With aid groups warning of famine and the war between Israel and Hamas entering its seventh month, the assistance is needed, but there are key questions about its effectiveness and security.

Ongoing wars in, say, Yemen or Ethiopia get minimal attention compared with the media focus on the fighting in Ukraine. And there are ramifications on the humanitarian front.

"There's nothing more eerie than walking into a half-destroyed building and seeing yesterday's lesson on the blackboard as if nothing had changed," says Christy Delafield of Mercy Corps.