The UN and partners are seeking $23 billion to provide lifesaving support next year to 87 million people worldwide affected by war, climate disasters, earthquakes, epidemics and crop failures.
A spike in Israeli military raids and settler violence across the occupied West Bank is driving new displacement, shutting schools and disrupting essential services for tens of thousands of Palestinians, the UN relief coordination office, OCHA, said in its latest humanitarian update Friday.
This is the immediate priority ofthe$33 billionGlobal Humanitarian Overview 2026,launched on Monday,which aims to reach135 million people overallin 50 countries.
This appeal sets out where we need to focus our collective energy first: life by life,saidUN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.
Millions in need
The updated GHO follows a year marked by brutalcutsto humanitarian operations and a record number of deadly attacks against aid workers.
It includes 29 detailed plans, and the largest is for theOccupied Palestinian Territory,where$4.1 billionis needed to reach some three million people.
InSudan,$2.9 billionisrequiredto provide lifesaving aid to20 million peoplecaught in the worlds largest displacement crisis, withanother$2 billionfor the seven million Sudanese who have fled the country.
The largest of the regional plans is forSyria,at$2.8 billionfor8.6 million people.
Cuts and consequences
Mr. Fletcherrecalled that the 2025appealreceived only$12 billion the lowest funding in a decade.As a result, humanitarians reached 25 million less people thanduring the previous year.
The consequences were immediate, including rising hungerandstrainedhealth systems even as famines hit parts of Sudan and Gaza, he said at a press briefingprior tothis year's launch.
Programmesto protect women and girls were slashed, hundreds of aid organizations shut. And over 380 aid workers were killed the highest on record.
Humanitarians under attack
The UN relief chiefdescribedhumanitariansasoverstretched, underfunded and under attack somethinghe hasstressedon several occasions.
Only 20 per cent of our appeals are supported.And we drive the ambulance towards the fire on your behalf, he said.
But we are also now being asked to put the fire out. And there is not enough water in the tank. And we are being shot at.
Member State support
Humanitarianswill now take the appeal toUNMember States and ask for their backing.
This will happen over the next87 days one for each of the million lives that we will set out to save, he said.
Countries will also be urged tostep upprotectionforhumanitarians,not with statements of concern, but by holding to account those killing us and those arming those killing us, he added.
