Palestine

We have been working in the occupied Palestinian territory for more than 30 years, combining humanitarian response with longer-term support to communities. We were among the first humanitarian organizations to sign an operational framework agreement for emergency interventions in 1993, shortly after the establishment of the European Commission's humanitarian aid office. In Gaza, our presence dates to 1997, when WeWorld supported the establishment of the Strip's first blood transfusion center, in collaboration with the Central Blood Bank of Gaza.

Since then, our work has expanded across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, adapting to changing humanitarian and development needs while maintaining a long-term presence alongside Palestinian communities and local partners.

Today, we work across Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Education, Protection, Shelter, Health, Food Security and Livelihoods, and Local Economic Development, integrating gender equality, menstrual health, community engagement, accountability and inclusion across our interventions. We operate through 5 field offices in the West Bank and Gaza, with presence in over 100 communities across 11 governorates in the West Bank and 3 in Gaza.

The humanitarian crisis across the occupied Palestinian territory remains severe, as violence, occupation, displacement and access restrictions continue to generate humanitarian needs across both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. While the two contexts differ, they are increasingly interconnected through deteriorating civilian protection, shrinking humanitarian space, and the erosion of essential services.

In Gaza, the escalation of hostilities since October 2023, preceded by nearly 2 decades of blockade and repeated cycles of conflict have resulted in widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, repeated displacement and severe disruption to basic services. Homes, health facilities, schools, and water systems have suffered extensive damage, while humanitarian access and the availability of essential supplies remain constrained.

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, military operations, settlement expansion, demolitions, settler violence and movement restrictions continue to drive displacement, and protection concerns while affecting access to housing, livelihoods, education, healthcare and water. Protracted instability and reduced access to land and resources have further affected livelihoods and economic opportunities, particularly for farming, herding and marginalized communities and those facing displacement and risks of forcible transfer in the West Bank.

The humanitarian operating environment has also become increasingly constrained, affecting the ability of humanitarian organizations to reach communities and sustain operations.

Across the oPt, women, children, persons with disabilities, older people, displaced families and marginalized communities face disproportionate impacts. Responding to these overlapping needs requires humanitarian action that remains adaptive, locally driven, and focused on equitable and sustained access to essential services while protecting people's rights and wellbeing.

We apply a protection-centred and multisectoral approach, placing communities at the heart of the response and working closely with local partners and community structures. Our interventions are designed to respond to immediate humanitarian needs while strengthening local capacities and supporting longer-term resilience.

The realities of Gaza and the West Bank require different, yet complementary responses. In Gaza, priority is given to life-saving assistance, while recovery components are incorporated wherever conditions allow. In the West Bank, interventions address the pressures affecting communities' ability to maintain resilience against demolitions, settler violence, movement restrictions, loss of basic services, and economic strain.

Across both contexts, the preferred option is to engage across multiple sectors rather than targeting each sector in isolation.

In Gaza, we support displaced and conflict-affected communities through safe water provision, sanitation and solid waste management, hygiene promotion, menstrual health activities and the rehabilitation and maintenance of WASH services in displacement sites and community facilities. Community volunteers support hygiene promotion, community engagement, risk communication and referrals, while assessments and consultations help identify priority public health risks and shape locally appropriate responses.

In the West Bank, we rehabilitate and expand water networks, strengthen household access to safe water, and support essential WASH services.

WASH is also integrated with public health programming, particularly through infection prevention and control, health-risk communication, community engagement, specialized consultations and referral pathways. These measures along with sanitation were strengthened in two governmental hospitals in the northern West Bank, reaching more than 200,000 people since 2025.

We work to improve access to safe, inclusive, and quality education while supporting children's psychosocial wellbeing.

Across Gaza and the West Bank, we adopt a holistic Education in Emergencies approach, working with education authorities, communities and educators to create safe and inclusive learning environments, improve school facilities, including WASH facilities, and support access to education for displaced and conflict-affected children and host communities.

In Gaza, temporary learning spaces provide structured learning and psycho-social support for displaced children, with WASH and community engagement integrated into the response.

In the West Bank, interventions support children affected by conflict through access to education, psychosocial support, social and emotional Learning, safer and more inclusive school environments, and emergency preparedness.

We also work with school counselors, teachers, caregivers, local partners and communities to strengthen the wider environment surrounding children integrating psychosocial support and referral pathways while helping maintain access to learning during emergencies.

Protection concerns are closely connected to access to water, education, healthcare, shelter and livelihoods, particularly for Palestinian communities facing displacement and risks of forcible transfer in the West Bank.

We provide urgent humanitarian, resilience and protection assistance to affected communities. Interventions include emergency shelter and protection support, community infrastructure, basic services and household-level assistance designed to reduce protection risks and strengthen communities' ability to remain on their land.

This work is complemented by humanitarian advocacy, community-level planning and coordination with local and international humanitarian actors to identify, prevent and mitigate protection risks affecting Palestinian communities.

Our protection portfolio continues to develop through programming supporting protection and access to education for vulnerable children.  

In the West Bank, we work with vulnerable communities to strengthen agricultural and livestock-based livelihoods alongside protection and access to basic services. We also work with agricultural, artisan and food-processing cooperatives, strengthening their production and organizational capacities while linking water, energy, food production and environmental sustainability through a Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) nexus approach.

During the first half of 2026, we enhanced the capacity of 30 cooperatives in the West Bank through equipment provision, training sessions, and peer exchanges that supported the sharing of experience and good practices. Ecological farming, research on non-conventional water resources, and land degradation are also being further developed in collaboration with partners.

Gender considerations are mainstreamed across our programming through gender-sensitive and gender-responsive approaches that consider the different needs, risks and barriers faced by women, men, girls and boys.

Menstrual health has become a particularly important component of programming in Gaza, where displacement, overcrowding and limited access to hygiene materials and health services have created additional challenges for adolescent girls and women.

We combine the provision of menstrual health materials age-appropriate information, psychosocial support, specialist consultations and safe opportunities for dialogue where adolescent girls and caregivers can discuss menstrual health, hygiene and emotional wellbeing with trained facilitators and specialists.

In 2026, we further strengthened this area of work through dedicated menstrual health and wellbeing activities for adolescent girls and caregivers in Gaza.

Across our programmes, we work closely with local partners, community structures and affected communities, recognizing that effective humanitarian action depends on local knowledge, meaningful participation and local ownership.

Through community assessments, consultation sessions and feedback mechanisms, communities contribute to identifying needs, prioritizing risks and shaping interventions, including community-led micro-initiatives. Local partners are increasingly involved in programme design, implementation, coordination and decision-making.

In 2026, we engaged four active national NGOs to implement program activities in education, health, protection, and sustainable livelihood.

Community participation remains vital in shaping our interventions. In Gaza, community volunteers support hygiene promotion, community engagement, and rapid-response activities across displacement sites. In the West Bank, residents have worked alongside our teams during infrastructure interventions, including the installation of new water networks in communities facing severe access restrictions.