Fact Sheet – Persons with Disabilities in Gaza

Summary – Challenges Facing Persons with Disabilities in Accessing Humanitarian Aid in Gaza

This summary provides a concise overview of the situation of persons with disabilities (PwDs) in Gaza and the main barriers they face in accessing humanitarian and emergency aid, amid large-scale destruction, displacement, and collapse of basic services, as well as critical gaps in planning and distribution mechanisms.

115,000
Before the war: an estimated 115,000 persons with disabilities (PwDs) in Palestine.
58,000
Around 58,000 PwDs were in Gaza, representing roughly 2.6% of the population pre-war.
170,375
During the war: 170,375 people were injured. Around 25% sustained life-altering injuries, adding ~43,000 new permanent disabilities and raising the disability rate in Gaza from 2.6% to 6.1% of the population.

1. Overview

Persons with disabilities (PwDs) in Gaza face severe barriers to accessing humanitarian aid and emergency relief. This is happening in a context of extensive destruction, mass displacement, and the collapse of essential services.

Before the war, there were an estimated 115,000 PwDs in Palestine, including around 58,000 in Gaza (2.6% of the population). During the war, 170,375 people were injured, and 25% of them sustained life-altering injuries, resulting in approximately 43,000 new permanent disabilities.

As a result, the disability rate in Gaza increased from about 2.6% to 6.1% of the population. Despite this sharp rise in needs, the effective participation of PwDs in needs assessment, planning, and distribution mechanisms remains extremely limited.

2. Main Barriers to Access

Core barriers to humanitarian access for persons with disabilities

Policy Barriers
Lack of mandatory policies and operational procedures to ensure the inclusion of PwDs throughout the humanitarian programme cycle – from assessment and planning to implementation and monitoring.
Physical & Environmental Barriers
Inaccessible roads, shelters, buildings, and aid distribution centers, combined with damaged infrastructure and non-adapted facilities, severely limit mobility and safe access for PwDs.
Attitudinal Barriers
Humanitarian staff often lack training and awareness on how to appropriately interact with and support PwDs, reinforcing stigma and exclusion within humanitarian settings.
Communication Barriers
Absence of sign language interpretation, guidance, visual/audio cues, and accessible information materials makes critical information about aid and services inaccessible to many PwDs.

3. Contextual and War-Related Challenges

  • Extensive destruction of transport networks, health facilities, rehabilitation centers, and inclusive education services has severely reduced available support systems for PwDs.
  • Overcrowded aid centers make access almost impossible for individuals with mobility, visual, or hearing impairments, especially in unsafe and chaotic environments.
  • 83% of PwDs lack essential assistive devices such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, and batteries, limiting their independence and ability to move or communicate.
  • 96% of local disability organizations ceased operations during the war, weakening community-based support, advocacy, and coordination.
Access to Aid Distribution Centers
  • Overcrowded distribution sites make it extremely difficult for PwDs to safely move, queue, or receive aid.
  • Long waiting times and unsafe, physically demanding queues do not account for the health and mobility needs of PwDs.
  • Physical layouts of many sites (entrances, pathways, waiting areas) remain unadapted and unsafe for people with different types of disabilities.
Barriers to Registration
  • Registration barriers include inaccessible forms, a lack of sign language interpretation, and absence of easy-to-read formats.
  • Many registration centers are not physically accessible for people with different types of disabilities, preventing them from enrolling in aid schemes altogether.
  • 99.9% of households with a PwD report major barriers related to accessing information, mobility, food, economic security, and safety.

4. Key Findings

  • No meaningful inclusion of PwDs in humanitarian planning, assessment, or decision-making processes.
  • Registration and distribution systems are complex, inaccessible, and exclusionary for persons with disabilities.
  • Services and locations where aid is delivered are not designed with the needs of PwDs in mind.
  • PwDs are underrepresented in beneficiary lists, leading to multiple layers of social and economic marginalization.
  • No special protection measures exist to ensure safe and dignified access to aid and services for persons with disabilities.

5. Recommendations

  • Ensure all humanitarian sites (distribution centers, shelters, service points) are physically accessible, with appropriate ramps, paths, and support staff.
  • Adapt registration processes by providing easy-to-read forms, sign language interpretation, and personal or community-based assistance for PwDs.
  • Improve accessible communication through visual and audio alerts, early warning systems, clear signage, and disability-inclusive hotlines.
  • Provide disability-specific protection during displacement, including safe transport, accessible shelters, and tailored support in emergencies.
  • Engage PwDs and their representative organizations in needs assessment, programme design, implementation, and monitoring of humanitarian responses.
  • Facilitate the entry, local distribution, and maintenance of assistive devices, spare parts, and batteries for persons with disabilities.
  • Collect disaggregated disability data (by sex, age, type of impairment, and location) to inform targeted interventions and resource allocation.
  • Implement mandatory disability-inclusion policies across all humanitarian operations and sectors to remove barriers to access.
  • Apply flexible response approaches tailored to the degree and type of disability, instead of relying on rigid quota-based systems that ignore diverse needs.
These recommendations provide a practical foundation for making the humanitarian response in Gaza more inclusive and equitable, ensuring that persons with disabilities are placed at the center—not the margins—of planning, implementation, and accountability.

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For the full analysis, detailed methodology, and extended tables and figures on disability and access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, you can download the complete fact sheet in PDF format.

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