Middle East Conflict
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Escalation of the Middle East conflict
One year after the escalation of the Middle East conflict, the humanitarian situation in the Middle East remains catastrophic. In the Gaza Strip alone, over 2 million people are currently helplessly exposed to the fighting, including many children. The conflict is also escalating in Lebanon: around one million people are currently displaced within the country.
Help is supporting emergency aid measures for families in Gaza and Lebanon. Together with local partners, we are providing affected families with hot meals, relief supplies and medical aid, for example. We are urgently asking for donations:
How your donation makes a difference
Help is currently providing emergency aid for those affected by the Middle East conflict in Gaza, Egypt and Lebanon.
In the Gaza Strip, we are working with our local partner to provide families on the ground with hot meals. We also support medical care in the Gaza Strip by providing bandages and other medical supplies.
Palestinian families who were able to flee from Gaza to Cairo are deeply distressed and severely traumatised. Help supports children from Gaza in particular in coming to terms with their traumatic experiences. At the same time, pregnant and breastfeeding women who have fled are cared for and receive newborn packages for their babies.
In Lebanon, we are providing emergency aid for families who have had to flee from the south of the country. We provide them with ready-to-eat meals and urgently needed relief supplies such as blankets, pillows and mattresses.
The need for aid in Gaza is so urgent that there can be hardly any ‘wrong aid’. Everything is very much needed. There is not enough food for everyone. There are no safe places for women, for children.
Simone Walter, Emergency Aid Coordinator
Famine in the Gaza Strip
Since the escalation of the Middle East conflict at the beginning of October 2023, humanitarian needs in the region have been increasing rapidly. In the Gaza Strip in particular, the need is omnipresent. Several thousand people have lost their lives there since October 7, including countless children. Many families have lost their homes and are seeking shelter in the rubble of their houses.
The supply situation in Gaza is dramatic. There is a lack of drinking water, food, medical care, electricity, shelter and, above all, security. Many people do not know whether they will live to see the next day.
Hunger is also growing rapidly. The United Nations is now reporting a spreading famine: According to the Gaza health authorities, at least 34 children have died of malnutrition since October 7, mainly in the north of the Gaza Strip. Around 70 percent of the population is acutely malnourished. The families in Gaza urgently need humanitarian aid.
Humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East
The Middle East conflict is having an impact on the entire region: fear is also growing in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. Violence has increased in the border regions since the conflict escalated.
In Lebanon, 1,640 people have been killed and 8,408 injured since the escalation of the Middle East conflict in the autumn of 2023. As a result of the heavy airstrikes and the current ground offensive, around one million people are fleeing within the country in search of safety. Many Syrian refugees are among those affected. Together with local partners, Help is providing emergency aid and distributing items such as blankets, pillows and mattresses as well as ready-to-eat food.
Our Aid in the Middle East
Gaza: Deadliest place for humanitarian aid workers
In 2023, more aid workers were killed than ever before. 280 humanitarian aid workers lost their lives during aid missions, 163 of them in Gaza.
Most of them were killed in airstrikes or shelling. This currently makes the Gaza Strip the deadliest place in the world for aid workers.
Experts assume that the number of aid workers killed in 2024 will be significantly higher: According to the Aid Worker Security Database, 138 humanitarian aid workers had already died in Gaza by mid-September.
Globally, we are faced with the challenge that we are seeing an increasing lack of respect for internationally agreed international humanitarian law, which is also jeopardizing the agreed protection of humanitarian organizations in numerous war situations. When humanitarian actors are attacked, it is a war crime.
Dr. Thorsten Klose-Zuber, Secretary General at Help
Help condemns violence in the Middle East
Help – Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe condemns all violence against the civilian population in Israel and Gaza and calls on all parties to the conflict to cease hostilities and allow safe and comprehensive access for humanitarian aid organizations. "We view the humanitarian situation in the Middle East with great concern. All hostages must be released and their lives protected. The safety of the civilian population on both sides and the work of humanitarian aid workers must be guaranteed," warns Dr. Thorsten Klose-Zuber, Secretary General of Help.
Help us to support families in Gaza with your donation!
IBAN: DE47 3708 0040 0240 0030 00
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Frequently asked questions
Help does not have its own office or staff on the ground in Gaza. We are currently cooperating with the British partner organization "Goodwill Caravan", with whom we also cooperate in Libya.
As a result of the increasing humanitarian need in Gaza since October 2023, Help decided to start humanitarian operations and then set out in search of suitable partners on the ground.
Our local partner brings the relief supplies to Gaza by land. Various border crossings are used.
However, aid deliveries to Gaza are still severely restricted: according to the United Nations, around 500 trucks of aid per day are needed to meet the basic needs of the people in Gaza. In August, an average of 51 trucks of aid were delivered to Gaza every day.
Source: UNRWA (09 September 2024)
Through our partner, we distribute hot meals to families who are particularly hard hit and at risk. To identify the beneficiaries, our partner organization "Goodwill Caravan" works closely with the shelters and community committees in the southern areas of the Gaza Strip. This collaboration ensures a reliable and informed selection process to reach the families who are in most need of our assistance.
Our partner organization works with suppliers who are already operating on the ground and have many years of experience in war zones. The provision of hot meals mainly takes place in Rafah. Our partner organization prepares, packs and delivers the meals to the distribution points in Rafah.
Currently, 2.3 million people in Gaza – 100% of the population – are at immediate risk of famine. Half of the population (1.1 million people) are in the highest level of food insecurity (IPC Phase 5) due to extreme food shortages, hunger and exhaustion of their coping strategies and are therefore affected by catastrophic hunger.
However, among all these people, there are those who are prioritised for distributions of relief goods and hot meals according to humanitarian standards. These include older people, people with chronic illnesses or disabilities, pregnant women and children.
Source: UNOCHA (10 May 2024)
Help is monitoring and reviewing the situation in Gaza very closely due to the volatile security situation. As Help plans and implements its aid measures in cooperation with locally established partner organizations, there are currently no Help employees on the ground. There are no plans for Help employees to be deployed to Gaza in the future. To ensure the safety of our partner organizations' employees, we offer them support in the form of advice and implementation of safety measures by our safety officer upon request. However, the responsibility for compliance with and implementation of security measures remains with the local partner organization.
In crisis and disaster contexts, the governments and authorities of the affected country bear the main responsibility for protecting and providing for their population. If a country does not have sufficient resources or capacities to meet the basic needs of the affected population, international aid organisations such as Help become active directly or indirectly via partners to help bridge gaps in supplies. This applies, for example, to countries whose economic or humanitarian situation is extremely tense and which are dependent on foreign aid to ensure that the population is supplied. Humanitarian needs are the top priority here.
Israel is an economically strong country. In 2023, Israel was ranked 25th in the United Nations Human Development Index, which is also known as the prosperity indicator. In comparison: Germany ranked 7th, Lebanon 109th and Syria 157th.
So far, the Israeli government has not declared a state of emergency or asked for international aid. Should this change, Help will contact potential partner organisations and examine possible aid measures in order to take action if necessary.
