Update: Gaza Hospital
In the heart of Gaza City, Al Ahli Arab Hospital stands as both sanctuary and symbol. Run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, this hospital has long been a place where the wounded, the weary, and the displaced find care without distinction of creed or background. No one is turned away. Today, its mission is imperiled, not only by relentless bombardment of the area, but by a catastrophic decline in international support.
Recent reports from Gaza describe harrowing scenes: tents erected in courtyards to serve as makeshift wards, exhausted staff working without pay, and children treated on the floor amid mass casualty events. The hospital has absorbed wave after wave of victims from airstrikes, drone attacks, and collapsing ceasefires. Its resilience is remarkable, but resilience alone cannot sustain the work.
News of cease fires have lead some to conclude that donations are no longer essential, eroding the lifelines that hospitals like Al Ahli depend upon. This decline comes at the very moment when needs are greatest: food insecurity is acute, medical supplies are scarce, and the fragile ceasefire is repeatedly violated, and winter is approaching. Without renewed solidarity, the hospital’s capacity to serve falters.
For Alongside Hope, this is not abstract. We are partners with Al Ahli Arab Hospital, committed to standing with its staff and patients. Our partnership is rooted in the conviction that every act of care is an act of witness, and a declaration that life is sacred even in the shadow of war. The Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem has carried this witness for generations, and we join them in calling the global community to remember Gaza not only as a place of conflict but as a place of healing.
The hospital’s story is one of courage: doctors and nurses who remain at their posts despite danger, families who bring loved ones through rubble to reach its gates, and international volunteers who testify that “people do care,” even when the world seems indifferent. These testimonies remind us that hope is not naïve, it is earned through sacrifice and solidarity.
Yet hope requires sustenance, and the decline in donations threatens to silence this witness. Alongside Hope therefore offers a timely way to offer support:
If you are looking for a meaningful gift for a loved one, turn to our World of Gifts Catalogue. In it you will find a gift you can give in their name, called "Peace in the Holy Land". Your Christmas gift of $50 supports Al-Ahli Hospital and other institutions operated by the Diocese of Jerusalem, and is matched dollar for dollar.
Gifts are not only financial contributions; they are gestures of solidarity, affirmations that Gaza’s suffering is seen, and that its healing is shared.
Al Ahli Arab Hospital is more than a medical facility. It is a living parable of compassion in the midst of violence, a reminder that the Anglican Church’s ministry extends beyond liturgy into the very wounds of the world. To support it is to declare that even in Gaza, life is stronger than death, and love is stronger than fear.
In Christ,
the Rev’d Canon Dr. Greg Jenkins, Chair of Alongside Hope, Huron
Alongside Hope: Anglicans and partners
working for change in Canada and around the world
- First Photo by Dawoud Abo Aklas, shared via Richard Sewell, Episcopal Church of Jerusalem, shows chapel in the hospital being used as makeshift ward
- Second Photo supplied by American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem