Courtesy of Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS)
For more than five decades, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has been the backbone of the emergency medical response for Palestinians, both in the occupied Palestinian territory and across the refugee diaspora. Amid one of the gravest humanitarian crises of the century now unfolding in Gaza, PRCS continues to serve as both a lifeline and a symbol of resilience. The organization’s mission is clear: to prevent and alleviate human suffering, protect life and health, preserve dignity, and provide health, social, and humanitarian services at all times, during peace, war, crisis, or natural disaster.
PRCS accomplishes its mission thanks to the following programs and services in six fields: Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provide 24/7 lifesaving ambulance services and hospital care, supported by community-based first aid to strengthen local resilience; the Disaster Risk Management program prepares for and responds to Israeli occupation-induced crises as well as natural disasters with the provision of relief, shelter, and other forms of emergency readiness; the Community Work Program is delivered through 101 grassroots community work committees across Palestine, which engage thousands of volunteers to help address the social, health, and economic challenges faced by ordinary Palestinians; the Youth and Volunteer Program is a a pioneer in the Palestinian voluntary sector in which PRCS mobilizes and trains youth in community work, fostering leadership skills and resilience the Rehabilitation Program runs 40 rehabilitation centers and units across the West Bank and Gaza in which PRCS supports the social integration of persons with disabilities, working closely with their families and communities of origin; and through its Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) unit, PRCS provides stress management, trauma counseling, and community-based psychosocial services to families scarred by the violence and aggression of the Israeli occupation as well as its staff and volunteers.
Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50 PRCS volunteers and staff despite the protected status of humanitarian workers under international law.
In Gaza, PRCS operates four hospitals: Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, and two field hospitals, Al-Saraya (in Gaza City) and Al-Mawasi (in Khan Younis). Because of Israel’s almost complete destruction of hospitals and medical centers in the territory, PRCS has established over 30 clinics and emergency medical points where it has provided care to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. It is persevering under increasingly horrific conditions as Israel has closed all crossing points, thereby preventing the entry of urgently needed medical supplies for months. Since October 2023, PRCS teams in Gaza have worked tirelessly and under fire, risking their lives to ease suffering and provide emergency rescue services.
The organization’s EMS crews have responded to at least 175,000 calls, while PRCS hospitals and other medical facilities have registered 1.5 million patient visits. Disaster Risk Management teams have distributed food, shelter, and relief aid to nearly one million people, while psychosocial support teams assisted over 446,000 individuals, particularly war-traumatized children and women. In cooperation with WHO and other partners, PRCS has facilitated more than 1,400 medical evacuations for critically injured patients requiring urgent care abroad.
The cost, however, has been staggering: 54 PRCS staff and volunteers have been killed since the genocidal campaign on Gaza began, while dozens more have been injured or lost their families. Despite such unrelenting challenges, PRCS has stood fast, maintaining its work in unimaginable circumstances and reflecting its absolute commitment to humanity.
PRCS teams continue to operate under the most dangerous conditions. In areas marked as red zones by the Israeli occupation forces, they are prevented from reaching people in urgent need – even when families that are trapped in their homes make desperate appeals. These households include elderly people, young children, persons with disabilities, and injured individuals who may bleed to death without aid.
Under international law, EMS teams must be guaranteed safe access to the sick and wounded. In Gaza, however, PRCS medics are routinely denied this right. For staff who dedicate their lives to saving others, being forced to stand helpless while people die has been unbearable.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is an officially recognized, independent Palestinian non-profit association and a proud member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Guided by the Geneva Conventions and the Movement’s seven Fundamental Principles – humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality – PRCS delivers health care, emergency relief, and social services wherever Palestinians in need may be.
The roots of the organization in Palestine go back to 1910, when the first Red Crescent chapter was established in Jerusalem. Decades later, PRCS established a small clinic in a refugee camp in Jordan, and the following year it was legally incorporated as a Palestinian non-profit during the sixth session of the Palestinian National Council (PNC, the Palestinian legislature), held in September 1969 in Cairo.
Ever since, PRCS has grown into one of the largest and most respected humanitarian organizations serving Palestinians in the occupied territory and the diaspora across the Levant. Its legal and institutional status has been reaffirmed by successive presidential decrees, and in June 2006, PRCS gained full membership in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Human Story
When Humanitarians Can’t Reach Those in Need
By Raed Al-Nems
I recall the night of June 30, 2024, when I received a desperate call from the wife of my friend Rami Zaarab. “My children are dying… Rami is bleeding,” she cried, her voice shaking. “Please send an ambulance immediately!” Their home in Rafah had just been bombed.
I pleaded for hours through every channel – calling PRCS emergency teams and urging the International Committee of the Red Cross to coordinate safe passage for them with the Israeli occupation army. But the area was marked “red,” meaning that no ambulances were allowed to enter. Rami and his children lay bleeding and trapped under the rubble, waiting for the help that might save their lives. When PRCS’ Emergency Medical Service crews were finally able to reach their home at dawn the following day, Rami and his four children lay dead; only his wife and infant daughter had survived.
Since that day, I have not slept as I once did. The voice that filled my ears that night never leaves me – the moans of Rami’s wife, her pleas, the echo of her words: “Rami is bleeding, my children are dying, save us, save us …” That voice haunts me every night.
I know what it means to be unable to reach someone in need. I know the piercing pain when international humanitarian law is ignored, when ambulances are blocked, and when children die waiting for help that should be guaranteed. I know how a rescuer’s spirit shatters from within when prevented from saving a life, forced to wait before walls of silence.
I write these words now, after all the feelings of helplessness and despair have built up inside me. I could not save my friend, even though I am part of the humanitarian system.
Where is international humanitarian law? Where is Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which mandates that warring parties provide protection and care for the wounded? Where is the humanitarian coordination that organizations boast about? How can ambulances be prevented from reaching children who are bleeding to death?
Rami isn’t just a name: he was a father, a husband, a friend, a human being of flesh and blood. His children were not numbers in an evening news bulletin – they were little faces dreaming of life, who fell asleep forever beneath the rubble of their home.
I write for Rami, and for all the many we have lost, because silence is betrayal, and because the story is not over. And because that voice still screams inside me: “Save us! Save us!”
Raed Mohammed Al-Nems is the PRCS Director of Media in the Gaza Strip. A father of six, he comes from Rafah (in the southern Gaza Strip) and has been living with his family in a shelter in Al-Mawasi, for more than a year.
