Cancer Doesn't Wait for Peace: An Update from Al Ahli Hospital
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Cancer Doesn't Wait for Peace: An Update from Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza City
Our partners at Al Ahli Arab Hospital - run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem - in Gaza City. In one of the most difficult places on earth to provide healthcare, they are launching something full of hope. This month Al Ahli is running its Pink October campaign for breast cancer awareness, encouraging women to come forward for early screening.
The only mammography service in Gaza
Al Ahli is currently the only hospital in Gaza providing mammography. Its digital mammography machine is the only one still working anywhere in the Strip, and it survived two years of war when so much else was destroyed. For women across Gaza, that single machine is the difference between catching cancer early, while it can still be treated, and finding it too late.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Gaza. Before the war, around 400 women were diagnosed each year. During the fighting, screening simply stopped. As the hospital's director said at the launch, women's health was frankly neglected while everyone struggled to survive. As our partner told us:
Breast cancer does not stop because there is war. And delayed diagnosis can turn a treatable disease into a life-threatening one.
Since the relative calm, Al Ahli has restarted screening for women over 40. The early results are sobering. Of the first 1,000 or so women screened, around 40 were found to have cancer. That is far higher than would normally be expected, and it is the hidden cost of two years without diagnosis. Each of those 40 women now has a chance at treatment that she would not otherwise have had.
Free care, from screening to surgery
Al Ahli offers all of this free of charge. Women can receive a mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy and analysis, and surgery where it is needed, all without paying. In a place where families have lost almost everything, this means no woman has to choose between her health and feeding her children.
The hospital's director reminded those gathered at the launch that "Al Ahli" means "of the people". The hospital has served the people of Gaza since 1882, and its message to every woman is that the hospital is hers and its doors are open to her.
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Why this matters now
A ceasefire was agreed a year ago, in October 2025. Even so, Gaza's health system is still close to collapse. Palestinian statistics from March 2026 show that 94% of hospitals have been destroyed or damaged and that none of Gaza's 36 hospitals can operate at full capacity. In May, the World Health Organization reported that only around half of hospitals and health centres were even partially working, held back by shortages of medicines and supplies. Restrictions on items classed as "dual-use" continue to slow the arrival of critical equipment.
In conflict, attention naturally goes to the emergency: the wounded, the displaced, the hungry. But illness does not wait for peace. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, pregnancy and childbirth all carry on. When routine diagnosis and treatment disappear, people die of conditions that could have been caught in time. Al Ahli's screening results show exactly what that looks like. Keeping essential services running is not a luxury alongside the emergency response. It is part of saving lives.
None of this happens in isolation. Mosaic supporters have stood alongside Al Ahli through some of the hardest times in its long history. Your prayers, your interest and your generosity have helped keep the hospital's doors open. They have helped its staff keep working, and they have helped make sure women in Gaza can still turn to Al Ahli for care when there is almost nowhere else to go.
The screening programme is one sign of what that faithful support makes possible. Behind each of those 1,000 screenings, and each of the 40 women now facing treatment rather than an undiagnosed illness, is a partnership that has held firm through war, displacement and uncertainty.
That is why we continue to stand with our partners in Gaza. We don't do it only in moments of crisis, but day by day, so that essential services like these can carry on. We are deeply grateful to everyone who makes that possible.
Please also keep Al Ahli's staff and patients in your prayers. Pray for their safety and strength, and especially for the women who have received a cancer diagnosis this year and face treatment in such hard conditions.
The hospital asked us to pass on their deep gratitude for your support. In their words, it has been instrumental in keeping Al Ahli open and providing essential care, including the early detection of breast cancer. Thank you for standing with them.
As the team at Al Ahli put it: even in the darkest circumstances, early detection can mean hope, and hope can mean life.
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