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Al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Arabic: المستشفى الأهلي العربي, lit. 'The Arab People's Hospital'[2]) is a hospital in the Gaza Strip. Its headquarters are located in the Zeitoun neighborhood in the south of Gaza City, and it is managed by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem. Founded in 1882, it is one of the oldest hospitals in the city[3][4] and the only Christian hospital in Gaza.[5][6]
| Al-Ahli Arab Hospital | |
|---|---|
| Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem | |
 | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Palestine |
| Coordinates | 31.5049°N 34.4615°E |
| Organisation | |
| Funding | Non-profit hospital |
| Type | General |
| Religious affiliation | Anglican |
| Services | |
| Beds | 80[1] |
| History | |
| Opened | 1882 |
The hospital has been in operation since 1882. It was established in what was then the Ottoman Empire as a medical mission of the Anglican Church's Church Missionary Society (CMS) following the Anglo-Egyptian War. In 1954, the hospital was purchased by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, which renamed it the Gaza Baptist Hospital (Arabic: المستشفى المعمداني). In the early 1980s, it was returned to the CMS, which turned it over to the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem. The diocese changed the name of the hospital to Ahli Arab Hospital.[3][7]
The hospital is the only Christian hospital in the Gaza Strip[5][6] and Gaza's only cancer hospital.[8] It normally handles around 300 surgeries and 600 radiological and a total of 3,000 outpatient visits per month.[9] It is supported by international charities such as Embrace the Middle East.[10]
1948–1987
After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt, the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society operated the hospital. The Baptist society left in 1982, and an international alliance of donors that included Church World Service, DanChurchAid, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) interceded.[5]
Al-Ahli had a urology department. In 1985, Al-Ahli commenced its dental and ophthalmology departments, and had a large burn unit. By June 1987, there were redevelopment funds secured from a German charity, which included support for a new building, as well as plans to lease hospital land to local developers for a shopping center to provide an additional funding stream. The hospital had five dunams of land and planned to allocate two of them to develop commercially, of which one fourth of the generated income would be used to construct a new multi-story hospital building.[5]
1987–2005: First and Second Intifada
The First Intifada transformed the hospital's daily operations during the Intifada's first year to "manage the increasing number of casualties". In 1996, in response to a series of bus bombings, Israel shut Gaza’s borders, which halted commercial and agricultural goods transport. The hospital's annual report said this also closed off transport of medicine and humanitarian aid. Al Ahli was appointed as a frontline hospital for casualties during the Second Intifada.[5]
2023–2024: Israel–Hamas war
Rocket strike at Cancer Diagnostic Centre
According to the Anglican Communion News Service, at 7:30 p.m. EEST on 14 October 2023, the hospital's Diagnostic Cancer Treatment Centre was damaged by Israeli rockets, causing four hospital staff members to be injured and severely damaging two of its upper floors, with the mammography and ultrasound departments affected the most.[11][12] The Israeli Defense Forces did not respond to BBC inquiries about this strike.[13]
Explosion
Three days later, on the evening of 17 October, an explosion occurred in the courtyard which was housing thousands of displaced people as a result of the war. According to preliminary tolls by the Gaza Health Ministry, this explosion led to the deaths of 200–500 Palestinians and the injury of more than 600 others.[11][14][15] Gaza's civil defence teams estimated over 300 people had been killed.[14] An independent analysis by Human Rights Watch concluded that the cause of the explosion was likely a misfired Palestinian rocket.[16] Human Rights Watch stated that the available evidence made an Israeli airstrike "highly unlikely".[17]
2024
As of February 2024, Al-Ahli Hospital was functioning at 30 per cent capacity and operated 100 per cent on solar power. The World Health Organization arrived at Al-Ahli in March 2024, bringing trauma supplies and fuel.[5] In July 2024, the hospital was forcibly closed and evacuated, leading to condemnation by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who stated, "In the face of intense Israeli bombardment, this closure puts injured and sick people in even greater danger".[18]
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