The life-saving work in Gaza that your help is facilitating

EVERYONE Mahmoud Shalabi knows in Gaza has lost weight. “The average weight loss ranges between 10 to 15 kilograms,” the senior programme manager for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said.

“Unfortunately, some have exceeded 20 or even 30.”

A quarter of the population in Gaza is starving. Aid groups say it is nearly impossible to deliver aid in much of the territory because of Israeli restrictions and ongoing hostilities.

Up to 300,000 Palestinians are believed to have remained in northern Gaza – where conditions are especially dire – with many reduced to eating animal feed. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry reported the deaths of 18 children due to malnutrition and dehydration across the territory last week.

Mahmoud said that what little aid is entering Gaza right now is “depriving the Palestinian people of their dignity”.

He described the meals air-dropped by the likes of the US and the UK in recent weeks.

“According to eyewitnesses and some of my neighbours, they only contain food parcels that last a couple of days for two to three people,” he said.

“Some of them even contain meals that need microwaving and we don’t have electricity right now.”

MAP is one of very few aid organisations still operating on the ground and one of the only ones in northern Gaza.

The work of its employees – including Mahmoud – is delivering life-saving aid including helping to get medical supplies to Al-Shifa Hospital. This includes disposables, clean bed linen and equipment to help engineers carry out vital maintenance on the hospital’s sewage system. The largest hospital in Gaza, it came under Israeli military attack in November 2023 and it is vital it remains operational.

Gaza’s 12 partially functioning hospitals are being bombarded, and crucial equipment is damaged beyond repair at their time of greatest need.

In Gaza’s collapsing health system – where only 17% of primary healthcare centres are still operational – injured children are being operated on without anaesthetic or painkillers. Deaths are slow, painful and too often preventable.

The World Health Organisation has previously warned that disease could kill more Palestinians than bombs as it spreads in densely populated areas like Rafah, where 1.5 million people are taking refuge.

MAP’s Gaza team are also helping to fight the transmission of disease and infection in there – where more than 300,000 have acute respiratory infections and 200,000 have cases of acute watery diarrhoea.

They are also providing support to people driven from their homes. They are providing hygiene and dignity kits to families, including essential items like soap, shampoo, toothpaste and nappies. This all allows for some dignity during displacement.

This is all as they face incredible danger themselves.

Since October 7, at least 340 healthcare workers have been killed, while