MoSD: Protecting Displaced Families and Ensuring Safe Shelter and Essential Services Are Urgent Priorities in the Gaza Strip
The Ministry of Social Development expresses its concern over the deteriorating conditions of displaced families in the Gaza Strip, amid repeated displacement, shrinking spaces available for housing and shelter, and increasing difficulties in accessing humanitarian assistance and essential services. The Ministry emphasizes that protecting these families, safeguarding their dignity, and meeting their needs require an urgent and coordinated humanitarian and social response.
The repeated displacement of families from one location to another places additional economic and psychological burdens on them, particularly after losing their homes and sources of income and exhausting their available resources. Their suffering extends beyond the search for alternative shelter to include difficulties securing food, water, and healthcare, maintaining family cohesion, and ensuring continued access to care and support for all family members.
The Ministry warns of the consequences of overcrowding in shelters, the shortage of suitable spaces for setting up tents, and the circumstances forcing some families to sleep on roadsides or in locations lacking basic safety and privacy. These risks are further aggravated by the need for protection from cold weather and rainfall, alongside continued pressure on water and sanitation facilities and health and social services.
The Ministry stresses that providing a tent alone does not constitute an adequate response to the needs of a displaced family. Safe shelter requires a suitable location, clean water, sanitation facilities, sufficient food, mattresses and blankets, and access to healthcare, protection services, and psychosocial support. It also requires providing families with clear information about available services and how to access assistance.
The Ministry places particular importance on the needs of female-headed households, orphaned and unaccompanied children, persons with disabilities, older persons, and people with medical conditions, who face additional challenges related to mobility, displacement, and access to services. It emphasizes the need to consider their specific circumstances in shelter arrangements and assistance distribution, while ensuring that care and follow-up services are not interrupted when they move to new locations.
The Ministry also highlights the importance of addressing the psychological and social consequences of repeated displacement, including the fear and instability it creates, particularly among children. This requires strengthening counselling and psychosocial support services, providing safer environments within shelters, and supporting caregivers in managing the pressures facing their families.
As part of its responsibilities, the Ministry continues, through its field teams, to monitor the conditions of affected families, identify their needs, register families forced to leave their places of residence, and update information on their current locations and household sizes. These efforts aim to facilitate access to families who have not received assistance or whose assistance has been interrupted due to changes in their locations and repeated displacement.
In cooperation with humanitarian organizations and local and international partners, the Ministry is working to coordinate social and relief responses and exchange information on urgent needs. These efforts aim to direct resources according to priorities, promote equitable assistance distribution, reduce duplication, and expand outreach to the families most in need.
The Ministry calls on all humanitarian actors and partner organizations to intensify efforts to provide adequate shelter, essential shelter supplies, and basic services, while strengthening the continuity of care and protection for the most vulnerable groups.
It reaffirms that the humanitarian response must be guided by the actual needs of displaced families, safeguard their dignity and privacy, and support their ability to regain stability.