ActionAid partner Al-Awda hospital in Gaza given orders to urgently evacuate
ActionAid partner Al-Awda hospital in Gaza given orders to urgently evacuate
Riham Jafari, Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication for ActionAid Palestine said: "We have received information that Al-Awda hospital in Gaza, a partner of Alianza por la Solidaridad - a member of the ActionAid Federation - has been issued orders to evacuate staff and patients. Our understanding and fear is that the hospital will be bombed when that deadline expires. Let us be clear, ActionAid condemns, in the strongest terms any act that puts innocent lives at risk, and threatening a hospital is an egregious violation of humanitarian law. Here, wounded children, amongst many other civilians, are being treated with life-threatening injuries; they simply cannot leave. We call for the immediate removal of this threat, a ceasefire and the protection of civilians across Gaza.
ENDS
To contact the ActionAid Press Office email uk.cpe.media@actionaid.org or call 44(0)7753 973 486.
Appeal link: https://www.actionaid.org.uk/donate/emergency/gaza-crisis-2023
On background:
Since 2007, people in Gaza have been living under a blockade, meaning people and goods are prevented from freely entering and leaving Gaza by land, sea, or air. This severely limits basic necessities like food, medicine, and building materials from getting into Gaza.
The blockade makes life near impossible for 2.2 million people living there. Most people have little or no access to essential resources such as electricity, water, and sewage removal. Half the population of Gaza is children. Many have experienced conflict for a large part of their life, with five major violent offensives, two major escalations and other attacks from air, land and sea and are battling with severe trauma and emotional distress. 800,000 of Gaza’s children have never known a life without the blockade or experienced a normal childhood. And their education has been affected too: almost 250 schools were damaged in the latest war in 2021.
The blockade, repeated escalations, wars and increasing poverty has had a devastating impact on Gaza’s economy. Almost 50% of people in Gaza are unemployed, giving Gaza the highest unemployment rate in the world. Within this context, our partners provide a range of services including a one stop centre for women and girls who have survived gender-based violence, support for women to develop small businesses; counselling services for children; alongside essential humanitarian assistance, including food, shelter, medicine, and dignity kits.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 15 million people living in more than 40 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.
