The streets of Gaza no longer look like streets. They have turned to rubble. Tents have replaced homes. Hunger hangs in the air like dust.
Nevertheless, against this backdrop of collapse, there remain people who choose not to give up. People who wake each morning, even after losing homes and loved ones, and decide to serve others before themselves.
Among them are the staff of the Near East Council of Churches, the volunteers of the Spark Foundation for Innovation and Creativity, and the small but steady community of churches whose walls continue to shelter the displaced, despite the general evacuation orders issued by the Israeli Defense Forces.
Their work is fragile, their resources scarce, yet they remain a thread of humanity holding together a people pushed to famine and the brink.
The Near East Council of Churches — known to most as NECC — has been part of Gaza’s life for generations. Founded in 1952, it once operated three health clinics in the strip subsidized by CNEWA that cared for mothers and children, treated chronic diseases and offered family health services. For decades, its clinics were safe havens in a place where health care was always under pressure. But after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, those havens have turned into targets. Two clinics were destroyed or damaged, staff was displaced, and the health system fell apart. It was forced to move its headquarters four times.
Still, NECC did not stop. Mobile clinics were launched, small medical points opened, and staff who had lost their own homes continued to serve strangers.
“In November 2023, we were already operating emergency services for displaced people,” said Lubna Saba, a program coordinator with NECC.
“We screened children under 5 for anemia and malnutrition, provided supplements when we could, cared for pregnant women and new mothers, and continued treatment for diabetes and hypertension. Every day, between 250 and 300 people still come, even now, for the most basic services.”
Read more: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2025-09/gaza-cnewa-humantarian-aid-thread-humanity-mothers-children.html
By Diaa Ostaz – CNEWA
