How DEC charities are providing aid as the crisis evolves

Conflict in the Middle East has devastated lives, and 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.

They continue to adapt their programmes to ensure those who need it most are supported, and are working to respond to people’s changing needs. 

The extraordinary challenges around aid delivery in Gaza are having a devastating impact on DEC member charities and their local partners. Like everyone in Gaza right now, staff and their families are dealing with unimaginably harsh conditions and significant risks as they carry out their life-saving work. Increased and safe access for humanitarian aid is urgently needed to allow DEC charities and their local partners to reach more of those in need.

Gaza

Currently the whole of Gaza is at risk of famine, and people are facing extreme levels of food insecurity. Food supplies are desperately low, leaving many families without access to daily meals or even bread. Malnutrition cases are rising fast, especially among children.

Jamil Sawalmeh is Country Director for ActionAid Palestine. He describes the conditions that his colleagues in Gaza are working in:

"When aid is not getting in, that's where we are most needed... that's where money becomes the fine line between life and death."

During the temporary ceasefire earlier in the year, many DEC charities were able to replenish much-needed supplies such as food, medicine and essential hygiene items. Although these are now running dangerously low, they have helped to sustain some operations over the past weeks. 
 

“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

Some communities have also benefited from longer-term progress made during that time, such as water system repairs and support for local farmers.

ActionAid's local partner in Gaza, Wefaq Society for Women and Child Care, have been able to carry out deliveries of fresh vegetables in food packages, funded by the DEC. With extremely limited deliveries of aid currently reaching Gaza, supply chains and local markets have been forced to rely mostly on local production, which is in short supply and very expensive. 

Over the course of the conflict, local partner organisations have been integral to DEC charities' response in Gaza, and their deep understanding and connection to their local communities has helped to ensure life-saving aid reaches those who need it most. Now, DEC charities and their local partners are working tirelessly to support people in these unimaginably difficult conditions, as they have been doing throughout the crisis.

One of ActionAid’s emergency response officers in Gaza talks about the resilience of local partners:

“It was very challenging for our local partners because they couldn't find all the necessary supplies they needed to achieve their goals, but even as the prices went higher and higher they were capable of doing it despite all those challenges.” 

“Donations are very important because they enable us to maintain the structure of humanitarian assistance. We were only able to do what we did in the past six months because of the generous donations we have received through the DEC.”

- Karim Alqassab, Age International’s Humanitarian Programme Manager for the Middle East

In April 2025, Age International worked with their local partner to support a number of ‘Tekkyas’, local community kitchens, serving hot meals to communities in Gaza. Using DEC funds, Age was able to support the Tekkyas with operational costs such as fuel, labour and machinery.

Karim adds: “Donations are very important because they enable us to maintain the structure of humanitarian assistance, so when the there is a ceasefire again, we can provide timely assistance to the people affected in Gaza”

Without new deliveries of external supplies, DEC charities are working with local partners to rely wherever possible on the limited goods that are available from local markets, and provide vital cash assistance and psychological support. Their trained medical staff are also supporting as many people as they can, even with medicine supplies running critically low.

The response in Gaza so far

Below are some examples of how DEC charities have been supporting people in Gaza since October 2024. 

• Using DEC funds ActionAid provided hot meals, shelter service, 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 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 provided 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 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, a lot 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 people] 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:

• 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 liters 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.

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.