The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS)
The Palestine Red Crescent Society, officially founded in 1968, is a national humanitarian organization. Since its establishment, it caters to the health and welfare of the Palestinian people and others in need in the OPT and the Diaspora. PRCS has 4,200 employees in oPt (West Bank and Gaza Strip), Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq in addition to its volunteer network of more than 20,000 people.
Being auxiliary to the public authorities, PRCS provides health and social services to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups within the Palestinian population. PRCS is mandated by the Palestinian Authority to provide National Ambulance and Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
PRCS is a full member of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and therefore adheres to the Movement’s fundamental principles.
The context
The humanitarian context of Palestine remains to be considered as a unique chronic protracted crisis that is caused mainly by the occupation, which marked its 50th year on July 2017.
Based on the 2018 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO); “At least 1.9 million Palestinians experience, or are at risk of, conflict and violence, displacement and denial of access to livelihoods, among other threats. The most vulnerable Palestinians are currently denied or restricted in their access to essential services such as water and health care. A recurrent cycle of shocks, natural and manmade, has eroded the resilience of vulnerable households to cope with the prolonged nature of the humanitarian crisis.”In the West Bank, especially in Area C which represents over than 60% of the total space of the West Bank, in addition to East Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities have the exclusive control, and exercise daily policies that impose ruthless restrictions on the various aspects of the normal daily life of the Palestinian population, leaving them to highly suffers from –in particular- increasing rates of land confiscation, building of settlements, demolitions of houses, restrictions on movement and checkpoints, arrests and settlers violence.
In the Gaza Strip, 10 years of the blockade imposed by the Israeli authorities, 3 large scale wars and the internal division, have resulted in a severely deteriorated humanitarian situation, leaving a population of 1.94 million Palestinians living in the biggest open-air prison in history.2 As a result, the Gaza Strip suffers from immense shortages of medical supplies, electricity and fuel, in addition to vast restrictions on movement with a very high rate of permits denial for patients seeking treatment outside of Gaza.
Situation Analysis
Following the declaration of the United States President Donald Trump on December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and deciding to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018, a vast wave of anger took place in Palestine, on the various levels, and has led to an up scaling of violence and is expected to continue.
In March, the Palestinians have announced that a series of peaceful activities and events will take place under the banner of “The Great March of Return”, calling for their Right to Return as per the UN Resolution 194, resolving that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”3 In light of the above, mass demonstrations started to take place on the Land Day- 30th of March and are expected to continue even after the 15th of May- marking the 70th year of Nakba.
Demonstrations and camps are set along Israel’s perimeter fence with Gaza, and the main and most violent events takes place every Friday, resulting in high numbers of casualties. The Israeli Forces have significantly increased their troops along the fence, including tanks and snipers.