Middle East
Humanitarian
Appeal
Middle East
Humanitarian Appeal
Conflict in the Middle East is devastating lives. The ceasefires provide some relief, but millions in Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region urgently need shelter, food and basic supplies. Save lives. Donate now.
The scale of need is overwhelming
1.8 million
people - almost the entire population of Gaza - do not have enough to eat
1.9 million
people displaced in Gaza, and another one million in Lebanon
DEC charities are providing lifesaving aid in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank but urgently need more funds.
With ceasefires now in place in Gaza and Lebanon, the anticipated increased aid access means DEC charities can do more to reach people with food, shelter and medical support. However millions of people across are in urgent need and more support is needed.
In Gaza, people are dying of hunger and disease. Food and clean water are desperately scarce, and more than 46,000 people have been killed. Many have lost everything.
In Lebanon, more than a million people fled their homes after violence escalated. People are now moving back to their homes and communities, and DEC charities are supporting those returning and those who have nowhere to go.
£39 million raised but the needs are huge. DEC charities are responding across the region, where the needs are greatest.
Read more on what the ceasefire in Gaza means for DEC charities.
£39 million raised but the needs are huge this winter
Winter in Gaza, November 2024, where hundreds of thousands of people are forced to live in flood-prone areas, many of them in makeshift tents Photo: Youssef El Ruzzi/CARE
Donate to help people in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Syria.
You can help people affected by the crisis in the Middle East by making a donation and helping to raise money for the DEC appeal. This will allow DEC charities and their local partners to scale up their response and reach more people.
- £30 could provide blankets for six people to keep them warm
- £50 could provide emergency food, for five families for one week
- £100 could provide emergency shelter for five families
Will funds from this appeal help people in Israel?
DEC appeal responses always focus on those areas where significant humanitarian needs are not being met. Read more.
Mohammad, an aid worker from Oxfam’s local partner in north Lebanon distributes hygiene kits to displaced people at a collective shelter. Photo: Fatima Ghemrawi/Utopia for Social Justice/Oxfam
How and where DEC charities are responding
For over a year, conflict in the Middle East has devastated lives across the region, and millions have fled their homes in search of safety.
Recent ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon have provided some relief to the millions affected, however needs are still incredibly high.
Read more about where our charities are responding and how.
Aid worker Saaed delivers blankets and shelter items to displaced families in Gaza. Photo: CARE/Team Yousef Ruzzi
Local aid workers respond amidst immense pressure
Actors Bilal Hasna and Maisie Richardson-Sellers and content creator Shabaz Ali have lent their support to the appeal, and applauded the incredible dedication of local aid workers in Gaza.
Their stories are just a snapshot of the immense personal and professional pressures that local responders are dealing with every day, as they deliver lifesaving aid to people in urgent need across Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region right now.
Appeal News
The latest news from the situation in the Middle East.
Jump to
DEC charities “hopeful” they can increase aid in Gaza following ceasefire, with generous UK donations already making a difference
19 January 2025
Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) charities are hopeful that the ceasefire in Gaza – which began this morning – will provide them and their local partners with a critical opportunity to scale up their work delivering urgently needed food, shelter, water and medical care.
After more than a year of devastating conflict, the ceasefire provides some respite for the millions of people in Gaza who are now enduring an unbearably harsh winter. For the hostages and their families in Israel, it offers hope of reunion, after months of suffering and grief.
His Majesty The King meets fundraisers and aid workers as Middle East Humanitarian Appeal appeal raises £35 million
4 December 2024
Credit: Andrew Aitchison/DEC
His Majesty The King visited St Peter’s Church in Notting Hill today to meet and thank Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) staff, volunteers, aid workers and humanitarian experts, fundraisers and those who have worked on the DEC’s Middle East Humanitarian Appeal.
During the visit His Majesty also met with humanitarian workers and experts from DEC member charities, including aid workers who have recently returned from Gaza.
Since the launch in October, the Appeal has raised more than £35 million in aid of people across the Middle East whose lives have been devastated by conflict. Their Majesties The King and Queen were among the first to donate to the Appeal.
Life in Gaza: How DEC charities are supporting women in displacement camps
28 November 2024
Darine and her children look out over the sea at their beachside camp. Image: Majdi Fathi, October 2
A look into the situation on the ground in Gaza and how women are being affected by living conditions in displacement camps.
To find out more, the DEC spoke to Ruth James, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator in the Middle East for Oxfam, about her experiences.
Ruth, having recently returned from Gaza, said:
"Gaza is unique as a humanitarian context because people are trapped, they have nowhere to go, bordered on one side by conflict and the other by sea.”
ITV News: Lebanese citizens head home as Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire begins
27 November 2024
Thousands of displaced Lebanese citizens are returning to their homes a s a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah began on Wednesday, as reported by ITV News.
The ceasefire means many of those displaced can return to their communities. But after months of living in crowded shelters, and with so many homes and essential facilities destroyed, humanitarian support remains critical to meet people's most urgent needs.
Many families have nowhere to return to.
DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal raises £30 million
14 November 2024
The DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal has reached £30 million. Your donations are helping to:
- Provide hot meals, dry goods and food baskets of produce, as well as support for community kitchens feeding the displaced.
- Distribute clean drinking water and hygiene kits to improve sanitation in camps and shelters.
- Support field hospitals and medical clinics in Gaza with equipment and medical staff to treat the many sick and injured.
These are just some of the ways DEC member charities have been providing people with a lifeline of support over the past year, and they will continue to adapt their responses as the humanitarian situation develops across the region.
Your donations enable them to greatly increase the number of people they can reach.
All donations will go to the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal. Income earned on funds held (such as bank interest) may be used to fund the whole of the DEC’s work.
