry said: 

“Today’s ruling is a stunning rebuke to the rich countries, including New Zealand, who are failing to stop harm to our climate. It is a victory for a people-powered campaign started by Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, gaining support from Pacific leaders and allies around the world.  

The New Zealand government provided early support to the campaign and co-sponsored the UN resolution that referred the case to the ICJ. But in its submissions to the court, New Zealand argued that human rights law is not relevant to climate change and that governments don’t have climate obligations beyond the existing Paris Agreement. 

The world’s highest court has rejected the New Zealand government’s arguments and ruled that the international treaties on human rights and the environment create binding obligations to prevent harm to the climate.  

This means that New Zealand must do more to reduce emissions and increase funding for climate action in the Pacific.” 

Notes to editors:  

Oxfam has been supporting the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change’s lawsuit since 2022, joining in advocacy for the UN General Assembly to refer the case to the Court. Oxfam provided a written statement to the ICJ in March 2024 on human rights obligations beyond borders and what this means for climate action. Oxfam also contributed to an expert legal opinion that was referenced in several State submissions, the Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations.  

Contact information: 

Rachel Schaevitz, Head of Communications, Media & Advocacy:  [email protected]