July 28, 2025 – The Israeli announcement of a one-week humanitarian pause in certain parts of Gaza that will reportedly see the designation of secure routes for UN convoys and the lifting of customs on food, medicine, and aid for a limited time period at one crossing point, is not a solution to the mass starvation and manmade humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Almost two years of daily killing, destruction, displacement, aid obstruction, siege, and starvation cannot be undone with piecemeal solutions. It will take a concerted, holistic, and sustained longer-term effort to even begin to address their debilitating effects.
Similarly, airdrops, already proven as a dangerous, dehumanizing, and insufficient method to deliver aid, cannot replace principled methods of delivery, especially to those who are most vulnerable and already most weakened by malnutrition – including women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
The killings of hundreds of Palestinians at Israeli-controlled aid distribution sites since late May, are another painful and shocking example of how compromising on the core humanitarian principles and militarizing aid will only lead to more deaths and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
An immediate and lasting ceasefire and full, principled, and unimpeded aid access for humanitarian actors – including for Palestinian and international NGOs like CARE and our partners – supported by operationally-proven and well-established UN coordination and distribution mechanisms are the only way forward for alleviating the humanitarian catastrophe and human tragedy we are seeing unfold in Gaza day by day.
For media inquiries, please email usa.media@care.org, or contact Sulafah Al-Shami, CARE’s Regional Communications Advisor, MENA, sulafah.al-shami@care.org