King and Queen ‘among first’ to donate to group providing Gaza and Lebanon aid

The King and Queen were “among the first” to donate to a new appeal by a group of charities working to get aid into Gaza and Lebanon, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has said.

Kensington Palace confirmed the Prince and Princess of Wales have also donated privately to the DEC.

The group includes 15 UK aid charities providing food, water, shelter and medicine to areas of the Middle East where “significant humanitarian needs are not being met”.

The Government will match the first £10 million of donations from the British public to the DEC’s Middle East Humanitarian Appeal, which was announced on Thursday.

This came as a Foreign Office minister said the Government is using “every avenue” to make clear that Israel’s restrictions on aid coming into Gaza are “unacceptable”.

She added: “The UK Government has been crystal clear on that and we’ve been using every avenue to make sure that message is heard loud and clear.

“That’s included with a whole range of partners including UN agencies.”

The DEC said on X, formerly Twitter: “A huge thank you to the King and Queen for being amongst the first to donate to the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal @RoyalFamily.

“DEC charities are providing life-saving aid in Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region. With the generous help of the UK public they will be able to do so much more.”

DEC charities have been working in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank over the past year, and said 2.1 million people in Gaza do not have enough food, 1.9 million are displaced, with a further one million in Lebanon.

A £30 donation to its appeal could provide blankets for six people, £50 could pay for a week’s worth of food for five families, and £100 could give five families emergency shelter.

In regards to helping people in Israel, its website states: “The DEC appeal responses always focus on those areas where significant humanitarian needs are not being met.”

The group said: “In Gaza, people are dying of hunger and disease, as well as injuries caused by the conflict. Food and clean water are desperately scarce.

“Ninety per cent of the population are displaced and more than 42,000 people have been killed.

“In Lebanon, more than a million people have had to leave their homes in recent weeks. Shelters are overwhelmed and hospitals are struggling to treat the thousands of people injured.”

The United States has warned Tel Aviv that more humanitarian aid must enter Gaza in the next 30 days or Israel could lose access to American military financing, and on Wednesday Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer said he had seen “many tonnes” of aid being “denied entry into Gaza by Israel” on a visit to the border between Egypt and Gaza.

DEC member charities include ActionAid, British Red Cross, Care, Islamic Relief, Oxfam and Save the Children.

The umbrella group was formed in 1963 to help aid agencies and “other interested parties” to co-operate closely when providing overseas relief to disasters.