Mennonite
Central
Committee

MCC monitoring deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza

Gladys Terichow
June 30, 2006

MCC is closely monitoring the humanitarian consequences of the Israeli assault on Gaza, says the director of MCC's program in the Middle East.

The escalation of violence, closure of crossing points to Gaza and disruption of electricity and water is causing great hardship among the civilian Palestinian population, said Rick Janzen in Winnipeg.

MCC workers, he said, are in conversation with other relief and development agencies working in Gaza and with MCC partners in Gaza about the worsening humanitarian situation and possible emergency responses.

MCC currently supports a children's center in the Khan Younis refugee camp through MCC's Global Family sponsorship program, a women's health center in Khan Younis town and a women's food processing center in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

MCC partner organizations in the Gaza Strip have suspended some of their programs temporarily as electricity has been cut off to most Gaza residents and water supplies are threatened.

Majeda al-Sakka, program manager for the Culture and Free Thought Association in Khan Younis, reports that the start of the MCC-sponsored summer camp will be delayed. MCC-supported community development and other projects in the West Bank have generally continued uninterrupted.

MCC does not have any workers living in the Gaza Strip. All MCC workers in West Bank and Jerusalem are safe.

 

Prayer for Gaza

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