Sadly, the Stamp Collection Appeal has now closed. Thank you for the support
given to this appeal over many years.
2025/2026 Stamp Appeal – Support of the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.
The Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Northern Gaza has been in operation since 1882. It is owned and run today by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, a partner Church of the Church of Scotland. The hospital is the only Christian hospital in the Gaza Strip and Gaza’s only cancer hospital. It normally handles around 300 surgeries and 600 radiological and a total of 3,000 outpatient visits per month. It is supported by international charities such as Embrace the Middle East. In times of calm during the occupation of Gaza, Al Ahli Hospital runs as any normal hospital with varying departments and an Accident and Emergency dealing with the usual day to day ailments of a population
Since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza in October 2023, the Al Ahli Anglican Hospital has conducted emergency operations 24 hours per day, operating on 30-35 people per day.
This was in addition to hundreds of medical consultations carried out each day at Al Ahli Hospital and its field clinic in Khan Younis. As well as serving as a hospital, it also provided a shelter for thousands of residents who fled their homes in northern Gaza seeking safety from Israeli airstrikes. Unfortunately, the hospital was hit by a fatal air strike killing and wounding several hundred people including children.
Despite all, and through all the bombing, the hospital continued to serve the population in whatever way they could with the small resources they had, with staff working hours under difficult conditions.
Another feature of the war is psychological trauma. The Ahli field clinic in Khan Younis now offers a Psychosocial Support Programme for children who have experienced trauma. Most have lost family members. Some are orphans. The Co-ordinator of the Programme said, “The psychological support programme aims to foster self-development and [help people] acquire skills to overcome difficulties and psychological pressures resulting from the war on the Gaza Strip. It also focusses on expressing emotions, and the ability to solve problems and life challenges.”
One mother added, “I’m from Gaza. I was displaced first to Rafah, and then to Khan Younis. My daughter contracted hepatitis. So, I took her to this medical point associated with Ah Ahli Arab Hospital. Thankfully, they treated her and provided her with the necessary fluids. I also learned about the psychosocial support programme and wanted her to participate. She lost her father and her brother, and her uncles and cousins. She endured significant psychological pressure. The programme has helped my daughter immensely and I’m grateful for the improvements she has experienced.”
The team at the Al Ahli hospital continue to schedule its staff to ensure that the hospital is accessible 24 hours a day. To enable the Ahli to respond to the increasing need at this time, there continues to be an urgent need of medications and other resources for an emergency response which will enable more people to access basic health care during this crisis.
The hospital has been significantly damaged by the war and will require substantial funding to ensure buildings are once again brought up to standard and there will also be the need for new medical infrastructure which has been damaged.
Archbishop Hosam of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East has requested all of us to join him in the following prayer:
“Please pray with us that this wave of violence will be stopped, as there are no winners in wars. All are losers“, he said.
Please save all the stamp from your mail, and give them to Jennifer Dodds, who will send them to the appropriate place on our behalf.