Middle East crisis: What is MSF doing and how can you help?
We are adapting our programs to respond and are closely monitoring the rapidly evolving humanitarian needs.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is alarmed by the dramatic escalation in conflict across the Middle East region, following strikes by US and Israeli forces in Iran and Iran’s subsequent retaliatory actions in several countries.
Across the region, the escalation in violence has brought fear to the lives of millions of people, including in Lebanon, Iran and the Gulf countries. Bombing continues across multiple cities and villages, often hitting densely populated areas, and casualties are mounting. Millions of people have been forced to flee, many of whom have been displaced multiple times.
Our teams are adapting our programs to respond and preparing to respond in different countries. We are closely monitoring the rapidly evolving humanitarian needs.
MSF calls for the protection of civilians, hospitals, health facilities and other essential infrastructure.
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The escalating conflict across the Middle East is disrupting access to medical care for millions of people.
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GIVE NOWHow is MSF responding in the Middle East?
Our teams in both Iran and Lebanon are currently confirmed safe, and we are monitoring developments and assessing how to provide support to the people affected.
We have medical supplies in both countries ready to be distributed.
Lebanon
In Lebanon, MSF teams are working in all of the country’s nine governates, adjusting and responding to urgent needs. We are running mobile units, supporting shelters for displaced people as well as distributing essential items and water. We are also assesing medical activities for trauma cases.
Our teams are working across 15 mobile clinics providing basic healthcare, medications for non-communicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health consultations, and mental health support in seven different governorates, including Beirut. We also provide care through fixed clinics in an additional governorate, Baalbek-Hermel, and in Beirut. As of March 22, we’ve provided over 6,800 medical consultations.
We are also distributing essential relief items like hygiene kits, blankets, and drinking water. In South and Nabatieh governorates, which are the most affected, we have donated fuel and medical supplies, as well as food parcels for hospital staff in conflict-affected areas.
We’ve also launched mental health helplines to support distressed people in remote or hard-to-access areas.
MSF remains in contact with Lebanese authorities and other organizations and is ready to continue scaling up our response as required.
Iran
Following the outbreak of the conflict, our teams made initial donations of medical and essential items in Iran. These included kits containing medical and wound care items for 500 patients. We also donated essential items for displaced people, including 5,000 blankets, 4,000 pillows, 15,000 feminine hygiene pads, 10,000 tubes of toothpaste, 5,000 toothbrushes, 10,000 bottles of shampoo and 10,000 units of washing powder.
Before Feb. 28, MSF had been running three projects in Iran. In South Tehran, we ran a clinic providing essential healthcare to people engaged in sex work and people who use drugs, plus migrants and refugees. Our clinic in South Tehran is temporarily closed; however, it will soon reopen as a more specialized clinic, to strengthen support to local health systems responding to conflict-related needs, following authorization which was granted in mid-March.
In Mashhad, near the Afghan border, our teams have been providing medical and psychological consultations and screening for infectious diseases for Afghan refugees in a clinic. In Kerman province, MSF is the only medical organization providing direct healthcare services to Afghan refugees. Our clinics in Mashhad and Kerman are still open, albeit operating with reduced staff.
How is MSF responding elsewhere?
MSF teams are responding through emergency preparedness and response in other countries around the region. Emergency teams have been established in Lebanon, Armenia and Iraq. Preparedness measures include contingency planning, close monitoring of the situation, pre-positioning of medical supplies and sending mobile services to respond to growing needs.
To mitigate the impact of disruptions, supply routes have been redirected through alternative channels, and efforts are underway to explore additional transport options, despite increased costs, to ensure the continuity of medical activities. From Feb. 28 up until March 24, MSF has shipped 42 tons of medical supplies destined for the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen.
What is the situation in Iran and Lebanon?
Lebanon
This recent escalation is part of an ongoing pattern of attacks, despite the November 2024 “ceasefire agreement” between Israel and Lebanon, following the Israeli bombardments and ground incursion in Lebanon in September that year. However, the agreement has never since brought real safety to people in Lebanon. Daily strikes from the Israeli forces killed 370 people between when the “ceasefire” began in November 2024, and March 2, 2026.
In this latest escalation, over one million people have been displaced. The latest strikes and sweeping evacuation orders are forcing even more people to flee with nowhere safe to go.
The Israeli army has issued blanket evacuation orders for more hundreds of towns and villages south of the Litani River, plus southern Beirut and parts of the Bekaa valley. These evacuation orders collectively cover 14 per cent of Lebanon’s area.
Many people have already been displaced multiple times during previous escalations. Shelters are now overcrowded, with some people sleeping in their cars or on the streets. Others have remained in their homes despite evacuation orders, or returned due to a lack of space in shelters or lack of means to rent accommodation.
Hospitals are receiving casualties, and humanitarian needs are increasing rapidly, including the need for water and essential items, especially in shelters.
Iran
Receiving information from our staff in Iran is extremely difficult due to the communication blackout. Ongoing hostilities and airstrikes are driving displacement and increasing humanitarian and medical needs in the country.
How is the conflict affecting humanitarian operations?
The escalation is impacting humanitarian operations. Regional tensions are creating anincreasingly volatile and constrained environment for MSF operations across Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Palestine and Syria, although the level and nature of the impact vary between countries.
Overall, airspace closures and heightened security risks are restricting staff movement, delaying medical evacuations, and disrupting activities. At the same time, instability around the Strait of Hormuz is placing additional strain on logistics and supply routes. These developments are already affecting supply chains, increasing the risk of shortages of critical medical supplies, driving up fuel prices and complicating both air and sea transport.
MSF, conflict and war
In conflicts and war zones, MSF does not take sides. We provide medical care based on needs alone and try to reach the people who need help most.
If warring parties see aid organizations as being on one side of a conflict, we are less likely to gain access to those in need and more likely to be attacked. One of the ways in which we are able to demonstrate our independence to warring parties is to ensure that our funding for work in conflicts comes from private individuals, rather than from governments or large institutions.
Learn more about our principles
