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Reading List: Gaza, Sudan, and the limits of humanitarian action

Curious to learn more about the issues at the heart of our panel discussion on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly 2024? 

In both Gaza and Sudan, humanitarian advocacy, diplomacy, and action have fallen short in addressing the worsening crises. Why is this happening? Our panel looks at the barriers preventing aid organisations from delivering meaningful responses. 

In exploring what these failures reveal about the wider aid sector, we ask whether the traditional definition of humanitarianism needs to evolve to include other forms of action that could better alleviate human suffering. 

Below is a selection of key articles covering the challenges in these contexts. You can explore all of our Palestine coverage here, and all of our Sudan coverage here. For more information on the event itself, speakers and more, check out our events page here.

Gaza

A group of people walk down a path with rubble around them.

‘Shot through the knees’: How the Rafah invasion broke Gaza’s aid response

Israel’s invasion of Rafah at the beginning of May upended already limited aid efforts in the Gaza Strip. They have yet to recover.

In this picture we see the back of Rita Baroud as she sits on the roof of the partially destroyed house she where she was sheltering with her extended family in Deir al-Balah. In front we see the remains of buildings and dirt roads.

I have been forcibly displaced 12 times by Israel’s war in Gaza

A 21-year-old journalist opens a window into daily life for Palestinians struggling to survive Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Satellite view of the area in Gaza near the town of Al-Zahra where Israeli authorities are building a landing area to receive humanitarian aid from a floating pier being built by the US military. The before image is 27.09.2023, and the after is 29.04.2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Israeli military demolished homes to make way for US Gaza aid pier

The destruction of civilian property to make way for a politically and logistically contentious aid delivery project could violate international law.

This photo shows large groups of people gathering to receive the humanitarian aid supplies that are being airdropped by plane through parachutes into the city of Khan Yunis. You can see two parachutes over the crowd.

Gaza demands a new kind of humanitarian action

Aid will not fix Gaza. We need a new definition of humanitarianism that addresses the underlying causes of suffering: occupation and impunity.

Snapshots: The Palestinian journalists covering nearly 12 months of the Gaza crisis

Sudan

A man trapped by fighting in April 2023 walks towards his home in Khartoum. Residents of the devastated capital are experiencing deep hunger as war stretches into a second year.

‘We survive together’: The communal kitchens fighting famine in Khartoum

They are keeping communities afloat despite safety threats and financial hardship.

A photo of Yosra Hamid Mohammed Adam, she poses in front of a tent in Kassala. She wears a blue and purple head-covering and a denim blouse.

Host families are sheltering millions of Sudanese – but we need more support

Those leading the efforts to address the world’s largest displacement crisis are doing so at great personal costs.

This photo shows a car that has been destroyed after a shelling.

How El Fasher went from Darfur’s safe haven to all-out war

The besieged Sudanese city faces continuous shelling and starvation.

A wide shot image of a Sudanese woman, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan’s Darfur region, as she walks beside carts carrying her family belongings upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad in Adre, Chad August 2, 2023.

Sudan’s collapse is a test for the international community. We are failing it.

A call to action from international aid leaders.

 

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