Cairo, Egypt- As thousands of Palestinians stream from Gaza into Egypt following cutoffs in fuel and supplies, Catholic Relief Services has joined other aid agencies responding to the territory's humanitarian crisis. Already facing an unusually cold winter for the region, many Gazans now lack food, heating, and medical supplies.

While some are buying goods on the Egyptian side of the town of Rafah, those who don't cross into Egypt—or don't have money to spend—could feel the pinch as Gaza shortages continue. "This situation has been building for months," says Tom Garofalo, CRS Country Representative for Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. "The mass exodus highlights how desperate Gazans are for basic goods like dairy products and children's clothing, which have been extremely scarce and expensive since the border crossings between Israel and Gaza were closed in June 2007. With the closures, it's the innocent who suffer most, not political leaders."

CRS' Gaza staff is working with its partners on the ground to monitor the situation. CRS Egypt will also assess whether Palestinians flooding to Egypt require humanitarian assistance, like medical care, that they could not get in Gaza during the last seven months. "In coordination with the Egyptian Red Crescent, CRS is sending personnel to Rafah to look at the needs of especially vulnerable groups," says Luc Picard, Country Representative for Egypt. Caritas Egypt will also join the mission.

CRS has been working in Gaza since the 1970s. Its programs in the territory have included food distribution, trauma counseling for children following the June 2007 violence, and educational support for high school students. The United Nations reports that two-thirds of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza - two million people - now live on less than $2 a day and rely on humanitarian assistance to support their families.

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Catholic Relief Services is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency provides assistance to people in more than 100 countries and territories based on need, regardless of race, nationality or creed. For more information, please visit www.crs.org.