12/15/23
In the wake of October 7, NATAN established five clinics for evacuees from the south, providing medical, dental and psychosocial care to more than 2,000 men, women, and children. While Israel is a modern country with competent health services, NATAN, as a small NGO, delivers essential interventions. Our reasons are threefold:
First, our responsiveness Within 24 hours, NATAN volunteers opened the doors of a new clinic and received our first patients, work that requires weeks to achieve within formal, official structures.
Second, our commitment to humanitarian care. Listening to people in crisis and providing psychosocial support are vital to the practice of humanitarian medicine. The suffering of our clinic patients goes beyond physical symptoms; health-care providers in NATAN clinics give the patients they treat the time and empathy to establish trust and open a meaningful dialogue.
Third, our duty, as members of Israeli civil society, to fully assume responsibility for our brothers’ and sisters’ care.
Nimble, rapid responsiveness, dedication to humanitarian care and an abiding sense of duty make NATAN an essential force in the immediate aftermath and recovery of the October 7 pogrom. We will continue in this work until it is complete — until all in need receive the care every human being deserves.
This week, NATAN joined scores of humanitarian organizations in an open letter to the United Nations, excerpted below (find it in full here. on the NATAN website).
As humanitarians, we work continuously . . . to create a more equal and sustainable future, many of us providing emergency assistance to any community that faces existential challenges, even in countries with which Israel has no official diplomatic relations.
Now, . . . we find ourselves betrayed by the international community. . . . [C]ore humanitarian principles are being undermined by the lack of meaningful recognition towards the crimes perpetrated by Hamas in Israel . . . [that] have severely damaged our trust in the intentions, values, and impartiality of the UN institutions.
We expect . . . a clear and unequivocal condemnation [by] the women’s rights organizations for the acts of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence; a clear and unequivocal condemnation [by] children’s rights organizations for the kidnapping, murder and torture of babies and the abduction of children. . . . [W]e cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza due to the military operation. We call upon all parties to do their utmost to keep civilians outside the cycle of violence.
Above all else, we, the Israeli humanitarian community, will continue to fulfill our moral duty and help wherever and whenever is needed around the world, based on our core values of maintaining human rights and dignity, promoting gender equality, striving for peace and advancing global sustainability.
Help NATAN help Israeli communities with your generous support.
In response to the tragic events of October 7, NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief, in collaboration with Clalit Health Services and the Ministry of Health, swiftly established three humanitarian clinics in Shefayim, the Dead Sea, and Eilat to provide essential medical and psychosocial care for evacuees from the Gaza Strip.
At Leonardo Royal Resort in Eilat, NATAN clinic volunteers were honored to share the Chanukah holiday with evacuees and survivors of the October 7th attack. With a mixture of sadness, uncertainty and hope, these survivors manage to celebrate, even though their homes remain under fire.
As families and children lit the candles and said traditional prayers, the room was filled with light, notwithstanding grief for casualties of the war, worry for hostages still held in Gaza, and the soldiers fighting at the front. Most do not know when they will be able to go home – for those whose homes remain intact. Despite all odds, these families look forward to better, safer days.
In Eilat, a bustling dental clinic treats patients seeking care.
Read more here about NATAN’s projects in Israel, in support of October 7 families, survivors and evacuees.
Oded Regev, a widowed father of two from Kibbutz Magal Michael, plays a pivotal role as NATAN’s Head of Logistics. Since 2016, he has led NATAN missions to Serbia, Greece, Haiti, Mozambique, and Poland.
Oded writes:
On a single day in October, just two weeks after the massacre in Southern Israel, I visited approximately 15 hotels in Ein Bokek. Each hotel—whether hosting members of Kibbutz Be’eri, people from Saad, residents of Sderot, or individuals from Ofakim—echoed the unique characteristics of the communities from which its guests originated.
On a single day in October, just two weeks after the massacre in Southern Israel, I visited approximately 15 hotels in Ein Bokek. Each hotel—whether hosting members of Kibbutz Be’eri, people from Saad, residents of Sderot, or individuals from Ofakim—echoed the unique characteristics of the communities from which its guests originated.
For those spending time at these all-inclusive hotels, this isn’t precisely their holiday routine.
I tried to grasp the enormity of this event and then it hit me: It felt just like the transit camps with Syrian refugees in Serbia, just as it was with Ukrainian refugees in Poland, and now it is here in my home in Israel. It’s us.