Palestine Emergency Appeal

Registered Name: ISLAMIC RELIEF - IR CANADA

Business No: 821896875RR0001

Access to Aid: Urgent Action Needed to Secure an Immediate Ceasefire & Humanitarian Corridor in Gaza

Canadian leaders must take action NOW.

Your emails and relentless advocacy is working: on October 24 Prime Minister Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Joly pledged their support for a “humanitarian pause.” This is the direct impact of all of you demanding action from your elected officials.

While a humanitarian pause is certainly a step in the right direction, this is still not enough. We continue to call for a full, permanent ceasefire, immediately.

For days, civilians in Gaza have warned that nowhere is safe and that hospitals, homes and school shelters are under attack. Their pleas have been repeatedly ignored, and the international community has stood by as bombs rain down on innocent people and international laws are violated.

Send an email now to your local representative. Our government has a duty to uphold international humanitarian law and must not turn its back on vulnerable civilians.

Send Urgent Relief to Gaza

“I am writing these words and my house is shaking back and forth due to the intense bombing. I feel this time we might not be able to survive. I can’t imagine Gaza after this ends. I’m terrified to think of the destruction that we will see.”

– Islamic Relief staff in Gaza

The people of Palestine are fleeing for their lives as they experience continuing airstrikes in Gaza, and dangerous escalations of violence. These attacks have 17,000 people and killed 6,549 Palestinians, resulting in a child being killed every five minutes, and further displacing 1 million people.

After suffering decades of violence and human rights violations, Palestinians continue to feel unsafe in their own country. Lack of fuel, clean water and limited food supplies has forced the healthcare system into a state of total collapse, and caused significant levels of dehydration and starvation among children as essential supplies slowly run out across Gaza.

Islamic Relief is committed to responding and working with local partners to provide emergency medical assistance to nearby hospitals and urgent food support to displaced families and clean water to entire communities.

Islamic Relief's emergency appeal for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is part of a joint appeal by the Humanitarian Coalition, bringing together 12 of Canada's leading international aid agencies in unity for the same cause, amplifying our impact on the ground.

Help us provide urgent relief and continue saving lives today.

How is Islamic Relief delivering aid into Gaza?

Islamic Relief has been on the ground, operating in Palestine since 1997. We have offices with staff and volunteers who have been distributing all emergency food and medical supplies they had previously stockpiled or could additionally procure, every day since the escalations began.

We are working alongside the Ministry of Health, UN humanitarian organizations, and local partners: Beit Lahia Development Association, Gaza Culture and Development Group, Unlimited Friends Association for Social Development, and Bayader for Environment and Development Association.

As of October 25, our team has so far distributed:

⛑️ 2.2 million medical supply items

📦 2,391 food packs

💵 3,032 food vouchers

🍴 24,062 ready-to-eat meals

🛏️ 4,661 blankets and mattresses

💧5,400 people received clean water

🧼 850 hygiene kits

🎈237 children received psychosocial support

However, all humanitarian agencies in Gaza are running low on essential supplies. We need your support to be able to continue sustaining distributions on a mass scale the moment new aid is allowed in.

Islamic Relief condemns violence against Palestinians

Islamic Relief is calling for a lasting solution and an end to the Israeli occupation. We strongly condemn all attacks and violence against civilians, and the sheer injustice at the heart of the matter, and are calling for an immediate end to the current escalations.

Nonstop Israeli bombing has devastated Gaza since October 7. In what is now deemed the deadliest of escalations, 6,549 people have been killed, including 2,704 children and 1,584 women, and over 1 million impacted.150,000 housing units, 46 health facilities and 205 schools have sustained damage, preventing Palestinians from receiving urgent medical care and forcing 527,500 displaced people to take cover in 147 UNRWA designated emergency shelters.

“It’s vital that the international community applies pressure to stop the crisis from escalating further. Israeli authorities must ensure that civilians and civilian infrastructure are protected from attack, in accordance with international humanitarian law.” 

– Muneeb Abu-Ghazaleh, Islamic Relief Country Director in Gaza

How you can help the people of Gaza

Your Zakat can help deliver life-saving essentials to communities affected by the ongoing violence across Palestine.

At Islamic Relief Canada, we follow a scholar-verified Zakat Policy to ensure your Zakat reaches as many poor and needy people as possible to transform their lives.

$65 can provide living essentials
$150 can provide a family with life saving food
$250 can provide urgent medical aid

We are focused first on areas that are accessible and where our teams can obtain and deliver aid, working with local partners to reach as many people as possible.

Every dollar you give means we can reach more civilian children, women and the elderly who continue to face hunger, poverty, trauma and loss.

The situation in Palestine

The people of Palestine are no stranger to devastation. Ongoing violence and restrictions have severely impacted access to food, water, and healthcare in Palestine, leaving over 1.3 million people in need of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

For people across Palestine, life is incredibly challenging:

80% of the population are dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive (European Union, 2023)
65% of Palestinians in Gaza live below the poverty line (UN, 2022)
9 out of 10 children in Gaza suffer from some form of conflict-related trauma (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, 2021)
One third of the Palestinian population suffer from food insecurity, of which 90% live in Gaza (WFP, 2022)

How your donations are making a difference to the people of Palestine

Islamic Relief has been working in Palestine since 1997, reaching 530,000 individuals to date. Our work in Gaza is focused on both emergency relief and development support, ensuring sustainable long-term programs that are transformative for the communities involved.

Some of our key projects over the past few years have included:

Distributing emergency food packs and facilitating access to clean drinking water
Creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for 755 farmer families by planting olive trees and providing essential tools for cultivation and irrigation
Empowering orphans and vulnerable children through education and STEM
Enrolling children in recreational therapy and psychosocial services

Following the May 2021 escalations in Gaza, Islamic Relief launched new projects for recovery and rehabilitation, ensuring your donations reached those in most need. These projects included:

Health: Rehabilitated and equipped 2 primary health care clinics with equipment, resources, tools and training.
Education: Repaired and rehabilitated 3 schools, and 3 special education centers that were damaged.
Livelihoods: Supported microbusinesses with cash assistance.
Food: Provided cash assistance to families so they can buy household staples.
Water Sanitation and Hygiene: Rehabilitated wastewater connections in housing units and enhanced access to clean water.

Your support for Gaza is helping our teams to deliver vital medical, food, water, and psychosocial support to Palestinians in need.

How does Islamic Relief ensure transparency and accountability in its operations?

Islamic Relief has strict policies and processes in place to ensure that aid is used for its intended humanitarian purpose. We conduct in-depth investigations to ensure optimal quality of work, appropriate policies and processes to manage funds and safeguard people in communities, and ensure that partners share our core humanitarian values.

This oversight, monitoring and quality control is conducted by an Islamic Relief team that is on the ground in Gaza. Our work in Gaza – as elsewhere around the world – has also been regularly audited by leading global auditors to ensure that funds are going to the most vulnerable people in need.