UAE Intensifies Humanitarian Efforts in Gaza Amid Deepening Food and Water Crisis
Abu Dhabi, The Gulf Observer: The United Arab Emirates continues its extensive and sustained humanitarian efforts to alleviate the dire suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who have been enduring acute shortages of food and clean water for more than a year and a half. The UAE has mobilized aid via land, air, and sea, while launching sustainable initiatives aimed at ensuring access to essential resources for the besieged population.
In response to the worsening humanitarian catastrophe, the UAE has provided large-scale food assistance, supported by the deployment of automatic bakeries, field kitchens, and projects to deliver clean drinking water to hundreds of thousands of residents. These actions come as recent reports from the United Nations World Food Programme and UNICEF warn that 39 percent of Gaza’s population are going days without food, while over 500,000 people are facing famine-like conditions.
Palestinian medical sources recently confirmed the deaths of 147 people — including 88 children — due to malnutrition, underscoring the urgency of the situation.
Since the launch of “Operation Chivalrous Knight 3,” the UAE has emerged as a leading contributor of humanitarian aid to Gaza. According to United Nations figures, Emirati assistance has constituted 44 percent of all international relief delivered to the enclave to date, preventing an even greater humanitarian collapse.
On the food security front, the UAE has dispatched tens of thousands of tonnes of food via land convoys, aerial airdrops under the “Birds of Goodness” initiative, and maritime shipments. Notably, the Khalifa aid ship recently delivered 7,166 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including 4,372 tonnes of food.
To address the widespread bread shortage that emerged early in the conflict, the UAE introduced automatic bakeries into Gaza in February 2024. It also provided flour and other essential supplies to operate over 21 field bakeries and supported more than 50 charitable soup kitchens serving daily hot meals to affected families.
During the holy month of Ramadan, the Emirates Red Crescent implemented an extensive iftar campaign in Gaza, distributing 13 million meals, supporting 44 soup kitchens benefiting over 2 million people, and supplying 17 bakeries that served over 3.12 million individuals.
In parallel, the UAE took urgent steps to confront Gaza’s escalating water crisis, exacerbated by the destruction of over 80 percent of water infrastructure due to the ongoing conflict. Within days of launching Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, the UAE established six desalination plants with a combined capacity of 2 million gallons per day, benefiting more than 600,000 people.
On July 15, the UAE announced a landmark humanitarian project to deliver desalinated water from Egypt to southern Gaza via a newly built transmission line — the largest of its kind. The pipeline, measuring 315mm in diameter and 6.7 kilometers in length, connects a UAE-constructed desalination facility in Egypt to a displacement zone between Khan Younis and Rafah. It is designed to supply 600,000 people with 15 liters of potable water per person per day.
Additionally, the UAE has launched several water-related interventions, including the drilling and rehabilitation of potable wells, repair of sewage networks, and the delivery of fresh water through tanker trucks into critical areas of Gaza.
These comprehensive humanitarian efforts reaffirm the UAE’s unwavering commitment to supporting the Palestinian people and mitigating the profound humanitarian crisis facing Gaza’s civilian population.
