How DEC charities are providing aid as the crisis evolves

DEC charities and their local partners are continuing to provide lifesaving support to people in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Syria, as they have been doing throughout the crisis.

The ceasefire agreement in Gaza provides desperately needed hope and relief for so many people whose lives have been devastated by conflict.

Gaza

In Gaza, DEC charities and their local partners are now preparing to scale up their work again, after months of extraordinary challenges delivering aid.

Hundreds of trucks of food, medicine and essential supplies have started to enter, with many more expected in the coming days. DEC charities and their partners are working to resume lifesaving activities across Gaza at scale, including urgently needed food and water distributions.

In August, famine was confirmed in Gaza across Gaza City and the surrounding areas, where more than 500,000 people were living at the time. The announcement marked only the 5th time in more than 20 years that the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system has been used to confirm famine.

Over the past months, extraordinary challenges around aid delivery in Gaza have had a devastating impact on the work of DEC member charities and their local partners. With extremely limited supplies of food, fuel and medicine, they have been unable to carry out much of their lifesaving work. Staff and their families have faced unimaginably harsh conditions and risk, but continue to work addressing people's needs.  

Under the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, access for much needed humanitarian aid is expected to increase. DEC charity Plan International has been working across the border in Egypt, packing much needed supplies.

Sustained access for aid in the coming weeks is critical to help them save lives. 

“It’s a lifeline, although it’s a drop of what is needed inside Gaza. Everyone inside Gaza needs the assistance – they are hungry and they’ve been starving. Everyone needs it but we always prioritise the most vulnerable.”

 - Dr Unni Krishnan, Global Humanitarian Director for Plan International

Several of Plan’s trucks have now entered Gaza with food and other essential supplies. Each truck contains food packets sufficient to provide assistance for 6,000 people in Gaza with food for 5 days.

Dr Unni explains: “When the trucks leave the warehouse they travel for 4-5 hours to reach the border with Gaza. Once there our Palestinian partners distribute it to the most vulnerable.”

During the temporary ceasefire earlier this year, DEC charities were able to replenish essential supplies, deliver hot meals, and repair damaged water systems. Even with the extreme challenges faced in the months afterwards, the work carried out during that time shows what they are able to deliver when they are in a position to provide aid at scale.

“The ceasefire period was very important, because we had a significant amount of supplies that have come into Gaza, which actually made it possible for people to survive for 60 days. If we did not have that ceasefire period, I don't think many people in Gaza would have lasted a couple of weeks.”

 - Jamil Sawalmeh, Country Director for ActionAid Palestine

To ensure that DEC charities and their local partners are able to start addressing the catastrophic levels of need in Gaza, sustained access for aid in the coming weeks is critical.

Under the new agreement, medicine and other essential supplies are expected to be part of the urgent aid packages entering Gaza. Over the course of the conflict many hospitals in Gaza have been badly damaged and been unable to function.

In the weeks before the ceasefire, funds from the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal were helping to install a new water filtration machine at a children's hospital in Gaza City, helping provide thousands of litres of clean water daily. This comes as a result of funding and technical support provided by DEC charity Concern Worldwide and their local partner.

Also supported by donations to the DEC, volunteers from the Palestinian Red Crescent and British Red Cross were able to continue to provide medical support at an ICRC field hospital in southern Gaza.

The 60-bed hospital in Rafah remained one of the last fully operational hospitals in the area. It stood as the last line of support during a sharp surge in mass casualty incidents linked to aid distribution sites, which overwhelmed Gaza’s healthcare system.

DEC charities and their local partners are working separately to those distribution sites to deliver the support as safely as they can.

Below are some examples of how DEC charities have been supporting people prior to the ceasefire agreement:

• Using DEC funds, ActionAid provided hot meals, food baskets, shelter support, and winterisation items in the central and southern area of Gaza.
   
• Action Against Hunger, with the support of DEC appeal funds, 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 provided families in the Deir al Balah and Khan Younis areas of Gaza with much-needed cash assistance. They have also been 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 partners distributed clean water in Gaza to displaced people living in camps. They are also distributing hygiene supplies, and building sanitation facilities in camps.

Lebanon

The ceasefire agreement in Lebanon at the end of last year meant some of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by conflict could return to their communities and start to rebuild their lives. But months on, many still have no home to return to, and many more are cut off from basic services including water, electricity, and healthcare.

Ongoing violence continues to cause destruction and displacement. The psychological impact of the conflict - and its devastating effect on lives and livelihoods - is huge.

Amin, 58, was displaced by the ongoing conflict, and was forced to spend his savings on rented accommodation whilst living away from his home. He has now returned to his home in southern Lebanon, and is receiving food packages from DEC charity Islamic Relief.

“We spent nearly all our savings. We came here with nearly zero. If there was anything in the house like our usual supplies, within two months of conflict, it was all ruined” he explains. Islamic Relief Lebanon is working to support people in the south of the country, where many families returned to their communities to find their homes destroyed. 

“When the ceasefire started, people that had been displaced returned to the areas that they're originally from to find that either they couldn't return to their homes because there were still some access and safety constraints, or because their homes were destroyed." 

 - Suzanne Takkenberg, Action Against Hunger’s Country Director for Lebanon

During the conflict, much of Lebanon’s public infrastructure was heavily damaged, leaving entire communities without access to essential healthcare services and clean water.

“We do a lot of in-kind distributions as well, still to those that are displaced,” says Suzanne Takkenberg, Action Against Hunger’s Country Director for Lebanon. “Everything from non-food items such as hygiene kits, baby kits, dignity kits; we do potable and drinking water distributions, both to IDPs [internally displaced persons] and those still remaining in the border communities."

DEC charities and their local partners are still providing essential support including food and basic supplies, as well as hygiene kits, shelter items, and cash distributions to meet people’s urgent needs.

They are helping to repair damaged infrastructure like water systems and health facilities, supporting communities as they recover and rebuild. Training in skills such as financial literacy is allowing people to look to the future and work towards a sustainable livelihood.

Here are some more examples of how DEC charities have supported people in Lebanon since October 2024:

• 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 clean water across more than 800 facilities since October 2023.
   
• Islamic Relief are distributing monthly food boxes to families still impacted by the conflict in southern Lebanon. 
   
• World Vision has repaired vital water infrastructure, restoring water to more than 3,500 residents in an area of southern Beirut. 

The needs remain significant and long-term recovery will take time. Donations to the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal are enabling DEC charities to support families now and in the weeks and months ahead. Please donate now.