
QRCS, Palestinian counterpart sign pacts to support ambulance, emergency services in West Bank
Doha
Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has signed two cooperation agreements with Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), to support the latter's ambulance and emergency medical services in the West Bank with medications, medical equipment and consumables, and four ambulance vehicles.
The agreements aim to improve EMS preparedness and response across Palestinian governorates and make them better able to rescue the patients and injured people.
Worth $490,299 and $170,999 respectively, the two agreements were signed by Faisal Mohamed Al Emadi, secretary-general of QRCS, and Khaled Abu Ghoush, director-general of PRCS.
In a statement, Al Emadi explained that these agreements represented part of QRCS's ongoing support for PRCS, inspired by Qatar's unwavering commitment to standing by the Palestinian people and providing every form of assistance in the face of a multiple-decade ordeal.
'Meeting the basic needs of the Palestinian people and alleviating their daily suffering are top priorities of QRCS's international work,' he emphasised.
Abu Ghoush stated, 'We value the vital backing given by QRCS to PRCS's Ambulance and EMS Department, with the ambulance vehicles, medications, and medical supplies provided to improve our preparedness and responsiveness, which would enable us to save lives, especially at times of emergency.'
He added, 'This partnership serves as a laudable model of humanitarian integration and solidarity, particularly amid the current difficult and worsening humanitarian conditions in Palestine, which have had a direct impact on the health system. This makes it more imperative to upgrade ambulance and emergency services, in order to meet the growing needs and challenges.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Qatar Tribune
2 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
Number of aid seekers killed by Israel in Gaza tops 1,000: UN
Agencies Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians as they were trying to access food in Gaza since the United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operations at the end of May, according to the United Nations. 'As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations' aid convoys,' UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told the AFP news agency on Tuesday, stating the victims had been 'killed by the Israeli military'. On Tuesday alone, Israeli forces killed at least 43 Palestinians, including 10 aid seekers, in attacks across Gaza since dawn, a day after tanks pushed into southern and eastern parts of central Gaza's Deir el-Balah city for the first time. Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and humanitarian blockade, which it only partially lifted in March, continues to plunge the Palestinian territory into an increasingly dire malnutrition crisis as at least 15 people, including four children, have died due to starvation and malnutrition in Gaza within 24 hours, the enclave's Ministry of Health said on Tuesday. One was a child from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and another was a 40-day-old baby in the north, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic. Over the past three days, 21 children have died from malnutrition and starvation, the team reported. 'These deaths were recorded at hospitals in Gaza, including al-Shifa in Gaza City, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis … over the past 72 hours,' Mohammed Abu Salmiya, head of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, told reporters on Tuesday. This brings the total number of hunger-related deaths in the Gaza Strip to 101, including 80 children, since Israel launched its war on the enclave after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said more than one million children in Gaza are going hungry. Rachel Cummings, Save the Children's humanitarian director, described the situation in Gaza as 'catastrophic'. Speaking to Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah, she said there has been no adequate food supplies in Gaza for a very long time. The markets are empty, and the water sanitation situation is not adequate to meet the needs of 2 million people 'who are all on the brink of famine', Cummings said. She said that in Deir el-Balah, she has seen 'hungry people, children carrying empty bowls, looking for food, looking for water'. 'We're seeing an increased number of children in our clinics and our nutrition centres who are malnourished. … We're also seeing an increase in the number of pregnant women and breastfeeding women who are also malnourished,' she said, adding: 'Everyone in Gaza is hungry now, and even in my team, I see visibly my team are thin, and also they cannot get food in the market.' 'Man-made' famine Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, has called the starvation in Gaza a 'man-made' famine. 'What we are seeing now in Gaza is the most horrific stage of Israel's starvation campaign,' Fakhri told Al Jazeera. The UN rapporteur underlined that the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in November for 'crimes against humanity and war crimes' committed during the Gaza war – allegations that are partly related to the use of starvation. He said the arrest warrants 'create a legal obligation: Countries must act to stop starvation.' Medical personnel are also affected by Israel's starvation tactics as doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers in Gaza are 'fainting due to hunger and exhaustion', UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said. 'Right now, I am seeing severe hunger and starvation amongst both my colleagues and my patients. … I see people that struggle to get through a day's work because they don't have the energy to do their normal duties,' said Deirdre Nunan, a Canadian orthopaedic surgeon, speaking from Nasser Hospital, where she is currently volunteering.


Qatar Tribune
4 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
Israeli forces kill 92 aid seekers in Gaza
Agencies Tel Aviv At least 115 people, including 92 aid seekers, were killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza. More than 200 people wounded. Two more Palestinians, including a 35-day-old infant, have died of malnutrition at Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital. Local health authorities reported 67 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza in the morning alone. The victims had been unarmed, the outlet reported, citing eyewitnesses. Many bodies were still lying on the streets in the north-west of Gaza City. According to several reports, people had been waiting near a border crossing to Israel for trucks carrying aid supplies. A further two people were killed near the Al-Shakoush aid distribution point to the north of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, WAFA reported. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial agency backed by Israel and the United States as a substitute for UN-organized aid operations, maintains a distribution point to the north of Rafah, according to Palestinian reports. There was no statement from the GHF. UN and other aid organizations report catastrophic conditions in the Gaza Strip, whose almost 2 million residents are almost entirely dependent on aid to survive following almost 22 months of fighting between Israel and Palestinian extremist group Hamas. According to UN figures, hundreds have died in the vicinity of aid distribution points and around aid convoys since the end of May. Footage shows dead bodies Footage shared on Palestinian and social media shows several bodies following Israeli shelling in the north-west of Gaza City. A dead boy and his distraught relatives can also be seen. The authenticity of the footage and the reports could not initially be independently verified.


Qatar Tribune
5 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
37 killed in Israeli raid near aid collection point in Gaza
dpa Gaza Israeli soldiers killed at least 37 people near a distribution centre for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical sources on Saturday. About 100 people were injured by Israeli army gunfire and shelling in the Khan Younis area in the south of the sealed-off coastal region, according to medical circles at the local Nasser Hospital. They were transferred to the hospital from the al-Tina area in Khan Younis. The medical source said that the death toll is expected to increase due to the seriousness of a large number of cases. The Israeli army said it was investigating the incident, in response to a query. The controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is currently responsible for the distribution of food in the Gaza Strip. Supported by Israel and the US, the foundation began its work at the end of May after a months-long Israeli blockade of aid deliveries. But the UN has criticized the fact that the foundation operates too few distribution centres and that people there and on their way to them are exposed to extreme danger. Hundreds of people have been killed near the distribution centres and around aid convoys since the end of May, according to the UN. Mohammed Al-Khalidi, speaking to Reuters, pointed the finger at the Israeli army for the attack. He said he was part of a group of Palestinians who had been told the GHF aid distribution centre was open, but when they arrived tanks began moving towards them and opened fire. 'It wasn't shots that were to scare us or to organize us, it was shots that were targeted to kill us, if they wanted to organize us they would have, but they meant to kill us.' On 15 July, the UN human rights office said it had so far recorded 674 killings in the vicinity of the GHF's four sites in southern and central Gaza over the past six weeks. Another 201 killings had been recorded along routes of UN and other aid convoys, it added. The UN also said this week that the number of acutely malnourished children has doubled since Israel began restricting food entering the territory in March. Despite the creation of the GHF significant amounts of aid, including baby formula, is still being blocked at the border. On Friday, the director of one field hospital said in a statement that they had an unprecedented influx of patients suffering from severe exhaustion, emaciation and acute malnutrition. So far, 69 children have died from malnutrition during the increasing humanitarian crisis, according to the Hamas government media office. On Friday, US President Donald Trump once again suggested a ceasefire deal was very near – but a Palestinian official told the BBC that talks remain blocked, with a latest troop withdrawal map proposed by Israel still unacceptable to Hamas.