Al Ahli Arab Hospital has been ministering as a Christian witness in Gaza City since 1882. The institution was founded by the Church of England’s Church Mission Society and was later run as a medical mission by the Southern Baptist Conference from 1954 to 1982. It then returned to the Anglican Church. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service
[Episcopal News Service] The United Nations Development Program and the Palestinian American Medical Association will provide $3.4 million in emergency support over the next two years to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem-run Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. The funding will support the hospital’s operational capacity as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.
Ahli Hospital is one of 17 hospitals partially functioning in the densely populated Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by the war since it began in October 2023, resulting in the deaths of more than 43,000 Palestinians and at least 1,200 Israelis, according to the latest report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. As of September 2024, more than 60% of health facilities in Gaza have been destroyed or are inoperable.
Archbishop Hosam Naoum, bishop of the diocese and primate of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, signed the agreement securing the emergency funding on Nov. 5. The funding “will focus on rehabilitating and operationalizing the ICU and operating rooms, deploying health staff and building medical staff capacity, while also creating job opportunities for health workers and ensuring the continuity of essential health services in Gaza,” a U.N. press release said. The U.N.’s World Health Organization and Health Cluster will work with the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health to implement these health care goals.
Early on in the armed conflict, in October 2023, a unit of Ahli Hospital was partly damaged by rocket fire. Another deadly explosion in the hospital’s courtyard drew international condemnation, as Israel and the United States said that blast appeared to have been caused by Palestinian militants. The hospital has also served as a shelter for civilians.
In July, Israel Defense Forces warned that Ahli Hospital was in an evacuation “red zone” as it prepared to launch a series of drone strikes nearby, forcing the hospital to close temporarily and evacuate patients and staff. Then-Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Naoum and other Episcopal and Anglican leaders issued statements condemning the forced closure. The hospital reopened a few days later.
The announcement of the $3.4 million support to Ahli Hospital came at a time when aid entering the Gaza Strip is at an all-time low, with about 37 trucks with food and medicine arriving daily for Gaza residents, a population of approximately 2.2 million people. Nearly half of the Palestinians living in Gaza have fled, and those remaining are experiencing a humanitarian crisis, severe famine, overcrowding in shelters and a lack of access to potable water and proper sanitation.
“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,” Sawsan Aranki-Batato, a programs development officer for the Diocese of Jerusalem, told the Anglican Journal.
Despite Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid, church-affiliated and secular organizations have been sending monetary aid to the Diocese of Jerusalem to support Ahli Hospital and other ministries through the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, a Darien, Connecticut-based nonprofit that mobilizes financial resources for the diocese and its ministries, and the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for sustainable development and humanitarian relief.
On Nov. 21, ahead of Advent, Naoum and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby issued a joint pastoral letter urging Anglicans to pray for Palestinian Christians and support the Diocese of Jerusalem’s work. They also called on Anglicans to continue advocating for the immediate release of Layan Nasir, a Palestinian Anglican woman who’s been held in administrative detention without charge since April.
“Please join together in prayer against these injustices, appealing both to God to intervene and enact justice, and to soften the hearts of the oppressor. We must always pray and never lose heart. Through our prayerful persistence, justice will prevail,” the letter said. “We call on you to advocate with your political representatives for a just and lasting peace that recognizes the human dignity of all people, and upholds international humanitarian law.”
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.