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. 

Gaza

Famine has been confirmed in Gaza across Gaza City and the surrounding areas, where more than 500,000 people are currently living. The announcement marks 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. Food supplies are desperately low, leaving many families without access to daily meals or even bread. People are dying from starvation and malnutrition.

The 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 are dealing with unimaginably harsh conditions and facing significant risks every day.

DEC charities are working in whatever ways they still can to deliver aid and reach as many people as possible with food, clean water and medical care. Safe and sustained access for humanitarian supplies has never been so urgent. 

Jamil Sawalmeh is the 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 helped to sustain some operations earlier in the year.

“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.

Food shortages in Gaza urgently need to be addressed, and currently there are not enough food supplies entering Gaza. Working through their local partner, DEC charity Christian Aid have been supporting local farmers to grow much needed crops, something which was common before the start of the conflict, to be sold and distributed.

"I rely on my greenhouse, it’s not far from my home and I spend long hours here to maintain a good harvest and sell the tomatoes in the local market. However, it's now very difficult to get water to irrigate the crops."

 - Imad, 40-year-old farmer, Central Gaza

Imad has been working as a farmer in Gaza for 28 years. Thanks to the support provided, he has been able to maintain a small crop of tomatoes despite the incredibly challenging environment around him. 

Through Christian Aid’s local partner, Imad has been given essential supplies such as fertilizer, to grow tomatoes on a small plot near a displacement camp. Donations to the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal are supporting Christian Aid to purchase the vegetables from Imad and others like him, ready to distribute to people in Gaza. 

Funds from the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal have helped install a new water filtration machine at the last operational children’s hospital in Gaza City, which is now providing 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. 

Trained medical staff are also continuing to support as many people as they can, even with medicine supplies running critically low. Supported by donations to the DEC, volunteers from the Palestinian Red Crescent and British Red Cross have been providing medical support at an ICRC field hospital in southern Gaza.

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

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

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

• 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.