We received this important update from one of our partners in Gaza, Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children, this morning. Please take a moment to read what the situation is like in Gaza. We will be sharing more updates and our plans in the coming hours and days.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Warm greetings from the Gaza Strip. We hope that all of you are well and safe.

This is kindly to give you brief updates on the situation in the Gaza Strip.

For the last ten days, Gaza has been exposed to daily air strikes and expected political escalations, adding to that, the siege has been further tightened up. Only few goods and medications are being allowed into the Gaza Strip. There is acute shortage in fuel that operates the electricity station, as it is not allowed into Gaza. The people in Gaza live in darkness with only 3-4 hours of electricity per day.

Yesterday, new grave situation hit Gaza. A total of 4 COVID19 cases were reported in the community, with high risk that they have interacted with large number of people. The responsible parties have announced high level of emergency situation and a-48 hours of complete lockdown was forced to limit the outbreak of the virus in the community, since the health system in Gaza is already curtailed due to the siege and will be a challenge to deal with high numbers of infected people.

This will lead to worsen the already crumbled livelihood conditions of families, especially vulnerable groups of children and people with disabilities.

Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children responded to the emergency call. All of our staff now work from home. Remote contact with our beneficiaries and students with and without disabilities is being maintained through different technological means to ensure that they have access to important and time-sensitive awareness messages, information, and emergency responses.

We will proceed in our services in different modalities, the emergency team is updating the COVID19 emergency and preparedness plan and identifying what are the needed resources for the continuation of our interventions amid the current situation.

We wish safety to everyone.