Copenhagen, 5 August 2025 – A new survey of Palestinian living in Gaza by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) reveals a harrowing nightmare in Gaza, where a population exhausted by extreme hunger and multiple displacements is being systematically denied safe access to aid.
Based on protection monitoring interviews with people in Gaza from 22 May to 27 July 2025 in 25 displacement sites in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, Gaza City and North Gaza, the survey exposes the life-threatening consequences of the American and Israeli-backed distribution scheme and the severe psychological toll on a population with no safe haven. Key findings from the survey show a population at breaking point.
A staggering 70 precent of respondents cited extreme weakness caused by starvation as a barrier to accessing aid. The physical exhaustion is so profound that many are unable to make the long journey on foot to distribution sites or carry heavy loads even if they receive assistance.
Palestinians trying to access the militarized backed distribution scheme said they witnessed people, including family members, being deliberately targeted, shot, and killed by soldiers. Family members who died seeking aid were described as receiving “blood aid”, or “aid soaked in blood.”
The 39 people interviewed – 22 women and 17 men – were displaced an average of nine times since October 2023, with one person reporting being forced to move 12 times. Meanwhile, basic services were very limited or non-existent at displacement sites: 46 percent reported receiving clean drinking water twice a week at their current locations, and 28 percent said they could get a hot meal from a communal kitchen just once a week. Notably, 31 percent (12 people) reported receiving no services in the month before being interviewed.
The protection monitoring survey paints a devastating mental health crisis, with Palestinians in Gaza describing feelings of constant fear (33 percent), depression (31 percent), sleeplessness and nightmares (31 percent), and anxiety (26 percent). In 13 percent of cases, respondents described feelings of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts. At least five people showed signs of traumatic stress. One male respondent stated (Khan Younis, 12 July): “I can’t stop thinking about what I saw: Tanks in the streets, people running, tents burning, children screaming. It’s stuck in my head. I keep replaying it over and over. Even now, I jump at every loud sound.”
