Al Ahli Hospital (Gaza)

Despite extreme adversity and horrendous conditions, the staff of Al Ahli Hospital have continued to serve people sheltering in Gaza City throughout the genocide — providing emergency inpatient medical care for up to 200 people each day, and outpatient care for as many as 700 of its 22,000 registered outpatients.

The start of the current war

Al Ahli Hospital — also known as Al Ahli Baptist Hospital — has been at the heart of Gaza City for over 140 years, serving as a place of peace and refuge. That sanctuary was shattered on 17th October 2023, when a missile strike killed 471 people sheltering in its courtyard.

In the months that followed, the hospital was hit a further eight times. On 13th April 2025, staff were given just 20 minutes to evacuate all patients before two Israeli shells struck again, causing more than $3 million worth of damage.

Despite devastation, massive shortages in staffing, medicines, anaesthetics, antibiotics, fuel, food and water, Al Ahli remained open every day, operating from two large tents set up in its courtyard.

Breast cancer screening and women’s health

A Palestinian woman having breast cancer screening at Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City

Amos Trust has partnered with Al Ahli for over 30 years. Between 2013 and 2023, our support focused on the hospital’s breast cancer awareness and screening programme. Before the genocide, breast cancer was the most common form of cancer in Gaza, and women there were three times more likely to die of the disease than women in the UK, Israel or the West Bank.

The hospital had just launched its 2023 breast cancer screening campaign — Rosy October — when the genocide began.

For the next two years there was no cancer treatment or diagnosis in Gaza. Once the October 2025 ceasefire came into effect, one of the hospital’s main priorities was to relaunch the screening programme because they knew how vital it was.

Amos Trust has partnered with Al Ahli for over 30 years. Between 2013 and 2023, our support focused on the hospital’s breast cancer awareness and screening programme.

They mended damaged machinery and, with Amos Trust’s support, relaunched their breast cancer screening programme — reaching out to local displacement camps to encourage women to come forward for screening and receive training on how to self-examine.

There are still major shortages of medical supplies and chemotherapy drugs in Gaza, due to ongoing restrictions on supplies being allowed in. There’s no radiotherapy available in Gaza, and as of June 2026 only 2,100 of the 18,500 people needing medical evacuation had been allowed to leave.

This means early diagnosis and surgery are even more vital in saving women’s lives, as is the need for concerted pressure to allow more medical supplies into Gaza and to increase the number of medical evacuations.

Watch our short film about Al Ahli →