Through one of its longtime partners in Gaza, Mennonite Central Committee provided emergency bedding supplies to about 2,000 displaced people, or 150 households, in Gaza in late July.
The $35,000 project included items such as mattresses, sheets, pillows and plastic mats.
By the fifth week of the most recent Hamas-Israel conflict, the Palestinian death toll had risen above 1,900, the majority civilians. More than 60 Israelis, most of them soldiers, had died.
Earlier in July, MCC and its partner, Al Najd Development Forum, completed a $25,000 food distribution of locally purchased items to 230 families in Gaza. MCC is assessing a potential further food response.
Additional needs abound in Gaza, according to a July 23 report from the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Among these are water and sanitation services. Six sewage pumping stations and 15 wells were not operating, meaning that 1.2 million people, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population, had limited or no access to water and sanitation.
Al Najd is a community-based organization begun by women to provide programs and services for women and their families.
“MCC continues to communicate daily with MCC partner Al Najd in Gaza,” said Joanna Hiebert Bergen, a representative for MCC Palestine and Israel.
“They are exhausted yet work tirelessly to get food and supplies out to families who have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed and often are grieving the loss of relatives as well.”
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