Gaza: One Year On From the 50 Day Conflict
On July 8, 2014, the conflict in Gaza escalated when Israel launched airstrikes and ground operations.
During the next 50 days, before an indefinite ceasefire came into force, more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, thousands wounded, tens of thousands left in dire need of emergency aid and large parts of Gaza razed to rubble.
During and after the conflict, Islamic Help’s supporters provided emergency aid that was to support more than 1 million Palestinians in their time of need.
Working with the United Nations and other agencies, we were able to provide emergency food, water, medicines, medical and hygiene kits. We also established long term programmes to help the recovery of Gaza.
The emergency aid included:
- 108 tons of flour from Jordan for bread to feed 468,000 Gazans
- Emergency food packs at 14 UN shelters for 18,850 displaced beneficiaries
- Clean drinking water for 9,000 people
- Hygiene kits at 17 UN shelters for 15,000 individuals
- Medicines and medical aid for more than 13,000 hospital patients
- Baby milk for more than 6,700 infants
- Winter blankets for 1,000 people.
Our work was in tandem with the United Nations and included a $500,000 donation to the UN so it could continue providing emergency fuel to 20 hospitals and medical centres during the crisis. That benefited 1.2 million Palestinians in just one month.
There was also a partnership with the World Health Organisation and other partners to provide £135,000 of medical aid to the Palestine Red Crescent to treat 40,000 patients in 9 hospitals.
In addition, we provided aid that directly or indirectly benefited more than 8,000 university students and disabled, and long term support for 530 orphan students at a private school at Dar ul Fadilah.
Our long term commitment was highlighted by our supporters raising £100,000 to rebuild a domestic water plant at Wadi as Salqa. That facility, serving 9,000 people daily, opened just before Ramadan 2015.
A year on from the conflict, we launched another major long term programme – to build a water filtration plant for Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital which treats more than 500,000 people each year.
With 90% of the water from its underground water table unsafe for human consumption, Gaza faces a desperate situation, nowhere more so than at Al Shifa.
Islamic Help is committed to constructing the new desalination plant which will purify the water to ensure it is clean and safe for drinking and use in medical procedures.
The plant costs £300,000 and just a week after launching our Water4Gaza appeal, we had raised two-thirds of that figure.
Please help us hit that £300,000 target for a new water plant at Al Shifa Hospital. Donate just £200 for a share towards our appeal. Anyone who donates £1,000 will have their name or the name of a loved one on a plaque at the hospital.
Support our Water4Gaza appeal. Donate today.
