Medical director of Al Ahli Anglican Hospital, Dr Maher Ayyad has spoken out on the big role the Al Ahli Hospital staff and facilities have played during the war in Gaza, since the 7th October, 2023.

The only Christian hospital in Gaza, back in 2023 Al Ahli had a capacity of 50 beds, but as the war started they were obliged to increase the number of beds to reach up to 250 beds during the worst bombings, placing huge pressure on the small number of staff in the hospital. 

"We are taking care of all casualties in Gaza, especially after Al Shifa Hospital stopped working since April 2024" said Dr Maher in his video message this week.

"Nowadays, the hospital is still taking a big burden of taking care of casualties. Today, even after ceasefire, the number of occupied beds in our hospital 100 to 120 patients daily... We are doing 1000 operations per month."

Dr Ayyad reports that the Al Ahli Hospital, which specialised in maternity and cancer services, is now performing all types of surgery: orthopaedic, vascular, general surgery, plastic surgery and facial auxiliary surgeries for people seriously disfigured by explosions or collapsed buildings.

"We are facing a lot of challenges during the work in our hospital. The first challenge was the number of specialized staff is getting less and less, especially after the last invasion of Gaza one month ago, where a lot of our staff, specialized staff, fled to the south of Gaza Strip."

Al Ahli hospital continues to offer lifesaving medical care while increasingly short of specialised personnel, not only nurses and doctors, but also specialties such as radiologists and anesthesiologists. 

Dr Ayyad shared that because Al Ahli hospital runs on generators that require 1000 litres of fuel per day, they need ongoing financial support to offer medical care and to buy in more supplies of medical equipment and medicines, which are dangerously low, including the basic antibiotics that prevent infections developing in patient's wounds.

Another tragic outcome of the hospital's urgent pivot to emergency trauma care over the last two years has been that its former patients with cancer have not been able to receive treatment.

"As surgeons, we see patients with advanced cancer, later stages, and a lot of them lost their life because nobody was giving them any attention. Our hospital used to take care of such patients. We did screening for ladies for breast cancer and everything is stopped nowadays because we are busy taking care of casualties, and burns of children, burns of anyone."

"Our hospital was a pioneer in cancer care, but nowadays, also we are suffering from a shortage of treatment for such patients." 

Al Ahli now also has the only working Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Gaza, and with its three beds they cannot serve the ICU needs of the more than half a million people living in Gaza. 

"Really our hospital, is facing big problems. Without the help of the people, the supporters, who are helping our hospital, the patients will suffer."

We are trying our best to keep this hospital working and hoping that after reaching to the ceasefire agreement, that our hospital will go back to normalcy. To a situation where we can help the needy people in the whole Gaza Strip, and we pray all the time to reach for peace in this area, enough for war, enough for suffering for the people of the whole region." 

To watch Dr Maher Ayyad's message go to his video on The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem's Facebook page

To support Al Ahli Hospital you can donate directly to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem (that owns and runs the hospital) through the Anglican Missions Hope for the Holy Land Appeal.