How and where DEC charities are responding in the Middle East

Where are donations being spent? 

Gaza

Despite ongoing challenges around aid delivery in Gaza, DEC charities and their local partners are adapting their responses to ensure they can continue providing lifesaving support, as they have done throughout the crisis.  

The return to hostilities in Gaza is bringing further devastation to hundreds of thousands of families who are living in unimaginably difficult conditions. For DEC charities and their local partners, it means further challenges and risks as they work to provide as many people as possible with the aid they need to survive.

Increased deliveries of essential supplies during the ceasefire had made a difference, enabling some DEC charities and their local partners to replenish goods such as medicine, shelter supplies and hygiene items.

Now, DEC charities are continuing to adapt their programmes to ensure those who need it most are supported, and are working to respond to people’s changing needs.

They are also able to use supplies from local markets wherever possible, and provide vital aid that does not rely on external deliveries, such as cash assistance, medical care and psychosocial support.  

When hundreds of thousands of people returned to their communities earlier this year, many found their homes and businesses destroyed. Now, people are facing displacement and uncertainty once again. 

The levels of need remain incredibly high. More than two million people in Gaza need humanitarian aid. Harsh winter weather has worsened conditions at shelter sites, with floods inundating tents, and cold temperatures causing sickness amid a dire shortage of medical care. Over ninety percent of the population have been internally displaced, most now several times, and more than 50,000 people have been killed.

Examples of how DEC charities are supporting people in Gaza:

• Using DEC funds ActionAid have provided hot meals, shelter service, services, and winterisation items to more than 19,000 beneficiaries so far in the central and southern area of Gaza Strip.
   
• Action Against Hunger, with the support of DEC appeal funds, has provided lifesaving water to more than 120,000 individuals in north Gaza and Gaza City. As a result of damaged water systems, distribution through water trucking remains the only possible source of clean water in some areas.
   
• Oxfam and their local partners are providing families in the Deir al Balah and Khan Younis areas of Gaza with much-needed cash assistance. They will also be providing psychosocial support for women dealing with ongoing trauma.  
   
• The British Red Cross and their local partners are providing vital medical care to some of the many sick and injured, supporting hospitals and clinics and providing essential medicines.  
   
• Concern Worldwide and their local partners have been distributing clean water every two days in Gaza to displaced people living in camps. They are also distributing hygiene supplies, and building sanitation facilities in camps.
   

Lebanon

Following the ceasefire at the end of last year, some people in Lebanon have been moving back to their communities. DEC charities are constantly monitoring the situation to ensure they are working in the right areas to be able to support those returning home as well as those still sheltering elsewhere.

As people continue to return home, many are finding their homes destroyed or areas still unsafe. Some are still living in temporary collective shelters, often public buildings that are unfit for people to be permanently living in. Public infrastructure has also been heavily damaged by the fighting, leaving entire communities without access to essential healthcare services and clean water.

Levels of need in Lebanon remain very high. People require food, healthcare, and shelter.

Examples of how DEC charities are supporting people in Lebanon:

• Oxfam has been providing people displaced outside of collective sites with vital food parcels and items in northern Lebanon.
   
• International Rescue Committee has been providing multi-purpose cash for displaced people and returnees in Bekaa, to meet their urgent and basic needs.
   
• Action Against Hunger has supplied 15,000,000 litres of water across 800 facilities and has reached over 90,000 people with support since October 2023.
   
• Plan International are providing food, and winter kits including blankets and mattresses, and reaching families with essential hygiene and baby kits.
   

DEC member charities and their local partners are working to ensure they are reaching  those most affected with urgent and lifesaving aid, while also remaining flexible to the evolving situation as people start to rebuild their lives.

The West Bank

Ongoing violence in the West Bank has led to widespread displacement and damage to homes, infrastructure and vital services. Three DEC charities and their local partners have been supporting families by distributing much-needed cash assistance for food items so people can use local markets, and providing winter supplies including warm clothing and shelter support.

Syria

Since hundreds of thousands of people fled across Lebanon’s border to Syria after conflict escalated in September 2024, DEC charities have been working to support people with their most urgent needs. With many families still displaced and living in difficult conditions in temporary shelter sites, a number of DEC charities are working with local partners in Syria to provide vital aid such as food baskets, water and sanitation support, hygiene supplies and warm blankets.

Are any funds from this appeal being spent in Israel? 

The DEC is very concerned about the situation in Israel, and the loss of life and suffering that so many there have faced for so many months. For the hostages and their families, the recent ceasefire offered hope of reunion, after months of uncertainty and grief. But many still desperately await news of their loved ones, thousands have been displaced, and people are dealing with trauma after months of conflict.

DEC appeal responses always focus on those areas where significant humanitarian needs are not being met. For this reason,  funds from the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal are currently supporting people in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Syria, where millions of people urgently need food, water, shelter and medical care.

Find out more.