This article by Fikr Shalltoot, who is the Gaza director at Medical Aid for Palestinians, is in The National newspaper, for whom I write a weekly column, this morning.
I reproduce it here to promote support for this cause. I have made a donation:
THE temporary ceasefire in Gaza has brought a welcome, but fragile, respite for the two million Palestinians who have endured relentless Israeli military violence for over 15 months.
But for the people of Gaza, this is not peace – it is merely a pause in the suffering. The destruction wrought by Israel's military offensive is everywhere: in the rubble of homes, in the targeted and destroyed health system, and in the eyes of children who can remember no time but war.
This temporary ceasefire has offered Palestinians a chance to breathe, to mourn, and to dare to consider beginning the long, painful process of rebuilding. But even this small respite is under threat. On March 2, Israel announced a total blockade on aid – a cruel reminder that Israel's control and siege of Gaza is far from over. Without immediate and sustained international action, this temporary ceasefire may well collapse, and Palestinians will be plunged back into despair, starvation, and fear.
As a Palestinian, I have seen too many ceasefires come and go. Each one brings a flicker of hope, but hope is not enough. What Gaza needs now is justice, accountability, and an end to Israel's illegal blockade that has suffocated the population for years.
Over 15 months, Israel's military bombardment has left Gaza's health system in ruins. Healthcare workers have been targeted and killed, and doctors have been arrested. Hospitals are once again running out of medicines, diseases are spreading, and children are dying from hypothermia. Israel's total blockade will only deepen the humanitarian and health crisis, stripping the means of survival from two million people.
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, the situation is deteriorating rapidly. Israeli military and settler violence has significantly escalated, and an ongoing Israeli military assault in the northern West Bank is the longest offensive in two decades. Tanks have been deployed in civilian areas. In Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas, 40,000 people have been displaced from their homes and told they cannot return. Israel's military violence is not confined to Gaza – it is part of wider actions to erase Palestinians from their land.
Despite the tightened blockade, we at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) continue to provide a lifeline to those in need. Our team is working tirelessly to deliver essential medical and humanitarian services. We are operating medical points across Gaza, providing antenatal care, treating communicable diseases, and offering rehabilitation for people with disabilities. We are screening for malnutrition and distributing food and supplements.
We are providing mental health support to survivors of violence, detention, and displacement, with a focus on women and children. And we are trucking water to areas cut off from supplies, rehabilitating water networks, and ensuring that hospitals have the resources they need to function. We have deployed Emergency Medical Teams to treat injuries and infections, and they have conducted thousands of consultations, and performed life-saving surgeries.
The scale of the health and humanitarian crisis is overwhelming, and the blockade makes our work even harder. But MAP remains in Gaza and we have not lost hope. We are standing steadfast, but we need the world to stand with us, to demand justice, and to help us rebuild the health system.
Your support can make a lifesaving difference. It can help us provide essential medical care, conduct life-saving surgeries, and support mental health services for survivors of trauma. It can help us rehabilitate damaged health facilities and restore critical services.
But more than that, your support is a statement of solidarity. It is a reminder to the people of Gaza that they are not alone, and that the world has not forgotten them.
The temporary ceasefire is a chance to save lives, but it is also a chance to demand justice. Israel's military occupation, blockade, and violations of international law must end. The international community must take decisive action to hold Israel accountable, and ensure that Palestinians can live in freedom and dignity.
This means suspending arms sales to Israel, supporting international accountability mechanisms, and ensuring unrestricted access for humanitarian aid. It means ending the blockade and allowing Gaza to rebuild.
The people of Gaza have endured too much for too long. They need more than temporary respites – they need freedom, justice, and the chance to rebuild their lives.
Now is the time to act. Now is the time to stand with Palestinians in Gaza.
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Why don’t you call on Hamas to release the hostages then the situation improves. This is just more virtue signalling from good self.
I have always condemned their hostage taking and always will.
The only person virtue signalling here is you – on the side of genocide.
Alan, that’s a cheap shot. By only mentioning Hamas in your response, you highlight your ignorance of the 100 year long history of the Palestinians and what Israel with the support of the West has been doing for decades to the Palestinians.
Agreed
If all the living hostages and the bodies of those who have died were to be released tomorrow, (which I think should happen) do you think for one second that would cause Israel to end its genocidal attack on Palestine?
“release the hostages then the situation improves. ” For whom, exactly will the situation improve? Clearly for the hostage families, who have already suffered too much, but how will the situation improve for the Palestinians who have also already suffered too much?
Excellent questions.
Alan is not blocked. He can answer if he wishes. I strongly suspect he will not.
Israel has hostages too. Many in “administrative detention”, many being tortured, many without access to lawyers, many children, unyried, uncharged, unconvicted,
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/israel-opt-horrifying-cases-of-torture-and-degrading-treatment-of-palestinian-detainees-amid-spike-in-arbitrary-arrests/
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/un-report-palestinian-detainees-held-arbitrarily-and-secretly-subjected
I want them released too, their numbers run to four, nearly five figures.
Do you, Alan?
I have contributed to MAP for several years.
Well done for bringing this to our attention. The situation has gone from a callous indifference to suffering to the deliberate infliction of cruelty.
Israel has courageous people like Gideon Levy who speak out in the face of great hostility. Israel can only get away with this because of American support. Trump knows how to use the ‘them and us’ division to muster support and I see he will use this issue to further press down on free speech. Students who have protested the genocidal actions have been denied their degrees or threatened with expulsion. Most of the media seem to have folded but if Trumpism falls by over reach, the cause will be discredited. Younger Jewish people are not giving the support their parents did. Some Christian groups lead by people like Hagee, are leading the support. I regard these as Christian In Name Only ( you call them Chinos ) But here again younger people are not signing up to the End Times religious teaching (derived from John Nelson Darby -a founder of the Brethren. I am a mine of useless information )whose views were spread as part of the Schofield Bible notes, mainly in the south )
If American aid falls, Israel will become a pariah state and the technological start-ups and their people, will leave. It would be in their own interest to act with compassion.
Much to agree with, and thanks
I was brought up in the Brethren and escaped when I was 17. I can confirm that they are a CHINO organisation.
Didn’t think I would ever see J N Darby mentioned here!
The figure I have seen is that something like 85% of those who fight for Hamas have lost a parent or close relative to the Israeli Security Forces.
Now its a lot more complicated than that but if the State of Israel had decided that dead Palestinians were a threat to its security – which the evidence suggests they are then not only would Israel be a safer place but so would the World be.
Thanks for posting this; I will donate again after I return from Greenwich later this week. There is another London National March for Gaza planned for Saturday the 15th which I will come back down to london to lead. Piccadilly (Green Park) to Whitehall starting at 12PM for speeches at Whitehall until 4PM. I hope others will join me; I am impossible to miss: right up front with a conspicuous, child-size, shrouded mannequin in the back of a red wheelchair! I hope to see a few of you there…
I am afraid marches are not my thing. I am not a lover of crowds. But I am glad others do them.
A friend of mine is going. I am looking after her husband, a lifelong socialist, as he has Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. I will be there in spirit.
Thank you for publishing this. It is factual and fair.
Unfortunately the situation is so horrific that the most truthful accounts and comments sound beyond belief, and are regularly suppressed by a pro-Israel lobby or by people who are scared of them. I have subscribed for years to Christian charities working with Palestinians and Arabs in countries around the Holy Land. I read and hear regular reports from those who work in Palestinian occupied territories. Several organisations allow donors to make “virtual gifts” which are becoming popular for those who are fed up accumulating “stuff” at Christmas or birthdays and would rather buy a home-school learning pack, an olive tree, or a trauma counselling package for use amongst the suffering residents.
The Christian Zionism sector is influential in the USA and has been for years although as Ian Stevenson points out, it is dates only from the last century. Much less so in this country, where the main support for the current government of Israel comes from beyond church circles. In the UK many evangelical Christians while NOT subscribing to Hagee style fundamentalism do still have a superficial attachment to the idea of “Israel” from the Bible which they uncritically associate with the secular state of Israel. UK news censorship does little to challenge their mindset.
They tend to ignore reports of torture of doctors, or snipers murdering children, and also swallow uncritically Israel “hasbara” about how everyone is a Hamas “terrorist”, and that Israel (but no one else) has a “right to defend itself”. They are often surprised to hear stories from Palestinian Christians whose communities have been there for 2 millennia. One friend of mine expressed surprise that there WERE any Arab Christians anywhere.
The current lawless slaughter is bad for everyone, Palestinian, Jew, Israeli (including Arab Israelis, diaspora Jews, diaspora Palestinians, Druze, other minorities in the region, and anyone with a conscience and a desire to see international law upheld. But let us be clear, the major offender is the government of Israel over many years.
I recommend several organisations for any who are interested in hearing from those at the sharp end, who have been there for a very long time and who are committed to peace and reconciliation but not to surrender…
https://embraceme.org/resources
https://christatthecheckpoint.bethbc.edu/
https://www.csbvbristol.org.uk/
John Hagee does not get it all his own way.
Once again Richard, thank you for publishing this article.
Thanks
At the risk of over staying my welcome, I only studied the Balfour declaration in any detail at the end of last year. It is complex but still affects the world today and certain themes continue. Balfour, who declared the British Govt backed a “homeland’ for the Jews, had the support of some Christian Zionists who went back to the era of Palmerston. There were several other factors. Many Jews had been displaced from Russia and suffered greatly. Some wished them to have a safe haven. The less charitable interpretation is that people arriving on boats as refugees were attacked by some newspapers such as the Daily Mail -and others. There might be votes is sending them elsewhere (but make it look good) and there was a “Uganda scheme” to relocate them there. Next door is Rwanda ! (Did that give the last govt. the idea?) Getting Jewish support for the First World War and in general was seen as desirable.
But to Lloyd George, Balfour and Austen Chamberlain geo-politics seems to have been more important. There are records of a plan to have a ‘European nation’ near the Suez canal -a vital lifeline for the Empire- as a safeguard. Most of this was not disclosed at the time. And as RobertJ says a lot is still suppressed. One wonders why?
In 1956 when Nasser nationalised the canal, Britain and France enlisted the aid of Israel in their attack on Egypt. Eisenhower was outraged. At the same time Russia was putting down a rebellion in Hungary and he wanted the support of the increasingly important non-aligned movement ( of which Nasser was a leader along with Nehru and Sukarno of Indonesia) to condemn Russia /USSR. One thinks of the BRICS of today. ( It all seems familiar except for the US position)
The American navy actually sailed their ships across the path of the British task force on its way to Egypt. The Admiral told the British ships to put on their lights ( it was night) and sail between the US vessels!
At no time were the indigenous people of Palestine consulted about the Declaration and the wider Arab demands in the region were ignored -or ‘betrayed’ as they see it. The Balfour promise to safeguard the civil and religious rights of the non Jewish people was not kept IMO. By 1920 the Palestinians (Christians and Muslims ) made it clear they were against the scheme. About 10% of the population were Arabic speaking Jews. The Zionists were European Askenazi. They didn’t have a lot in common.
But the League of Nations Mandate was imposed and Jewish immigration was allowed. Every other mandate territory was able to claim the promised right of self determination but the internal war stopped that and the UN divided the country into two, again without consultation.
It is a sad situation. It seems to be the Israeli intention is to further ethnically cleanse what remains of Palestine. This time supported by the US. My conclusion is that the Balfour Declaration was a mistake.
While agreeing that the Balfour Declaration may well have been a mistake, I think the bigger mistake was the failure to implement the (admittedly limited) protections for the people of Palestine.
But the ‘right’ of the Jewish people to a homeland is the sticking point for me. The persecution of Jewish people throughout history has been horrendous and, at the time of Balfour it was clear that some kind of action was needed. Given that most land already had indigenous occupants, the ‘right’, while admirable was never going to be easy to achieve. I am afraid that the one that has resulted could be described as the worst imaginable.
Grateful thanks for drawing our attention to these organisations, RobertJ.
You can add Sabeel Kairos to your list:
https://www.sabeel-kairos.org.uk/
Thank you very much for posting this, Richard. As the article says, a donation is “a reminder to the people of Gaza that they are not alone, and that the world has not forgotten them.”
You are brave to write this Richard, maybe this is the benefit of having your own blog. If I had tried to write this as a comment in a Canadian newspaper it would have been immediately removed. Its not only Gaza that is suffering. Israel has failed to remove itself from Lebanon as per the ceasefire agreement and continues to destroy houses and shoot civilians. It has been bombing locations in Syria making it even more difficult for the new government to get control of the country and hopefully bring peace. While it complains that it has to keep itself safe from its neighbors maybe practicing a little neighborliness rather than unremitting aggression might help. Two recent books attempt to cover the full horror of what is happening; Gideon levy “The killing of Gaza” and “The world after Gaza” by Pankaj Mishra.
After JD Vance lectured the Europeans a couple of weeks ago for their lack of free speech Trump has now fined Columbia University $400 million and abducted/ jailed a prominent pro-Palestinian protester referred to of course as a “Hamas supporter”. Where does this end?
Al jazeera is a reliable outlet for news from the Middle East (originally with many ex BBC journalists) They have been ejected from the West Bank and of course have not been allowed in Gaza along with all the other independent news organizations since the beginning of the “war” They have produced several documentaries , one called simply October 7th” that cleans up a lot of the misinformation about that day put out by Israel. It also has the full four episodes of “The Lobby” that was terminated in the UK after one episode. (The power of the lobby!) Worthwhile checking out.
A small example of what Palestinians have to put up with. Yesterday an alJazeera short video snippet shows a Palestinian man being stopped by IDF troops..its not evident what for but there’s no violence involved, looks like a traffic stop. While the man is standing outside his car with the soldiers around him they push his car off the road and over the cliff. Its not clear why… because they can I guess. This is raw power over a pretty well defenseless population. No wonder there is so much anger. I will make a donation.
Thanks
In a previous life, I taught RAF recruits about the requirements of the Geneva Conventions and international law as it relates to armed conflict. In my current life, I see reports on a daily basis showing how Israel spits on both. The reports come from a number of sources and countries, including videos uploaded by soldiers in the IDF.
In my (relatively well-informed) opinion, Israel has committed numerous war crimes and grave crimes against humanity. I won’t repeat them all; they are well documented all over the place. I will, however, list a few examples.
Forced Displacement
Collective Punishment
Repeated attacks on protected personnel and buildings
Siege
Perfidy
These are amongst the gravest of crimes. Soldiers who commit them, and the leaders who order them to do so, are utterly unworthy of any support and should be condemned. What they are doing in Gaza and the West Bank is the grossest distortion of military values.
After Hamas’ atrocities on Oct 7th, there was a quite justified global outpouring of sympathy for all Israelis. Netanyahu’s response, and his vindictive, brutal and indiscriminately savage attacks on the whole population of territories which are effectively imprisoned by Israel, has lost Israel every shred of that sympathy. Not only that, but it has put diaspora Jews at grave risk of attack.
When a supposedly democratic country responds to a terrorist attack by using methods which mirror the brutality of the terrorists, it reduces that country to the same level as the terrorists. It degrades the reputation of its military. It places itself beyond the pale. It renders itself unworthy of being called a democracy.
Thanks, Hannah.
My monthly charity allocation has gone to this worthy cause.
Thanks