By: Helen Jackson

Mosaic Middle East is a UK-based Christian charity working through trusted local partners to support communities affected by conflict, displacement and poverty. In Gaza and the West Bank, Mosaic works in partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem to sustain essential healthcare through Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza and St Luke’s Hospital in Nablus. Both institutions provide care to people of all faiths according to need, while also representing a vital and long-standing Christian presence in the Holy Land.

Mosaic’s partnership brings direct, regular insight from local colleagues who are continuing to serve patients and communities in extraordinarily difficult conditions. This update draws on their latest reports and highlights the urgent humanitarian, protection and freedom of religion or belief concerns facing Gaza, the West Bank and Christian communities across the region.

The situation in Gaza and the West Bank demands urgent political action. Alongside the devastating humanitarian consequences of the conflict, the crisis is increasingly affecting freedom of religion or belief: threatening the ability of Christian communities to live securely, access holy sites, sustain their institutions and remain present in the land where Christianity was born.

Partners of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem report that Gaza’s humanitarian emergency continues to deepen. During April and May, more than 250 people were killed and thousands injured. Since the October 2025 ceasefire, reported fatalities have exceeded 9,130, around half of them women or children.

Restrictions on humanitarian access, combined with severe shortages of fuel, medicines, food and medical supplies, are pushing an already overstretched health system towards collapse. Water insecurity affects 78% of households; 87% report barriers to accessing sanitation facilities; and nearly half report sewage or solid-waste accumulation near shelters. Between late April and the end of May, acute respiratory infections accounted for 48% of reported infectious-disease cases, skin diseases for 30%, and acute watery diarrhoea for 20%.

People living with chronic illnesses face particular danger. Around 52% of required medicines for chronic conditions are unavailable, affecting those with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and renal failure.

Yet, amid these conditions, Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza continues to provide life-saving care around the clock. Staff work in three shifts, treating approximately 600–700 patients each day. Its services include trauma and emergency care, surgery, treatment for chronic and infectious disease, burns care, psychosocial support, oncology, rehabilitation, and maternal and child health. The hospital has recently opened an additional operating theatre, taking its operational capacity to four theatres.

Ahli is more than a hospital. It is a visible expression of Christian service to the whole community, providing care according to need in one of the most challenging contexts in the world. Its ability to continue depends on sustained access to fuel, medicines, equipment, spare parts and support for staff.

In the West Bank, escalating settler violence, military operations and movement restrictions are compounding a severe economic and public-health crisis. Approximately 280 Palestinian communities were reportedly directly affected by settler violence in recent weeks. Around 925 physical obstacles – including checkpoints, road gates, barriers and road closures – across the West Bank are restricting access to work, markets, land, healthcare and places of worship.

The withholding of Palestinian tax revenues is also having grave consequences. The Ministry of Health is reported to be operating facilities only two days a week rather than five, while more than 860 medicines were reported out of stock or at critically low levels in early June. This is forcing more vulnerable patients to seek care from already pressured charitable and faith-based providers.

St Luke’s Hospital in Nablus, operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, is absorbing a growing number of patients who cannot afford care and who can no longer rely on public provision. It continues to serve patients according to need, despite unprecedented demand and severe constraints.

For Christians in Jerusalem and across the West Bank, these pressures are also a direct FoRB concern. Christian families face insecurity, economic hardship, restrictions on movement and access, harassment and settler violence, including when trying to reach holy sites and places of worship. These conditions are contributing to emigration and to the gradual erosion of the indigenous Christian presence in the Holy Land.

Protecting this presence is not simply about safeguarding a religious minority. It is about defending the pluralism, dignity and shared heritage of the region, and ensuring that people of all faiths can live, worship and contribute to their communities without fear.

Urgent advocacy asks

The UK Government should use every available diplomatic channel to press for:

• An immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza, with effective protection for civilians;
• Safe, unrestricted and sustained humanitarian access throughout Gaza, including fuel, medicines, food, water, shelter materials and medical equipment;
• Protection for healthcare facilities, patients, health workers and humanitarian personnel in line with international humanitarian law;
• An end to settler violence and actions that obstruct safe access to homes, land, livelihoods, healthcare and places of worship in the West Bank;
• The release of Palestinian tax revenues to allow essential public institutions, particularly the Ministry of Health, to function;
• Protection for Christian communities, their properties and their freedom to worship, including safe and non-discriminatory access to holy sites;

Humanitarian action, protection of civilians and freedom of religion or belief cannot be separated. The people and institutions continuing to serve in Gaza and the West Bank need more than expressions of concern: they need protection, access, accountability and sustained international action now.