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New report highlights catastrophic conditions and aid delivery challenges in Gaza

The latest Humanitarian Snapshot Report from NGOs operating in Gaza, including ActionAid, has revealed an increase in dire conditions and overwhelming obstacles impeding aid efforts in the region.

The report, covering the period from 13 to 29 July 2024, details the escalating humanitarian crisis faced by the 2.1 million Palestinians living in Gaza – and reveals that approximately 86% of Gaza is now under “evacuation orders,” forcing Palestinians to seek shelter in the remaining 14% of the Strip.  The latest figures for those reported killed is 39,363, with nearly 91,000 injured and thousands remaining buried under rubble and are presumed dead. 

The report also highlighted that water availability has decreased to 94% compared to pre October levels. On 26 July, the main drinking water source in Rafah was bombed.  

ActionAid Ireland CEO, Karol Balfe, described the latest statistics as devastating. “It is beyond time for the international community to intervene and provide substantial support to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We demand the immediate lifting of the blockade on Gaza, protection of humanitarian workers, and immediate access to essential supplies and services for the people of Gaza so we can properly support our partners who are, against all odds, still providing lifesaving care amongst one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.“ she said.

She said the lack of aid getting into Gaza – with the UN saying only 710 trucks have been allowed to enter so far this month when Gaza needed at least 500 trucks of aid per day to meet people’s basic needs even before October 7 – is alarming.

“Twenty trucks carrying ActionAid supplies, including period products and hygiene kits, have been stuck in Egypt for at least two months due to the backlog created by restrictions on entry points into Gaza, with efforts to coordinate entry still ongoing. These are among 1,500 UN or NGO Gaza-bound trucks currently waiting in Egypt.” 

Other report findings are:

  • Nearly half a million people are experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity
  • Since October 2023, 278 humanitarian aid workers have been killed. Recent attacks have also targeted UN and NGO convoys and shelters, severely impacting aid delivery. 
  • Between 22 and 27 July, evacuation orders displaced around 200,000 people from Khan Younis and another 12,600 from Deir al Balah camps. 
  • Ongoing military operations and airstrikes in densely populated areas, including designated humanitarian zones, pose significant risks to civilians and aid workers. 
  • Border closures and administrative barriers prevent effective delivery of medical services and rehabilitation of critical infrastructure. 
  • Attacks on civilian police and the destruction of infrastructure have led to increased insecurity, complicating aid delivery further. 

Ms Balfe said the dangers facing humanitarian workers in Gaza who are continuing to deliver life-saving aid to people in need is hugely challenging as conditions further deteriorate. She said staff at ActionAid’s partner organisations have described how, against the odds and in the face of constant danger, they are still providing desperately needed support amidst severe shortages of food, fuel and key supplies. 

Discover more here.

Protesters holding End Fossil Fuels banner at a climate demonstration, advocating for renewable energy solutions.

Protestors at COP 28 in Dubai. Photo: Konrad Skotnicki.

Climate protest with diverse crowd holding signs about environmental action in a city square.

Belfast Climate Change March, 2019. Photo: Trócaire.

The Profit Driving the Crisis

Despite their overwhelming contribution to global emissions, fossil fuel companies continue to attract significant financial backing—driven by their enduring profitability. This is starkly illustrated by the case of ExxonMobil, the top fossil fuel investment held by asset managers based in Ireland. In 2023, ExxonMobil reported €33.63 billion ($36 billion) in profit. That is almost twice the GDP of Botswana (€18.1 billion) and nearly three times Namibia’s GDP (€11.5 billion).

Ireland plays a hugely disproportionate role in facilitating investments into fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil. In 2023, the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland generated an estimated 72.5 million tons of CO2e. This is more than the CO2e emissions for the entire country of Ireland—and more than ten times that generated by Sierra Leone.

The Global Human Impact

The climate crisis is here, now, and it is causing disproportionate harm in the Global South. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels and increasingly severe cyclones are displacing coastal communities, with projections indicating that 17% of the entire country could be underwater by 2050. The legally binding Paris Agreement on climate change explicitly acknowledges the importance of tackling private finance. Its three overarching goals are: keeping below 1.5C of warming; increasing adaptation and making finance flows consistent with low emissions and resilience.

This gives a clear mandate for action:  both tax reform and corporate regulation are needed to tackle financial flows, and both nationally in Ireland and at EU level, ‘polluter pays’ taxes are lacking and regulation of the financial sector remains weak and fragmented. While EU regulation exists, it is designed more to nudge investors toward more sustainable investment practices by increasing transparency and reporting levels than to enforce strict standards. And it is moving in the wrong direction: the recently passed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive excluded investments; and now the EU Commission’s Omnibus legislative proposal threatens to undo the limited gains made on climate plans, as well as blocking future attempts for stronger action at national level.

The Risk of Inaction

Fossil fuel investment is too profitable to remain weakly regulated. If Ireland continues with its current strategy of encouraging FDI at all costs, and relying on weak EU regulation, we are headed for catastrophe. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly warned that every fraction of a degree beyond 1.5°C brings irreversible consequences: collapsed ice sheets, vanishing coral reefs, and extreme weather events that will make vast regions of the planet uninhabitable. And yet, companies are developing oil and gas fields that could push global warming beyond 2°C.

Our research found that 91% of the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland were to companies that have plans for fossil fuel expansion like these. Ireland cannot afford inaction on this issue.

About This Research

The figures in this report regarding investment from Ireland are based on new research commissioned by ActionAid Ireland and Trócaire. In the paper, we uncover the scale of fossil fuel investment through Ireland, who the investors are, and in which fossil fuel companies they are investing.  We analyse the current regulatory framework and explain why it is inadequate—and moving in the wrong direction. And we make specific recommendations for change, which are summarised below.

Summary of Recommendations

Regulate the private financial sector
Ireland must end its outsized role as an enabler of destructive fossil fuel investment. Ireland should introduce a strong gender-responsive national human rights and environmental due diligence framework which includes the regulation of investors with respect to human rights and the environment and climate. The transposition of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive could achieve this if downstream activities are included and the Omnibus proposal is rejected. Ireland should prohibit investments in fossil fuel expansion and require investors to implement climate transition plans consistent with a 1.5°C climate limit.

Endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Ireland should endorse developing a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to curb fossil fuel expansion and commit to a fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels.

Support tax justice
Ireland should support bold and fair new global tax rules through the UN Framework Convention on Tax, should adopt all OECD BEPS measures, and should conduct an updated and comprehensive spillover analysis of its tax policy. Ireland should take coordinated action globally, at the EU level and domestically to introduce a range of new taxes to mobilise finance needed for climate justice, based on ‘polluter pays’ and social equity principles such as wealth taxes for the highest earners, climate damages tax on investors, fossil fuel production taxes and levies on aviation and shipping.

Finance a just transition
Ireland must also meet its fair share climate finance obligations under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, and pay our ecological debt to the Global South. Ireland should support conditionality-free debt cancellation for countries on the front lines of the climate crisis, commit to a new UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt, moving debt negotiations from the IMF to the UN, and to a debt workout mechanism that is fully representative and fair.

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