The US-based Center for Disaster Philanthropy has urged funders to step up and support relief organisations across the Middle East, as the US-Israel war on Iran and subsequent Iranian attacks across the region leaves a trail of death and devastation.

Latest figures show over 1,255 people have been killed in Iran and another 12,000 injured, including US airstrikes on a girls school that killed at least 175, mostly children. 

At least 13 have in Israel, eight US soldiers and 14 killed in Gulf states, comprising of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. 

In Lebanon, 394 people are reported to be killed, and six people in Iraq have also been killed.  

‘We are in a unique time as international government assistance has largely withdrawn, leaving many nonprofit organisations with far fewer resources to support people in need,’ said CDP president and CEO Patricia McIlreavy. 

‘This latest crisis further limits their capacity to respond at the scale required. It is at this moment when private philanthropic support can make an especially meaningful difference,’ she added, regarding the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.  

The CDP has directed support towards its pooled Global Recovery Fund, which helps local organisations with urgent funding needs.  

Elsewhere, the Gulf-based Arab Gulf Programme for Development launched a fund for emergency grants to nonprofits providing rapid relief.

Meanwhile, US philanthropic membership network Council on Foundations urged philanthropic support to be directed towards UN agencies.

US foundations have mostly been unable to directly foreign assistance to Iran since 1984 due to US sanctions and Iran’s country’s designation as a ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’ by the US State Department.

‘These prohibitions are still in place; therefore U.S. financial institutions will not permit the direct transfer of philanthropic funds to Iranian charitable organisations,’ according to the Council on Foundations.

The the U.S.-Israel war on Iran has dragged in global powers, upended the world’s energy and transport sectors.

Read the full article about funders stepping up amid the U.S.-Israel war on Iran by Shafi Musaddique at Alliance Magazine.