Gaza’s Forgotten Families - Initiative #13: Emergency Water Distribution
Water Crises in Gaza Escalates in Intense Heat Wave
August 10–16, 2026
The water emergency in Gaza continues.
This week, our teams once again moved clean drinking water into camps and neighborhoods across Central and Northern Gaza, including communities near the Yellow Line and areas where families tell us they have become dependent upon these deliveries because other water trucks simply are not reaching them.
Our weekly goal has been approximately $4,000 to fund both Central and Northern Gaza. As the need grows, we would like to increase that amount when possible so our teams can reach more camps.
For Initiative #13, you gave us the resources to keep going.
Financial Transparency
Funds Available
Collected: $4,246
Carried forward from Initiatives #11–12: $201
Total available: $4,447
Expenses
Chuffed/Stripe fees: $144.36
Kraken fee (1%): $40
International wire fees: $60
Currency exchange: $160
Gaza team labor commission: $384
Posters and team vests: $175
Direct aid: $3,372
Remaining for Initiative #14: approximately $111
The overwhelming majority of these funds once again went directly into Gaza, either purchasing humanitarian aid or compensating the Palestinians doing the work of getting it to families.
Central Gaza
Led by Alaa
This week marked an extraordinary milestone for Alaa and our Central Gaza team:
Water Initiative #40.
Forty distributions since this work began.
But as Alaa reminded us:
“Behind every number are real families, children, mothers, and fathers who are simply asking for something that should never be a luxury: water.”
The team continued delivering to places including Sheikh Radwan, Ard Al-Israa, Aman Camp, Al-Tashri’i, the Yellow Line area and Nur Shams Camp.
Several of these communities have become heavily dependent upon GFF water deliveries.
At Ard Al-Israa, Alaa reported something particularly disturbing:
No other water trucks were reaching the camp except those being provided through our team.
And when the trucks don’t come, the phones start ringing.
“Since This Morning, I’ve Received Nearly 20 Calls”
Alaa described what happens on the other side of our financial reports:
“Since this morning, I’ve received nearly 20 calls from families in the two camps, pleading with us to send them water.”
Aman and Ard Al-Israa have become two of the communities that repeatedly call the team when their water runs out.
Families are living inside tents in extreme August heat.
Water is needed for drinking, cooking, washing, bathing and caring for their children.
Alaa wrote:
“Imagine being in a tent in this heat with children, not even having a gallon of water to drink or wash your child’s face.”
And then there is the waiting.
Families know a truck might come.
They gather their containers.
They wait.
And sometimes there simply isn’t enough money to send one.
“I feel utterly helpless when I receive dozens of pleas and I can’t reach everyone when they need water.”
This is why we keep fundraising.
Water Has Become a Daily Battle
After another day of distribution, Alaa tried to explain what witnessing this repeatedly does to a person:
“I see families waiting for hours for a little water. I see children carrying heavy containers.”
He said obtaining the most basic right to life has become a daily battle.
These aren’t simply trucks to the people waiting for them.
They are another chance to drink.
Another chance to cook.
Another chance to wash a child’s face.
Another day of survival.
Central Gaza Distribution
Central Gaza Receipts
Northern Gaza
Led by Abood
In Northern Gaza, Abood continued using the larger 12,000-liter trucks whenever possible, allowing hundreds of families to receive water from a single delivery.
On August 12, he left home at 5:30 in the morning.
There was a reason.
By reaching families early, fathers and older brothers could collect water before leaving to find work or whatever income they could to feed their families.
That morning, approximately 70 families at Tal Al-Hawa received water before the truck continued to Balqis School, where more than 200 families were sheltering.
And even at that hour, people came from outside the school when they learned water had arrived.
One Bottle. Then Back for the Other.
I asked Abood about something many of us watching the videos have noticed.
A child arrived with two large bottles.
I asked:
“Does he carry them both back by himself?”
Abood answered:
“Yes. He carries one bottle, then comes back to carry the second one, stopping every five meters.”
That image says more about Gaza’s water crisis than almost any statistic can.
A child.
A container almost too heavy to carry.
Five meters.
Stop.
Five more meters.
Stop.
Then walk all the way back and do it again.
Because his family needs water.
Friday: When the Trucks Don’t Come
On August 14, Abood took a 12,000-liter truck first to UNESCO Camp.
The families were waiting desperately.
He distributed approximately 7,000 liters, leaving another 5,000 liters in the truck.
Then they drove along the sea road.
This second distribution wasn’t planned.
And then people saw the truck.
Abood said people began running toward it from the direction of the sea.
Thousands of tents line the area.
Families kept coming.
And one fact made the situation particularly painful: it was Friday.
Abood explained that many larger organizations were not distributing that day.
“I saw people who were thirsty.”
Approximately 150 families received water from what remained in the truck.
Then it ran dry.
And Abood watched the people who had arrived too late turn around and walk back to their tents without water.
“I did not expect this to happen. I did not realize that the number of people in need would be so large.”
The Heat
The following day, another 12,000 liters went to families around Kazem Street and Al-Ain Camp.
Approximately 300 families received water.
The team waited about 45 minutes because people were walking from farther away to reach the truck.
Abood’s description of the conditions was simple:
“The weather was very, very hot today.”
On August 16, the remaining budget purchased approximately 4,800 liters.
The team brought it to Al-Thawra Street, which had experienced a severe water shortage for two days.
More than 140 families benefited.
And thankfully, this time:
Everyone waiting in line received water.
Northern Gaza Distribution
Northern Gaza Receipts
Initiative #13: What Your Money Means
Behind every financial line above are people.
Fathers collecting water before leaving for work.
Families making desperate phone calls asking whether a truck is coming.
Children hauling containers, stopping every few meters because they are too heavy.
People running toward a tanker because they don’t know when another one will come.
And people arriving too late and walking back to their tents empty-handed.
This is why we continue.
The Crisis Is Becoming More Desperate
Our weekly budget has been approximately $4,000, divided between Northern and Central Gaza.
We want to increase that when funding allows.
Because our teams are telling us plainly:
$4,000 is no longer enough to reach everyone calling them.
The desperation surrounding water has consequences far beyond thirst.
This past week, we received the devastating report of a family dispute over water that left three people dead.
That horror does not exist in a vacuum.
This is what extreme oppression, hunger, thirst, trauma and desperation can do to human beings.
The genocide has consequences that reach into every corner of Palestinian life.
It isn’t only the bombs.
It is the destroyed infrastructure.
It is unbearable heat inside tents.
It is children hauling water.
It is families pleading over the phone.
It is people fighting over resources required to stay alive.
It is a society being forced into impossible circumstances by deprivation.
And then Palestinians are left to live with the consequences.
We Need to Increase What We Can Do
Initiative #13 leaves approximately $111 to roll directly into Initiative #14.
But $111 doesn’t send enough water.
So we need your help again.
If we can raise more than our normal $4,000 weekly goal, we can send more trucks. We can reach more camps. We can answer more of those phone calls.
We cannot promise that every family will have enough.
We cannot promise that a truck will reach everyone before the water runs out.
But every time you donate, you give Alaa and Abood one more opportunity to say:
Yes. We can come.
One more truck.
One more camp.
One more child who doesn’t have to go home with an empty container.
Water is life.
And Gaza’s Forgotten Families will continue going where the gaps are.