August 17–23, 2026
Another week of Gaza’s Forgotten Families is complete. Initiative #14 continued our emergency water distributions across Central and Northern Gaza, continuing to serve camps and communities where clean drinking water remains scarce, irregular, or completely unavailable without outside support.
This week also showed exactly why repeat distributions matter because one truck of water does not solve a camp’s water crisis.
Families drink it, cook with it, wash with it, and then they need water again.
It is a critical ongoing need to have access to clean, safe water.
Financial report
New donations collected: $4,246.00
Carried forward from Initiative #13: $209.00
Total available: $4,455.00
Chuffed/Stripe fees: $144.36
Kraken fees: $40.00
Wire fees: $60.00
Currency exchange: $160.00
Gaza team labor/commission: $384.00
Direct aid/water: $3,572.15
Carried forward to Initiative #15: $94.49
Total accounted for: $4,455.00
Central Gaza — Alaa and Team
Throughout the week, Alaa and the Central Gaza team continued delivering water to Al-Israa, Al-Muhibeen School, Camp 2, Sheikh Radwan, Al-Bustan, Al-Muhibeen, Al-Aman and Al-Dahyan.
Several of these are communities we have served before.
Ard Al-Israa in particular continues to depend heavily on our deliveries because water trucks do not reach the camp regularly. On August 20, Alaa returned there again after serving Al-Muhibeen.
On August 18, the team completed four separate water deliveries in a single day, reaching Al-Muhibeen School and Camp 2, Sheikh Radwan, Al-Bustan and Ard Al-Israa.
But getting the water there wasn't simple.
While Water Truck #51 was on its way to Ard Al-Israa, it suddenly broke down. A mechanic was called and arrived about half an hour later. Luckily the truck was repaired, and instead of abandoning the delivery, the team continued to the camp and got the water to the families waiting for it.
Alaa summed up what these trucks represent:
“Every water truck carries more than just water; it carries hope, compassion, and a message to families that they are not alone, that there are those who remember them and stand by them.”
The difficulties continued on August 21 when the team suffered another vehicle breakdown while delivering to Aman Camp and Al-Dahyan School and Camp.
This time the vehicle couldn’t be repaired so the team and some helpers physically pushed the full water truck to the camp where families had been waiting a long time in the baking sun for water.
Both deliveries were completed.
# Northern Gaza — Abood
Abood's distributions this week show both the enormous scale of the need and why GFF continues returning to communities we've already served.
On August 18, 12,000 liters went to Al-Nasr Street and Kazem Street, reaching approximately 360 family/tent service instances.
Kazem is not new to us. Abood explained:
“This is not the first time this area has benefited from the Gaza’s Forgotten Families initiatives. The person responsible for the area contacts me regularly, but I try to schedule the distributions so that they can reach all the areas in need of water.”
Two days later, he returned to the Kazem area.
Why? Simply because they urgently needed water again.
More than 230 families benefited there that day, followed by another 80 families at Al-Yaqeen Camp.
Abood said Kazem is the area from which he receives the most calls because **they have not received support from another organization or source.
Going Where the Gaps Are
On August 21, Abood took another 12,000-liter truck to Hamamat Al-Salam and Al-Zahraa, two extremely remote camps surrounded by an area devastated by the Israeli occupation.
The truck was positioned directly between the two camps.
There are appapproximate160 families in each camp — about 1,280 people altogether.
The following day, another 4,500 liters went to the Carrefour area, where approximately 120 families received water.
But Abood made the problem painfully clear:
“If we had more water, many more families could have benefited.”
That sentence is essentially the story of our work right now.
There is always more people to serve than water to distribute.
Our Impact Through Initiative #14
Our new cumulative impact statement is above, and I want to clarify exactly what these numbers mean.
Across Initiatives 1–14, Gaza’s Forgotten Families has now distributed approximately 605,900 liters of clean water through 94 water trucks.
Our records represent 15,633 family/tent service instances, corresponding to an estimated 78,165 Palestinian beneficiary instances, using an average of five people per family or tent.
These are deliberately described as service and beneficiary instances rather than unique people.
Some families have received water from us more than once. Some camps appear repeatedly in our records. It reflects the reality of emergency water aid which is not a one off delivery. Water is needed every day and a few containers doesn’t go far with a family of thirsty people who might also need to cook food or use water for ablutions.
People need to drink water every day.
So we return as often as we can.
Our records currently represent 130 camp/area service visits**, including repeat visits to communities with continuing need.
That distinction matters to us because transparency matters to us.
See the Work for Yourself
We don't want donors to have to take our word for what happens after they donate.
We maintain a video archive documenting GFF initiatives and distributions, so you can see the trucks, the camps, the families and the work being carried out on the ground on a day by day basis. Each delivery video is accompanied by a sign with the date and coordinators name.
Gaza’s Forgotten Families Video Archive on Vimeo
You can also follow the teams and our ongoing work on:
Gaza’s Forgotten Families on Instagram
Gaza’s Forgotten Families on TikTok
# Initiative #15 Begins
Initiative #14 closes with $94.49 already carried forward toward Initiative #15.
The water crisis has not ended because another initiative has ended.
The phone calls continue. The camps we served this week will become thirsty again. And beyond them are other families waiting for a truck that may never come unless someone pays to send it.
This is why we keep going.
$25 becomes water. $100 becomes water. $200 becomes a truck. $4,000 allows our teams to operate across Northern and Central Gaza for approximately another week.
We cannot give every family in Gaza everything they need. But every time one of these trucks pulls into a camp, hundreds of people who were waiting for water can drink.
Help us fund Initiative #15. Help us to keep sending the water trucks in.
Water is life. And in Gaza, right now, delivering it is an act of survival.