Within 48 hours of October 7th, NIF mobilised to fund and coordinate Israeli civil society organisations and leaders in response to the Hamas attack. Since then, we have distributed over £1.2 million to support those who need it most in Israel. Below you can see some of the areas of this work:

Vulnerable populations

200,000 people were displaced as a result of the Hamas atrocities on October 7th. We directly supported tens of thousands of victims from the towns, kibbutzim and Bedouin villages across the south with accommodation, humanitarian aid and mental health support. We also provided bespoke support for vulnerable groups such as refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who require assistance with translation and historical trauma.

Tzedek Centres and Hashomer Hatzair were given an emergency grant to host evacuees from the South at Givat Haviva. They provided necessities as well as essential services, such as childcare.

Unrecognised Bedouin villages were vulnerable to rocket attacks due to a lack of adequate shelter and villages being listed as “open space” and not covered by the Iron Dome system, leaving residents exposed. In response, we provided temporary shelters for immediate relief alongside humanitarian aid. Whilst intense advocacy by Shatil and NIF grantees Bimkom, Adalah and NCHALA, secured recognition of these Bedouin villages as populated, providing them with coverage of the Iron Dome, sirens and 52 new government-funded permanent shelters.

Hostages and their Families

NIF immediately supported the campaign to secure the release of the 250 hostages and assisted with the formalisation of the ‘Hostages and Missing Families Forum‘. We are among their most generous funders and continue to provide practical assistance with their activities in Israel and their international Bring Them Home Now campaign.

Preventing violence and promoting community cohesion

We seed-funded the Jewish-Arab relief centre in the Bedouin town of Rahat. Every week since the war started, volunteers have provided immediate aid to hundreds of Jewish and Arab families such as food packages.

FakeReporter’s round-the-clock monitoring removed the increased fake news, hate speech and posts inciting violence. Multiple cases were forwarded to authorities and prevented violence. They also launched a new Digital Dome platform allowing anyone to report digital disinformation and tech companies to remove inaccurate and overly graphic content.

Awareness of Rights

Survivors and their families were struggling to access the assistance available to them. In response, NIF supported several projects to:

a) ensure all citizens are aware of their rights
b) they can fully access the benefits, services and compensation available
c) create policies and legislation to benefit all impacted residents in South

Hareshet is a network of volunteer lawyers, fluent in multiple languages, who are helping the most vulnerable families affected by the crisis navigate the situation and ensure access to any entitlements. They are using this data to identify issues that affect large groups to create policy change impacting the masses.

The Israel Women’s Network started Alice’s line in response to increased inquiries relating to unemployment, domestic abuse and sole parenting during the war. They are also working to change policy with regard to these issues based on cases from their hotline.