A ceasefire and the free passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza are urgently needed to halt a genocide in progress, an aid worker with the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem says.
The diocese of Jerusalem runs the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which, as this issue was being prepared in late November, was the only hospital still functioning in northern Gaza. The hospital is struggling to cope with a flood of patients amid Israel’s bombing campaign and its blocking of aid such as food and medicine, Sawsan Aranki-Batato, programs development officer for the diocese, told the Journal in an Oct. 23 interview.
Aranki-Batato said due to the difficulty of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza, local medical suppliers are providing what they can to Al-Ahli Hospital. However, she added, the hospital is going through medicine and supplies very quickly. “We need advocacy for unlimited humanitarian aid to Gaza to save the lives of all people, because the number of wounded is dramatically increasing these days,” Aranki-Batato said.
Israel declared a “total blockade” of the Gaza Strip on Oct. 9, 2023, blocking food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity from entering Gaza and conditioning the lifting of the blockade on the release of hostages by Hamas. Since then, Israel has partially lifted the blockade but aid making it into Gaza as this story was being prepared in late November was reported to be close to its lowest level during the entire war.
Israeli forces behave “as if we are not humans in Gaza,” Aranki-Batato said, bombing residential buildings and killing entire families, targeting medical staff and ambulances. The Gaza Media Office reported on Oct. 7, 2024 that Israeli attacks on hospitals in the previous year had killed 986 medical workers; targeted, destroyed and damaged 131 ambulances; and rendered 80 health centres and 34 hospitals inoperative.
She described a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza that hospital staff are struggling to cope with. “The lack of drinkable water, the lack of hygiene standards, the lack of proper sanitation, overcrowding in shelters all have resulted in catastrophic public health [and] infectious diseases,” Aranki-Batato said.
October 2024 Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia refugee camp, a few kilometres from Al-Ahli, saw a sharp uptick in the number of injured and traumatized people at the hospital, she said. “We have in patients in the corridors, in the church, in the chapel. Wherever there is a space, we have a bed or mattress with a patient” to receive treatment, she said.
The lack of other operational hospitals has meant Al-Ahli is overcrowded to three times its capacity; on average, 700 patients a day arrive, she said, and the hospital, which has 80 beds, has 150 inpatients per day. Many patients have suffered from burns. Most of the wounded have broken arms and legs. Staff now perform up to 30 surgeries per day.
Medical staff who used to work at other hospitals now work at Al-Ahli. “They work around the clock to meet the crushing flow of patients,” Aranki-Batato said. Many of these health workers are themselves becoming traumatized. “They mention to me many times that we passed through several wars—2014, 2021. They never saw the cases that they are dealing with now,” she said.
Israel has targeted Al-Ahli Hospital three times, she said, including the destruction of its solar panels used to generate electricity.
Donations from the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) have helped Al-Ahli continue providing services to thousands of people, Aranki-Batato said. At the beginning of the current conflict, PWRDF donated $30,000 in emergency funding to the hospital. Following consultations with the diocese of Jerusalem, PWRDF donated $175,000 from February to July 2024 to enhance access to health care and education for Gazans impacted by the war, and has allocated a further $100,000 for the period from August 2024 to January 2025.
Despite Israeli restrictions on aid, communications and marketing coordinator Janice Biehn said, PWRDF’s aid to Gaza and the West Bank—partnering with a range of church-affiliated international aid organizations—has continued to fund these ministries, with donations going through the Anglican Alliance directly to the diocese of Jerusalem.
“Money transfers have been able to go through,” Biehn said. “While it’s true supplies are hard to come by, the funds are getting to their intended location and the health care and education ministries of the Diocese of Jerusalem are able to use the funds.” PWRDF also supported a Canadian Foodgrains Bank relief program funded by a Humanitarian Coalition appeal in 2023, she said, and made an emergency appeal for Lebanon through the ACT Alliance in the fall of 2024.
PWRDF donations are crucial to the ongoing operations of Al-Ahli Hospital, Aranki-Batato said. “Without your contribution, we would not be able to do what we’re doing now.”
