Gaza in crisis – BHPSC has donated to MAP’s emergency appeal

First Covid-19 community transmission reported in Gaza
Even before this announcement, the situation in Gaza was appalling. Israel has been bombing targets in Gaza for four weeks now, and has choked off the few access points in the 13-year long siege. Electricity supplies have been cut to 6 hours a day, and supplies of food and water are down to a new low level, resulting in widespread child starvation. 

And now this…
On 24 August, the Ministry of Health declared the discovery of the first cases of community transmission of COVID-19 in Gaza (infections outside of the quarantine centres). Four cases were initially identified in Maghazi Camp in the middle of Gaza. Local authorities have imposed a 48-hour closure to try to contain infections. To state the obvious: in such a densely-populated urban area, with living conditions poor and health facilities really struggling at the best of times, the impact of a Covid epidemic in Gaza would be catastrophic.

You can read a moving eyewitness account posted yesterday on Middle East Monitor here.

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) launches emergency appeal – details of how you can donate
BHPSC has today donated £500 to MAP’s emergency appeal. This is of course money from our many supporters’ donations. 

With the discovery of community-transmitted cases of COVID-19 in Gaza, a 180% increase in COVID-19 cases in Lebanon since the devastating explosion in Beirut and and more than 25,000 cases reported in the West Bank, for the first time in its 35 years Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is responding to a humanitarian emergency across all three areas of its operation.

You can find out more about MAP’s appeal, including details of how you can donate yourself, here.

Thanks and in solidarity from
Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign