Document status: current. Last source check: 4 Nov 2026, 09:59 UTC. Extracts below retain the donor’s source wording.
Countries and scope
Palestine
Palestine
Source document ↗
Funding priorities
All prioritisation, planning and scenario building for humanitarian response must account for rapid shifts and be grounded in a high degree of flexibility and adaptability. DG ECHO strategy will focus on lifesaving and emergency response to the population affected by the hostilities in Gaza and the violence in the West Bank. In line with the needs, DG ECHO’s strategy will prioritise these sectors and activities, either in actions focusing on only one sector or involving multiple:
Response strategy ↗Food assistance and basic needs: DG ECHO will prioritise food assistance in Gaza. Delivery modalities will depend on market conditions, basic food availability and beneficiaries’ access to energy and cooking facilities. While in-kind aid delivery may remain essential in the immediate term, emergency cash transfers should be progressively scaled up as market functionality resumes, using well established and accountable delivery mechanisms. DG ECHO will also support emergency livelihoods and maintenance or recovery of small businesses with a focus on interventions that restore local production capacity when and where possible and generate tangible humanitarian outcomes.
Response strategy ↗In the West Bank, DG ECHO will prioritise Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) as a response to address food insecurity and basic needs resulting from violations of IHL. In the medium-term, DG ECHO will continue to prioritise MPCA to meet basic needs, while promoting common, integrated, and targeted approaches through interoperable beneficiary management platforms while establishing more synergies with the Palestinian Authority-led social protection system.
Response strategy ↗Health and nutrition: In Gaza, DG ECHO will prioritise the delivery of essential health services and the response to critical nutrition needs. Where possible, nutrition interventions will be integrated into broader health responses, alongside clinical MHPSS services, as well as established referral pathways across sectors and coordination with protection actors. In the West Bank, interventions will focus on strengthening health emergency preparedness and response.
Response strategy ↗Protection: In Gaza, priority will be given to access to critical protection services, including trauma care, MHPSS, legal aid, protection-related mine action, and case management for individuals at heightened risk. Integrated, multi-sector protection programming is strongly encouraged, alongside the promotion of IHL and the systematic monitoring and documentation of IHL violations. In the West Bank, DG ECHO will prioritise a multi-layered protection response for communities exposed to coercive environments and protection threats. Support will encompass legal assistance, targeted MHPSS, case management services for individuals
Response strategy ↗and groups at heightened risk, protection monitoring, and advocacy efforts. Emphasis will be placed on safe referrals and inclusive, community-based approaches that are sensitive to age, gender and disability. Risk education through protection-related mine action may be supported.
Response strategy ↗WaSH: In Gaza, interventions should aim at providing life-saving WaSH services and items with a focus on severely underserved sites and neighbourhoods, or in support of critical facilities. ECHO will consider interventions on water supply, restoration of critical water production, treatment and distribution; water trucking with clear eligibility and entry/exit criteria; key water safety chain; and WaSH emergency interventions. Critical access to sanitation, solid waste and hygiene services and/or items may also be considered. In the West Bank, proposed actions may integrate WaSH Rapid Response Mechanisms; support municipal service providers to prepare and respond to emergencies;
Response strategy ↗and address critical gaps, through limited WaSH infrastructure spot repairs/upgrades in areas of displacement.
Response strategy ↗Shelter and settlements: life-saving interventions will be prioritised. Interventions may include provision of emergency shelter material or kits, insulated family tents, sealing-off kits, and tool kits to upgrade makeshift shelters, damaged structures and unfinished buildings, while enhancing safety, privacy and dignity, particularly for women and girls. Provision of essential NFI items and kits may also be considered. DG ECHO may support Site Management actions (including Mobile Site Management) to enhance analysis capacity, promote integrated/multi- sectoral responses and support localised, area-based coordination. Operation and maintenance
Response strategy ↗of basic community services/infrastructure in underserved sites may also be considered.
Response strategy ↗Education in Emergencies: The focus will remain on ensuring safe access to protected learning environments, protecting education from attacks, ensuring learning continuity in crises, and addressing the psychosocial support needs of children, teachers and other educational staff, in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Inclusive education will be prioritised in Gaza to ensure children and teachers with conflict-related disabilities can participate in learning. Assistance will be provided in complementarity with the support provided by other donors and EU services, including through UNRWA.
Response strategy ↗Rapid Response and Disaster Preparedness (DP) mainstreaming: DG ECHO will prioritise partner readiness to respond rapidly to shocks by supporting investments in preparedness – e.g. prepositioning items, strengthening local actors’ delivery capacity, and leveraging flexibility tools, including Crisis Modifiers. Rapid Response Mechanisms (RRMs) and systems that enable anticipatory action and early response could also be envisaged.
Response strategy ↗Given the extreme levels of danger for humanitarian workers and infrastructure, DG ECHO will pay particular attention to risk management, duty of care and security, including targeted actions aiming at enhancing these elements in a more effective and coordinated way. DG ECHO is aware that mitigating these risks will have a cost.
Response strategy ↗Interventions should support a comprehensive humanitarian supply, transport, warehousing and distribution approach to Gaza and the West Bank, including through common approach and joint solutions, coordination and information sharing for appropriate actions.
Response strategy ↗Localisation: DG ECHO supports the localisation agenda, therefore actions should commit to increase support to national and local actors as outlined in the DG ECHO[guidance note on Promoting Equitable Partnerships with Local Responders](https://ec.europa.eu/echo/files/policies/sectoral/dg%20echo%20guidance%20note%20-%20promoting%20equitable%20partnerships%20with%20local%20responders%20in%20humanitarian%20settings.pdf).
Response strategy ↗Visibility and communication efforts aimed at providing public insight into the impact of EU funds to serve people in need will be part of DG ECHO’s focus in the upcoming year.
Response strategy ↗The EU continued supporting UNRWA, as the agency mandated by the UN General Assembly to serve Palestine refugees and to provide services to persons in the region who are currently displaced and in serious need of continued assistance, with humanitarian and NDICI-Global Europe funding to carry out operations not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
Response strategy ↗In addition to this HIP, DG ECHO can mobilise additional resources under other instruments, such as ReliefEU, an emergency response tool designed to cover unforeseen humanitarian needs that cannot be immediately covered by geographic or regional HIPs. ReliefEU supports humanitarian partners’ operations in the form of emergency funding or operational capacities, ahead of a predictable hazard through early response, in the aftermath of a disaster (natural or human-induced including epidemics) and in protracted crises where operational gaps are identified.
Response strategy ↗ReliefEU was activated on 16 October 2023 to address gaps in supply chains through the mobilisation of in-kind supplies, operating an Air Bridge available to all humanitarian partners, and providing warehousing services complementing the Global Logistics Cluster’s operations in Palestine.
Response strategy ↗
Partner eligibility
Only ECHO partners are eligible to submit a project for funding19;
Eligibility criteria ↗No award will be made to NGO partner organisations which have not complied with their obligations concerning the submission of audited financial statements (i.e., which would not have submitted those in due time to the Commission without a proper justification) or which would appear not to offer sufficient guarantee as to their financial capacity to implement the proposed actions (in light of their liquidity and solvency ratios as appearing from their latest available annual statutory accounts certified by an approved external auditor).
Eligibility criteria ↗All awards made using EU Funds must respect the Conditionality Measures20 issued under any Council Implementing Decision adopted in accordance with Article 6 of EU Regulation 2020/2092 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget21 (“Conditionality Decision”).
Eligibility criteria ↗The Commission hereby notifies applicants under this HIP/TA of the following Conditionality Decision (valid at the date of publication of this HIP/TA):
Eligibility criteria ↗20 Conditionality Measures against a Concerned Entity, may, for example, include, amongst others, the requirement to:suspend payments or the implementation of the legal commitment to/with the Concerned Entity; and/or terminate the legal commitment with the Concerned Entity; and/or prohibit entering into new legal commitments with the Concerned Entity. Conditionality Decisions and Measures issued under Council Implementing Decisions may impact the implementation of grants, contributions and procurement contracts awarded, as the Commission is required to ensure the application of these Conditionality Decisions
Eligibility criteria ↗and Measures in the implementation of the EU budget via both direct and indirect management. implementation of grants, contributions and procurement contracts awarded, as the Commission is required to ensure the application of these Conditionality Decisions and Measures in the implementation of the EU budget via both direct and indirect management.
Eligibility criteria ↗21 Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget OJ L 433I , 22.12.2020, p. 1–10
Eligibility criteria ↗23 Act IX of 2021 on public interest trust foundations with a public service mission (entry into force 01/01/2023).
Eligibility criteria ↗24 Available (in Hungarian) at:[https://njt.hu/jogszabaly/2021-9-00-00](https://njt.hu/jogszabaly/2021-9-00-00)
Eligibility criteria ↗Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506 of 15 December 2022 on measures for the protection of the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary22.
Eligibility criteria ↗This Conditionality Decision, in particular its Article 2.2, prohibits legal commitments under direct and indirect management with any public interest trust established by Hungarian Act IX of 202123, including those entities listed in Annex I to Hungarian Act IX of 202124 and other affiliated entities maintained by them (“Concerned Entities”). The Commission will further notify when the above- mentioned Conditionality Measures are lifted.
Eligibility criteria ↗1) Relevance of the intervention and the coverage
Eligibility criteria ↗How relevant is the proposed intervention; is it compliant with the objectives of the HIP?
Eligibility criteria ↗Has a joint needs assessment been used for the proposed intervention? Have other recent and comprehensive needs assessments been used?
Eligibility criteria ↗Has the proposed intervention been coordinated with other humanitarian actors and local and national actors?
Eligibility criteria ↗2) Capacity and expertise (including in support to the localisation approach)
Eligibility criteria ↗Does the partner, with its implementing partners, have sufficient expertise (country / region and / or technical)? How does the partner contribute to developing/strengthening local capacity?
Eligibility criteria ↗Quality of the proposed response strategy, including intervention logic / logframe, output & outcome indicators, monitoring, and challenges.
Eligibility criteria ↗Feasibility, including security, logistics and access constraints (including remote management).
Eligibility criteria ↗4) Coordination and relevant post-intervention elements
Eligibility criteria ↗Quality of the proposed localisation approach, and measures taken to minimise the transfer of risks. Coordination and relevant post-intervention elements
Eligibility criteria ↗Extent to which the proposed intervention is building on ongoing local response and in coordination with other humanitarian actors and actions (including, where relevant, the use of single interoperable registries of beneficiaries).
Eligibility criteria ↗Extent to which the proposed intervention contributes to resilience and sustainability, including the sustainability of locally driven responses.
Eligibility criteria ↗5) Transparency/ Cost-effectiveness and efficiency25 /
Eligibility criteria ↗Transparency: o Extent to which the breakdown of costs is sufficiently documented/explained, including completeness and accuracy of sections 2 and 13.2 in the single form.
Eligibility criteria ↗o Extent to which section 10.6 of the single form with the percentage of funding managed by local actors and the share of overheads costs transferred to them has been filled. If not entirely filled, has a timing for missing information been provided?
Eligibility criteria ↗o For all projects including cash transfers (as a modality or as a sector): ▪ Did the partner fill the “in cash” line in the table in section 2.4.5 of the single form, including the amount in EUR and number of targeted beneficiaries?
Eligibility criteria ↗o For the Multi-Purpose Cash Transfer (MPCT) sector ▪ Is the Total Costs to Transfer Ratio (TCTR) filled in in section 2.4.7 of the single form?
Eligibility criteria ↗▪ Is the methodology used to calculate the TCTR explained, ideally in section 2.5 of the single form?
Eligibility criteria ↗
Apply the round-specific restrictions below together with the complete partner and award conditions.
Allocation rounds and submission dates
Allocation round 2
Indicative submission information
- Published date / wording
- Indicative date for receipt of the above requested information: n/a – proposal already received.
- Potential or pre-selected partners
- Preselected partner12: the external assigned revenue will be allocated to NRC, in its capacity as the grant holder for the West Bank Protection Consortium. e) Information to be provided: Single Form (new requests or modifications of ongoing actions).13 f)
Dates are indicative and remain in their published context. A date shown here does not certify that new applications are being accepted. Confirm the exact cutoff time and applicable instructions.
Allocation round 1
Indicative date has passed
- Published date / wording
- Indicative date for receipt of the above requested information: by 26/01/2026.18
- Potential or pre-selected partners
- Potential partners16: All DG ECHO Partners l) Information to be provided: Single Form (new requests or modifications of ongoing actions).17 m)
Dates are indicative and remain in their published context. A date shown here does not certify that new applications are being accepted. Confirm the exact cutoff time and applicable instructions.
Official documents and versions
- HIP version 3 ↗ Version 3 · document read · 4 Nov 2026, 09:59 UTC
- Technical annex version 3 ↗ Version 3 · document read · 4 Nov 2026, 09:59 UTC