Anera’s First of Many External Aid Shipments Arrives in Gaza Today
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- Shipment at Al Arish.
November 3, 2023 | Washington, DC — Today, Anera delivered into Gaza the organization’s first external shipment of aid since the start of the war on October 7. The shipment, sent in partnership with the Jordan Hashemite Charitable Organization and with the support of Americares, arrived in Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
The war, in its fourth week, has killed more than 9,000 and wounded more than 22,000 residents of Gaza. And supplies of all kinds – medicines, food, fuel, water – are reaching dangerously low levels in the besieged territory.
Anera’s first external shipment of medicines and medical supplies is part of our response to the dire healthcare situation resulting from the scarcity of medicines and medical supplies due to the war. Anera is now working with the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society to immediately deliver the shipment to key hospitals in Gaza that remain operational.
Anera has an additional shipment in transit to provide vital support. Together, these two shipments comprise 208,000 treatments, encompassing stents, catheters, medical consumables, and IV solutions. Prior to this delivery, we locally procured and distributed 310,700 treatments of medicines and medical supplies. Anera continues its efforts to bring in more medicines and medical supplies.
Anera President & CEO Sean Carroll, said today,
“The medical supplies we managed to send through Rafah today will go straight into the hands of the overworked doctors and nurses providing care to far too many patients in Gaza. While we’re gratified to have gotten this shipment into Gaza, it represents a drop of medicine, where we need an ocean. The volume of aid coming in needs to be scaled up by a factor of 10 on a daily basis. Anera can help do that with the cooperation of the international community, aid donors and medical donation partners.”
Since the post-October 7 total blockade was partially lifted on October 21, and as of yesterday, only 374 trucks carrying aid have been allowed into Gaza. Some 65% of people in Gaza, 1.5 million residents, are displaced from their homes. The healthcare system is barely functioning without fuel and medical supplies. The only hospital treating cancer patients shut its doors this week. (Statistics come from UNOCHA.)
As of November 2, 2023, Anera’s staff in Gaze have responded to the needs of their communities by distributing 2.4 million meals to displaced people and patients through food parcels, vegetable baskets and hot meals; ensuring the regular cleaning of the UN shelter schools in Khan Younis to prevent the spread of disease. They have also distributed 16,350 hygiene kits to displaced families to maintain personal hygiene in shelters, including menstrual kits for women and girls. With this latest medical shipment, Anera has distributed in Gaza a total of 459,580 treatments of medicines and healthcare supplies.
Anera continues to call for the immediate implementation of a ceasefire and for unrestricted humanitarian corridors to send aid, including fuel, into Gaza.
ANERA CEO SEAN CARROLL IS AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED NUMBER OF INTERVIEWS
For more information:
Steven Fake
Media Relations Officer
202.266.9719
[email protected]
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About Anera
Since 1968, Anera has helped refugees and others hurt by conflicts in the Middle East live with dignity and purpose. Anera, which has no political or religious affiliation, works on the ground with partners in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, Lebanon, and Jordan. We mobilize resources for immediate humanitarian relief and for sustainable health, education, and economic development efforts. Our staff are from the communities they serve, navigating the politics that constrict progress to get help where it’s needed most. We will keep building better lives until hope finds its way in the Middle East.