In Lebanon, Gaza and Israel, our partners responded immediately to the Middle East crisis of summer 2006.
In Lebanon, a month-long Israeli assault following the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah had caused a million Lebanese to flee their homes. In Gaza, Israel’s Operation Summer Rain caused the destruction of Gaza’s power station, while energy supplies and clean water came to a virtual halt.
In 33 days, more than 1,200 Lebanese and 43 Israeli civilians were killed. In the Gaza Strip, 240 Palestinians died during Israel’s operations throughout the summer of 2006, almost half of them civilians.
At the forefront
Our partners in Gaza helped provide people with water, medical aid and food – and told us about the crisis via email and photos.
In Lebanon, our partners gave out bedding, food and medicine to families fleeing the bombing. In northern Israel, our partners carried out a needs assessment to determine preparedness for future such emergencies.
‘This is the time for peace groups all around the world to stop the escalation of violence’
We also mobilised our supporters; an unprecedented 4,000 of you signed our online petition to Prime Minister Tony Blair urging him to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
After growing international pressure, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 1701 on 11 August calling for a cessation of hostilities. But not before more than 30,000 homes had been destroyed in southern Lebanon, and Israel had dropped 1.2 million cluster bombs over the country.
In Gaza, the situation remains precarious today, with factional fighting adding to the chaos and desperation caused by prolonged border closures and military incursions.
What you did
People around the UK and Ireland sent us £1.9 million to help us respond to the crisis, half of which will be spent by November 2007. Recognising there can be no quick fix, the remainder is designated for rebuilding people’s livelihoods in Lebanon and further humanitarian support to the people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where the situation continues to deteriorate.
You helped our partners in vital ways:
In Lebanon
Association Najdeh provided emergency aid to almost 22,000 displaced people in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps. They have also been providing blankets and other emergency supplies to civilians caught by the fighting in Naher al-Bared this year
Mouvement Social gave relief items to 6,382 people in makeshift shelters. It’s now providing psychological support, creative workshops and art therapy to 90 children in Beirut, the Bekaa valley and Tripoli
The Lebanese Physically Handicapped Union evacuated disabled people and provided medical and livelihood aid to around 2,000 displaced disabled people and their families, as well as to over a hundred families with disabilities sheltering in relief centres
Developing Processes Lebanon (DPL) provided medicine to families in need and helped repair 78 damaged houses and businesses in the Bekaa Valley.
In the Gaza Strip
The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) provided around 500 families with new storage tanks to enable them to store fresh and safe drinking water. The destruction of Gaza’s power station meant water could not be pumped to homes
The Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA) bought a generator so its children’s centres could continue despite power shortages, and recruited a psychologist to help traumatised children and monitor domestic violence cases
In the coming year we will support agricultural production and long-term food security for unemployed daily wage earners who cannot get their goods to markets because Gaza’s borders are closed for long periods of time.
Hard lessons
While some of our partners had experience of working throughout the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990, nothing could have prepared them for the scale and sudden urgency of this emergency. We are now planning emergency preparedness training for the organisations we work with, so we can be even more effective in the future.
Christian Aid has recruited a Lebanese representative who can be our eyes and ears on the ground in this complex, rapidly changing context, and support our partners in emergency preparedness. We are doing the same for Gaza where access problems are particularly acute.
Christian Aid fears civilians on all sides will continue to pay a heavy price unless a just solution to the root causes of the conflict is found in Gaza. ‘We are scared about the future,’ says Ahmed Sourani of PARC. ‘This is the time for peace groups all around the world to do what they can to stop the escalation of violence.’
Your help is invaluable as people rebuild their lives. But aid is not the solution. To find permanent solutions to poverty and injustice in the Middle East, we need to address the causes of conflict, whether it be years of military occupation, long-term economic problems or deep-rooted political polarisation.