JERUSALEM — During the past couple of weeks, Anwar Ben Badi has made about 50 “runs” from various points in Jerusalem to the headquarters of Caritas, one of several Christian humanitarian-aid organizations assisting residents of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

In the parking lot outside Caritas’ Jerusalem office, which is located at the Notre Dame Center next to the Old City of Jerusalem, Ben Badi, an Arab from Jerusalem, unloaded his car, which was full of vital supplies, ranging from shampoo and medical supplies to toys and colorful children’s mattresses.  

Some of the items were donated by Ben Badi and his family, while others were donated by his friends and colleagues — Christian, Jewish and Muslim — at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“I think it’s important that we, as a people living under occupation, must do good things for each other during both the good times and the bad times. These are the bad times,” he said.

On Thursday morning, Caritas’ office was piled high with donations that were delivered to the organization’s office in Ramallah, in the West Bank, later that day. Packages of bottled water stood next to diapers (for adults as well as infants) and toilet paper, all vitally need in Gaza, where up to 40,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed and factories are barely functioning.

Boxes of cornflakes, bags of sugar and flour and rice, soap and shampoos and many canned goods took up one corner. Light-weight blankets and used clothing took up another.

Almost all the packaging had Hebrew letters.

“We have a real need for baby wet wipes, diapers and other baby items,” said Dima Khoury, a Caritas social worker as she accepted Ben Badi’s packages. “The one thing we’re not accepting is medication” because the safety of donated medications cannot be guaranteed.   

Medical-supply donations are being handled by the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, among others, she said.   

 

‘Give to Gaza’ Drives

This week, Caritas held a second “Give to Gaza” drive at a church in Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv. The area is home to Arabs, Jews and many foreign workers.

Father Raed Abusahliah, the general director of Caritas Jerusalem, emphasized that his organization “is not working alone” to help the people of Gaza. Catholic Relief Services, the Pontifical Mission for Palestine/Catholic Near East Welfare Organization, the Middle East Council of Churches and the YMCA are among the dozens of organizations and entities raising funds to be used toward Gaza’s rebuilding.

Father Abusahliah, who also serves as the parish priest of Ramallah, said the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem — the heart and soul of the local Church — has also launched a campaign that raised thousands of shekels from local Catholics in Palestine, Israel and Jordan.

“The situation is terrible everywhere in Gaza,” he said, with some 250,000 of Gaza’s 1.8 million people displaced. “Half of them are being housed in schools, so the Ministry of Education may be forced to postpone the opening of the school year until November.”

More than 1,800 people, some 400 of them children, died during the month-long conflict, and roughly 9,000 have been injured. Electricity has been out for several days, and there is a shortage of drinking water.

“Healing and reconstruction will take years,” Abusahliah said. “The people of Gaza have the right to live normal lives, just like every other person in the world.”

 

Babies, Students and Elderly

Caritas has provided immediate aid, including food, diapers and personal hygiene kits, to the 430 families (about 3,000 people) that have taken refuge in the Holy Family Church and in the Greek Orthodox church and school in Gaza and to the 28 mentally challenged and nine elderly people cared for by the Missionaries of Charity. The aid organization has also distributed hygiene kits to the refugees lodging in six United Nations schools in 300 classrooms.

Every day, the U.N. is sending more than 100 people to Caritas’ clinic, which managed to reopen last week despite the war.

Father Abusahliah said Caritas has raised “more than half” of its 1.4 million euros goal (approximately $1.9 million) since it launched its Gaza campaign on July 22.

In the coming days and weeks, it will provide blankets to 2,000 homeless families and all 1,311 Christians in Gaza; medical supplies to the Al Ahli Arab Hospital run by the Anglican Church; and, with the help of the American Friends of Caritas, provide back-to-school supplies, backpacks, uniforms and other items for the 3,000 students who attended Gaza’s five Christian schools. The vast majority of these students are Muslim.

Checking the emails that have poured into his office, Father Abusahliah said he and his staff “are gratified” by the outpouring of support from people in the Holy Land and abroad.

One Jewish Israeli woman wrote to ask how she can donate baby items.

Back at the parking lot, Jared Nangle, a peace activist from San Francisco, carried two bags full of clothes and some medical supplies into the building.

Said Nangle, “We want to spread peace and help the Gazan people. This is one way to do it.”

Michele Chabin is the Register’s Middle East correspondent.

She writes from Jerusalem.