Middle East Conflict
Escalation of the Middle East conflict
Almost two years after the escalation of the Middle East conflict, the humanitarian situation in the Middle East remains catastrophic. Millions of people are in urgent need of support.
Help is currently providing emergency assistance to people in Syria and Lebanon. We are supplying affected families with food, blankets, mattresses and clothing, for example. We urgently request donations for this purpose:
Middle East: the suffering remains
The humanitarian situation in the Middle East remains catastrophic. In Gaza alone, more than 62,000 people have been killed since the escalation of the Middle East conflict, including countless children.
The situation is also tense in countries such as Syria and Lebanon: in July 2025, air strikes on Syria displaced around 80,000 people. In autumn 2024, around one million people in Lebanon were forced to leave their homes as a result of air strikes.
The people in the Middle East are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
The impact of your donation for our Middle East aid
- Help distributes blankets, pillows and mattresses as well as food and hygiene items to displaced families in Lebanon.
- In Syria, we provide clothing for children and distribute relief packages.
Our Aid in the Middle East
Humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip
Since the escalation of the Middle East conflict in early October 2023, humanitarian needs in the region have been increasing daily. In the Gaza Strip, around 2 million people are exposed to the fighting. Many families have lost their homes and are seeking shelter in the rubble of their houses. A large proportion of the people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced several times over the past year.
The supply situation in Gaza is dire. There is a shortage 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. Blockades of humanitarian aid deliveries are exacerbating the situation. For this reason, Help is currently unable to carry out further relief measures in the Gaza Strip.
How Help has assisted families from Gaza
- In the first year after the escalation of the Middle East conflict, Help provided 74,000 people in the Gaza Strip with hot meals and food parcels.
- We strengthened medical care in the Gaza Strip by bringing first aid kits and other medical supplies across the border.
- In Cairo, Help provided psychosocial support for Palestinian refugee children.
- Breastfeeding and pregnant women who were able to flee Gaza received aid supplies for their babies from us.
- We provided Palestinian refugees in Egypt with relief supplies such as hygiene items as well as legal, psychological and health assistance.
Situation 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, over 4,000 people have been killed and more than 16,000 injured since the escalation. As a result of the heavy air strikes and the ground offensive, over one million people have been displaced, many of whom have since been able to return to their home region. Despite the agreed ceasefire, the plight of the people in Lebanon remains great.
Gaza: Deadliest place for humanitarian aid workers
In 2024, more aid workers were killed than ever before. 383 humanitarian aid workers lost their lives during aid missions, 185 of them in the Palestinian territories.
Most of them were killed in airstrikes or shelling. This currently makes the Gaza Strip the deadliest place in the world for aid workers.
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
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FAQ
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, 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). 470,000 people (22% of the population) are in IPC Phase 5 (famine), over one million (54%) are in IPC Phase 4 (emergency) and half a million (24%) are in IPC Phase 3 (crisis).
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.
The border crossings to Gaza have been closed and aid deliveries blocked since 2 March 2025.
Source: IPC (12 May 2025)
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.
