Gaza today is the most dangerous place to be a child, a journalist, and an aid worker.
In Gaza, there isn’t enough food or clean water. More than 16,000 children have already been killed in the last year. In Lebanon, shelters and hospitals are overwhelmed. The crisis is worsening by the minute.
We’re reaching children and their families with food, water, shelter and safety across the region. With your donation we can do more to provide life-saving assistance.
Children are always innocent. And they urgently need your support. Please donate to our Gaza and Lebanon Children’s Emergency Appeal now.
Help children in crisis now
War is tearing families apart. They’ve lost loved ones, livelihoods and homes. Families in Gaza and Lebanon need help to survive.
Our response
Our response
Plan International's humanitarian response teams based in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, together with our partner organisations in Gaza, are working tirelessly to support children and their families with life-saving assistance.
Rising humanitarian needs, violence, restrictions and a lack of funding are making it challenging to get sufficient aid to those who need it. But life-saving aid is getting through to families in Gaza, as well as the surrounding region. And it’s more needed than ever.
In Egypt, our teams are working with the Egyptian Red Crescent and other organisations to get supplies into Gaza.
We are reaching children and their families with life-saving aid and supplies through a coordinated regional effort with local partners.
So far, Plan International has helped to provide:
- 25,500+ hot meals to families
- 1,200 dignity kits with essential period products
- 1,800 hygiene kits
- 3,170 families with food supplies to last a week
Since the recent escalation of conflict in Lebanon, we have provided:
- 4,000+ mattresses, almost 3,500 pillows and 3,000+ blankets
- 24,000 litres of water
- 1,200+ hygiene kits (330 hygiene kits with essential period products and 887 household hygiene kits)
- Almost 2,000 food kits (984 food kits and 940 ready-to-eat food kits)
Plan International Statement
"Nothing can ever justify the killing or maiming of children. We condemn the catastrophic violence that is currently unfolding in Gaza and Israel in the strongest terms and call for an immediate and complete ceasefire by all parties involved."
What's happening in Gaza and Lebanon?
What's happening in Gaza and Lebanon?
Gaza
The terrifying violence since 7 October 2023 across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories has left thousands of children killed, injured and abducted.
Hunger is a constant and life-threatening reality for children and their families. They are dying of starvation. Over 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine – that's 76% of the population. An entirely avoidable famine is imminent across Gaza. Virtually all households are skipping meals every day.
Over 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced. That’s over 90% of the population. The destruction of infrastructure and blockade of essential supplies means families are desperately low on food, clean water, medicines and fuel. The healthcare system is close to collapse. Not a single hospital remains fully operational, and fewer than half are functioning at all. Medical care is critically scarce.
Lebanon
The conflict in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories has spread across national borders to Lebanon and is escalating by the day.
Airstrikes over the past year have killed more than 2400 people and over 10,000 people have been injured, including children.
Over a million people have fled their homes in search of safety. More than 150,000 of these are children. Humanitarian needs are growing daily. People desperately need shelter, food, cash, mental health support and more. Many families fled without their belongings, and urgently need basic supplies. This includes mattresses, blankets, shelter, food, hygiene kits, mental health support and more.
In Lebanon, our teams have been supporting those displaced since October 2023 with necessities like food, hygiene kits, menstrual health supplies and blankets and mattresses. Support is now being scaled up to meet the needs of those displaced in the recent escalation of violence. This includes providing cash assistance and menstrual health supplies to displaced families, together with other life-saving assistance.
‘I’m a refugee in a school’
“I spend my days in a school. I am a refugee in a school run by the UN,” says 14-year-old Suhad from Gaza.
Suhad and her family were forced to shelter in a school after fleeing for their lives:
“After the attack, our house was bombed, my father’s workplace was bombed. Our neighbourhood was bombed. We saw that half our teachers were gone. Many people were killed, some of my friends were killed.
“My message to the world is that they look on us with mercy. We are children and our rights are being denied to us.”
Please donate to the Gaza and Lebanon Children’s Emergency Appeal to help girls in conflict like Suhad.
What are we calling for?
What are we calling for?
- We continue to call for an unconditional, full, immediate, and sustained ceasefire.
- We call upon all parties to follow international humanitarian law, ensuring civilians, especially children, are protected and to ensure safe, ongoing and unhindered humanitarian access. We call for the immediate release and return of hostages.
- It is critical that safe and unhindered humanitarian access is facilitated, so that life-saving aid can reach children and their families in urgent need. We urge world leaders including the UK Prime Minister to do all in their power to ensure the provision of essential and life-saving relief assistance, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies and care and access of humanitarian personnel into Gaza and Lebanon.
Any donations received that exceed what is needed for this emergency will be held in reserve to respond wherever the need is greatest. Thank you for your generosity.
Banner image: Mother and child amid the tents in Rafah, southern Gaza. Credit: Terre des hommes.