“If you had said a year ago that the situation in Gaza would be worse now, I would not have believed you. I could not have believed what Israel would do.” Ambassador Dr Husam Zomlot — Head of the Palestine Mission to the UK

• 43,665 people killed, of which 17,000 were children
• 10,000 people buried under the rubble
• 103,076 injured
• 10,000 amputees
• Over 2 million displaced, many numerous times.

^{Statistics: UN OCHA}

The population is systematically being denied access to food, water, fuel and medical care. Hunger and famine are widespread, while thousands of aid trucks are denied entry to Gaza. 

A year after the fighting started, the situation in Gaza City and across northern Gaza is now worse than it has been at any stage in the last 14 months.

Our 2024 Christmas Appeal is to fund:

1. Essential medical care
2. Vital food aid
3. Therapeutic interventions for women and children
4. Young writers who are documenting a genocide.

1. Essential medical care with our partner Al Ahli ‘Baptist’ Hospital 

Destruction: Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City after the bombing on 17th October 2023
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Al Ahli Hospital has been hit four times since 7th October 2023  —  ten days later, the first strike killed 490 people. Despite this and massive shortages in staffing, medicines, anaesthetics, antibiotics, fuel, food and water, the hospital continues to open every day.

This small hospital is currently the only trauma hospital operating in Gaza City. It is seeing 700 patients a day, has 200 inpatients in a 60-bed unit and 22,000 outpatients. Every day the staff risk their lives getting to work. 

Staff sheltering in central Gaza also run a temporary health clinic for the 1 million people squeezed into this tiny strip of land. 

2. Vital food and water aid for 1.5 million people sheltering in central Gaza

Partnership: Food aid being delivered in Gaza funded by Amos Trust
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We are working with MA’AN Development, the Welfare Association and the Gaza Sunbirds to get essential food and water supplies to those sheltering in central Gaza. Because so little aid is let in, our partners are purchasing any available food locally and distributing it.  

We have also worked with MA’AN to provide toilet blocks and to provide blankets, clothes and hygiene packs to people still sheltering in Gaza City.

3. Therapeutic support to ease the devastating psychological impact on children and their parents

Support: A family health clinic run by Amos partner DSPR
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At the start of the war, DSPR (also known as NECC) had to close all their health, psychosocial support and training centres as they were in areas targeted by the Israeli assault. They opened a health and trauma support unit for women and children in Rafah that treated 28,000 people, and provided psychosocial support to 15,000 children, their families and bereaved mothers. 

Following the Israeli assault on Rafah, DSPR opened a mobile health clinic, providing treatment to 260 people a day. Later they converted a wedding hall in central Gaza into a new medical centre which also provides a base for their trauma support work with women and children. 

In Gaza City, staff dug out equipment from their bombed-out health centres and used it to create temporary medical centres, from which they also offer trauma support to children. 

“We are not providing trauma therapy like we have done for the last 15 years in Gaza. It would be impossible, pointless until there is an end to the fighting. Instead we are helping parents and children cope — addressing their fear and anxiety and helping them get through another day.

If we do not do this now, we believe that when the war ends many of these children, even with the best therapeutic support, will never be able to overcome their trauma.” Nader Abu Amsha DSPR

In the next year Amos plans to work with DSPR to provide support to approximately 8,500 women and 35,000 children to help address their trauma and improve their mental health. 

4. Support for Gazan writers, artists and musicians who still convey beauty in the face of such horror

Experiences: Supporting young writers in Gaza
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We are supporting our partners We Are Not Numbers so that they can fund the young writers from their programmes to write about their experiences in Gaza. This not only provides these young writers with vital income, but also documents the experiences of those living through a genocide. 

Don’t forget, every gift donated online through the Big Give between 3rd and 10th December will be doubled.

Thank you for your support.