Aid Arrives In Gaza and Israel

Within in a month of the violent attack on Israel on October 7 and the escalation of ongoing hostilities that followed, Americares had provided emergency funding and other assistance to organizations with staff on the ground in both Israel and Gaza.

“Our support will help health facilities continue operating and providing essential health services to children and adults most impacted by this crisis,” says Americares Deputy Senior Vice President of Emergency Programs Provash Budden.

Americares support included funding for intravenous solutions, syringes, bandages, catheters and stents, which arrived in Gaza on November 3. Americares logistics experts deployed to Egypt to participate in coordination meetings and facilitate shipments across the Rafah border to Gaza. An Americares shipment of essential medicines and medical supplies designed to treat a population of 100,000 people for three months arrived in Gaza November 27. The shipment included 6 tons of desperately needed surgical supplies, bandages, antibiotics, oral rehydration salts and labor and delivery supplies. More shipments are planned.

“The situation in Gaza is absolutely dire— tens of thousands of families need food, clean water and shelter—and hospitals are running out of fuel,” says Budden.

In Israel, Americares is working with multiple organizations to meet the physical and mental health needs of those affected by the crisis. Americares funds provided volunteer emergency medical personnel working in southern Israel with trauma kits, defibrillators and medic bags, as well as essential humanitarian aid supplies for volunteers and those displaced by the war. Americares is also supporting a mental health hotline in Israel as well as relief supplies for a displaced Eritrean community fleeing the attacks in southern Israel.