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2014 Gaza crisis - your questions answered

We answer your questions about the crisis in Gaza and our response.

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Background

The Israeli closure of Gaza entered its eighth year in June 2014 and continues to have a devastating effect, as access to markets and people’s movement to and from the Gaza Strip remain severely restricted. The economy and its capacity to create jobs have been devastated, with the majority of the population becoming dependent on humanitarian aid to meet basic needs.

What happened in July and August 2014?

In seven weeks of fighting in Gaza between 8 July and 26 August 2014, more than 2,200 people were killed. The violence followed the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June and the killing of a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem. During the fighting, at least 475,000 people – a quarter of Gaza’s population – were forced from their homes.

The violence and inability of the population to flee the fighting left people exhausted and traumatised. Shelling devastated already weakened water and sanitation systems, leaving a large percentage of the population without water. Electricity supplies were cut off and sewage plants were bombed. More than 20,000 homes were destroyed.

Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza remain in need of humanitarian aid, including food, access to safe water and sanitation, healthcare, the reconstruction of homes and schools, counselling for trauma and support in making a living.

How has CAFOD been responding?

We launched our Gaza Crisis appeal in July 2014. You responded with enormous generosity, donating more than £450,000 to help us respond to the crisis. Thanks to your support, we have worked with Caritas Jerusalem, Catholic Relief Services and Islamic Relief to:

•Deliver hygiene kits at the height of the fighting

•Support mobile health clinics caring for people who were injured

•Rebuild nursery-schools, employing local people to carry out the work

•Provide hygiene kits and training in how to prevent the spread of disease

•Help farmers rehabilitate their land, so people can grow crops and earn an income

•Revive women’s savings groups to help build their families’ resilience and ability to cope with unexpected shocks

•Provide transitional shelters to families who lost their homes in the fighting.

As well as donating money, more than 25,000 CAFOD supporters from more than 300 parishes signed a petition calling for Philip Hammond, the UK Foreign Secretary, to push for a just and lasting peace. In reply, the Foreign Office wrote: “We are clear that a political solution is required to the current crisis in Gaza if we are to avoid this suffering happening again. I can assure you all UK effort is focused to that end.”

How long has CAFOD been working in Gaza and what have you been doing?

We first supported Caritas Jerusalem in Gaza in 2006. We funded the establishment of six Caritas medical points which were to be staffed by volunteer doctors in times of extreme violence when hospitals were cut off or overwhelmed. We supported Caritas to provide urgent medical support during the 2008-09 incursion. With DEC funding, we also supported CRS to undertake a rehabilitation programme during the 2008-9 incursion, which involved rehabilitation of eight communal buildings, counselling for community members, especially women and children, and youth community participation events.

From 2009 to 2012 we supported a specialised psychosocial counselling centre for children and their parents, run by Islamic Relief. The project targeted pre-school and school-age children for both individual and group counselling to help them overcome their trauma and stress from exposure to the violence. We continue to support Islamic Relief on a water and sanitation project providing clean drinking water and hygiene education to women-headed households.

What does CAFOD think about what is happening in Gaza?

We condemn violence against civilians by all sides, including Israeli military actions and Hamas rocket fire, and call for all sides to protect civilians and adhere to the principles of international humanitarian law. Violence as a response to violence only results in more violence.

We believe that the people of Gaza need to have the chance to rebuild their lives. They urgently require the material to repair homes, hospitals, infrastructure and schools. People need the chance to rebuild their economy and live with dignity.

We strongly believe that the only way out of the cycle of violence is to address the root causes of the conflict: there needs to be an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory, to the building of illegal settlements and to the closure of Gaza.