Yesterday evening (15 December), an Israeli military airstrike hit a United Nations-run school sheltering Palestinian civilians driven from their homes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

The UK Government must take urgent action to protect healthcare workers and patients and ensure the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained medical staff, as the illegal detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, continued into its second week with no news of his whereabouts or wellbeing. 

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) staff working at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, warn that Israel’s restrictions on fuel entry are threatening the lives of critically ill children, infants and other patients.

Gaza’s largest partially functioning hospital will likely shut down within 48 hours and, without fresh fuel supplies, essential hospital operations will be forced to stop, endangering the lives of critically ill patients, including children and newborns in intensive care.

Heavy rain, strong winds and plummeting temperatures, combined with the impact of Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza, means winter is a struggle for survival for many.

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) welcomes the announcement of an agreement between Israel and Hamas to suspend hostilities in Gaza. While we hope this temporary pause will save Palestinian lives and alleviate some of the suffering the Israeli military has inflicted on Gaza, it marks the beginning, not the end, of efforts to restore health, dignity and freedom to the Palestinian people.

We, the undersigned organisations, welcome the temporary cessation of hostilities between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. While this temporary pause is a vital step, it comes far too late for the over 46,000 Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, and falls short of putting a permanent end to Palestinian suffering. The UK Government must do its part to ensure this pause turns rapidly into a permanent ceasefire.

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is deeply alarmed by the significant escalation of Israeli military and settler violence against Palestinians and intensifying restrictions on freedom of movement across the occupied West Bank.  

Coinciding with the implementation of the Gaza temporary ceasefire agreement, these restrictions and violence are effectively confining entire Palestinian communities, cutting them off from essential services, including healthcare, and putting their lives at risk.