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. The cold season is now approaching and millions of people are in urgent need of support.
Help is providing emergency aid and winter relief for families from Gaza, Syria and Lebanon. We are providing affected families with food, blankets and mattresses, winter clothing and psychosocial support, for example. We are urgently asking for donations:
Winter aid in the Middle East
As winter approaches, worries continue to grow in the Middle East as many people are defenceless against the cold temperatures.
In Gaza alone, over 60 per cent of homes have been destroyed and the electricity and water supply has completely collapsed. In Lebanon, around one million people have had to leave their homes as a result of the attacks. Many families no longer have a roof over their heads and have lost all their belongings. The people in the Middle East are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
The impact of your donation for Middle East aid
- We distribute blankets, pillows and mattresses to displaced families in Lebanon,
- We provide Palestinian refugees in Cairo with relief supplies such as hygiene articles and nappies,
- In Syria, we provide winter clothing for children and distribute aid packages,
- We provide displaced families in Lebanon with food and hygiene products,
- in Egypt, we provide psychosocial support for Palestinian refugee families and care for pregnant and breastfeeding women,
- we are planning repair kits for the maintenance of houses in Lebanon.
Famine in the Gaza Strip
Since the escalation of the Middle East conflict at the beginning of October 2023, the humanitarian needs in the region have been increasing every day. In the Gaza Strip alone, around 2 million people are currently exposed to the fighting. According to the health authorities in the Gaza Strip, over 45,000 people have died there since last autumn, including countless children in Gaza. Many families have lost their homes and are seeking shelter in the rubble of their houses. The majority of people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced several times in the past year.
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.
In addition, hunger is growing rapidly. The United Nations speaks of a spreading famine: according to the Gaza health authorities, at least 34 children have died of malnutrition since 7 October 2023, mainly in the north of the Gaza Strip. Around 91 per cent of the population suffer from hunger. The families in Gaza urgently need humanitarian aid.
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
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, 4,047 people have been killed and 16,638 injured since the escalation. As a result of the heavy airstrikes and the ground offensive, over one million people have been displaced. Over 560,000 people have fled to Syria - many of them have been displaced once again. Despite the agreed ceasefire, the plight of the people in Lebanon remains great.
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.
In 2024, this sad record was even broken: 195 humanitarian aid workers had already died in Palestinian territories including Gaza by December.
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.
Your donation for people in the Middle East makes a difference - every euro counts!
IBAN: DE47 3708 0040 0240 0030 00
BIC: DRES DE FF 370
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.
Currently, Help supports Palestinian refugees in Cairo, Egypt in a community centre, providing food and hygiene items for mothers and children as well as health and psychosocial support.
Until recently, our local partner transported aid supplies to Gaza via land.
Humanitarian access into Gaza is 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 December, an average of 72 trucks of aid were delivered to Gaza every day.
Source: OCHA (08 January 2025)
Currently, 100% of the population in Gaza (2.1 million people) are at immediate risk of famine. In the latest IPC report, the entire area is categorised as IPC Phase 4 (emergency). Approximately 1.84 million people across the Gaza Strip are affected by acute food insecurity categorised as IPC Phase 3 (crisis) or higher, including nearly 133,000 people affected by catastrophic food insecurity (IPC Phase 5) and 664,000 in IPC Phase 4 (emergency).
However, among all these people, there are those who are prioritised for distributions of relief items and hot meals according to humanitarian standards. These include the elderly, people with chronic illnesses or disabilities, pregnant women and children.
Source: IPC (17 October 2024)
Help acts in accordance with humanitarian standards in a needs-based approach and aims to provide people affected by disasters or conflicts with the support they most urgently need to survive.
Help always describes the project activities (and therefore also the contents of the aid packages) according to the current state of knowledge. Our donation examples are subject to change as required.
Due to the often volatile nature of humanitarian crises, the needs of affected people can change and therefore our aid measures are also subject to change. In addition, there are challenges in procurement, logistics and security risks that restrict the work of humanitarian aid workers.
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.
