Middle East
Humanitarian
Appeal
Middle East
Humanitarian Appeal
Conflict in the Middle East is devastating lives. Millions of people across Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region urgently need shelter, food and basic supplies. Save lives. Donate now.
The scale of need is overwhelming
2.1 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 have been providing lifesaving aid in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank over the past year, but they now urgently need more funds.
In Gaza, people are dying of hunger and disease, as well as injuries caused by the conflict. Food and clean water are desperately scarce. Ninety percent of the population are displaced, and more than 42,000 people have been killed.
In Lebanon, more than a million people fled their homes after violence escalated in September. With a ceasefire now in place, they can start to try and rebuild their communities, lives and livelihoods. Many have lost everything.
DEC charities are ready to do more, and respond across the region, wherever the needs are greatest. But they urgently need more funds.
The incredible dedication of local aid workers in Gaza is applauded by actors Bilal Hasna and Maisie Richardson-Sellers and content creator Shabaz Ali
Donate to help people in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank
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
The conflict has affected millions across the region. DEC charities have been delivering life-saving aid in Gaza despite extraordinary challenges.
They are also scaling up their responses right now in Lebanon, and working in the West Bank, where many are experiencing violence and displacement.
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.
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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.
DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal raises £25 million
5 November 2024
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.
