The world needs to stop starvation in Gaza

Food should not be controversial. Anera’s staffer Sami Mater reported today that he heard from a friend who’s still in the north of Gaza that his six-year-old son just died from starvation. Sami also reported that only about 50 trucks a day have been coming into Gaza over the past several days. He told his…

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Reviving the Tradition of Community Kitchens in Gaza

Anera is delivering food to displaced, hungry families in Gaza through community kitchens we’re calling tekia (takiyya, tkiya), based on a beautifully simple concept that began almost 10 centuries ago. Historians differ on the exact the word to describe these kitchens – tekia, ‘imaret, aqhane or darü’z-ziyafe – but what we know for sure is…

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Statement on UNRWA Funding Suspension

On Friday, January 26, the United States, followed by several other countries, suspended funding to UNRWA due to Israeli allegations that some members of the organization’s staff in Gaza participated in the attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. The agency took immediate steps to hold staff accountable and launched an investigation. The UN Relief…

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An Update on Anera’s Staff in Gaza

As Anera’s country director in Palestine, I would like to share an update on our staff’s welfare in Gaza. Our colleagues have faced unprecedented challenges over the last three months. When I report on our staff, I always say that they’re all accounted for. They’re all safe and physically unharmed. But they are far from…

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A Primer on Gaza

The Gaza Strip is a 25-mile long stretch of coastal land (141 square miles, 365 square kilometers) that is home to a growing population of more than two million people. For such a small place, Gaza has a name everyone recognizes around the globe, but few really understand its history, culture and overall situation. Early…

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Navigating Challenges to Deliver Humanitarian Relief in Wartime Gaza

Family in Gaza who received food from Anera

The ongoing war in Gaza presents formidable challenges for organizations like Anera striving to deliver humanitarian aid. The relentless pace of violence and overwhelming scale of destruction and need have created conditions that are testing the capacity and ability of the international community. Each day of the war calls for urgent response. Anera, like the…

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A Report from Shifa Hospital in Gaza

Anera’s health team in Gaza today received these audio recordings from a doctor inside of Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza. Today they bombarded the main ICU of Shifa Hospital…shooting and bombardment everywhere. You hear it at every second here around the hospital. No one can get out of the hospital or come in.…

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Ridiculous Sky

Ridiculous sky todayBaby-boy blueCloud bellies, soft silver of old coinsTopped with Fragonard bosoms bubbling sodium white.Murillo was never so embarrassing Fluffy-headed, ditzy cloudsCheesy and cheeryJust not seriousNot respectedNot somber sober soulful Triumphalist froth just not a good lookWhen evil everywhere is sparring with goodSpearing the well-meaning in their sideWhen the beast with bear feet and…

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Gaza’s Water Crisis Puts Thousands at Risk of Preventable Death

A crowd waits with water canisters to fill them.

The water situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Even before the war, Gaza had virtually no potable water. The population relied on a polluted and rapidly depleting aquifer, as well as a limited number of desalination plants that fell far short of meeting local needs. This has led to the alarming statistic that 97% of Gaza’s…

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