‘A Jewish duty to save lives’: World Jewish Relief on its work inside Gaza

For more than 90 years, World Jewish Relief has been synonymous with the Jewish community’s global humanitarian response – from rescuing 65,000 Jews from Nazi Europe as the Central British Fund in 1933, to providing employment for today’s refugees in Britain and life-saving aid in Ukraine. But in the last year, the charity has taken a step few could have imagined.

“We distilled it down to a set of simple humanitarian principles,” says chief executive Paul Anticoni. “We’re a Jewish humanitarian agency born out of a desire to help communities in crisis. We felt we were doing as much as we could to assist a crisis in Israel, and we felt some responsibility within our humanitarian capabilities, because we could do something, the responsibility increases.”

For decades, World Jewish Relief had not worked directly in Israel. Instead, it focuses on crises elsewhere, supporting Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, responding to disasters, and more recently leading the UK’s Jewish response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That changed after 7 October, 2023. “The needs of Israelis post 7 October were unfathomable, incomprehensible,” Anticoni recalls. “There was no way we could not be responding to needs in Israel.”

Within days, WJR diverted balance-sheet funds to support the Israeli Trauma Coalition. But the organisation also began to confront another reality: the “growing challenges within the Palestinian community” in Gaza. “As an organisation which is built around a principle of humanity, if there’s need we feel a responsibility to see if we could, in some way, reduce that unmet need,” he explains.

The decision was not taken lightly. Anticoni went directly to Israel’s authorities for guidance. “We went to the president of Israel’s office to understand what Israeli policy was, and it was a clear policy to help trusted partners… to assist Palestinians that needed support. Israel was quite open about that responsibility.” From there, WJR consulted COGAT, the Israeli defence body overseeing Gaza crossings. They identified an international partner – unnamed for security reasons – that could meet WJR’s strict due diligence standards and was already operating two mobile field hospitals independent of Hamas-run structures.

“I found a partner that can deliver service. I’ve got funding that means I don’t need to touch anybody’s donation. It’s money we’ll never get in any other shape or form, but it’s delivering services to Palestinians,” Anticoni says. The initial focus was maternity and neonatal care – “almost a no-brainer in terms of primary needs” – but the work quickly expanded.

Since mid-2024, those field hospitals have delivered care on a remarkable scale. “Over that 12-month period, delivering something like 3,000 babies… a provision of support of 35,000 children suffering from various different nutritional defects… providing support to a couple of hundred kids in a neonatal unit,” Anticoni details. The partner also became involved in targeted vaccination campaigns for young children, alongside wider provision of medicines and medical supplies.

Over 3,000 were babies born in Gaza with our help over the last year – that might not have happened otherwise

The work has faced immense challenges: chronic shortages of food, medical supplies, and fuel. “Hospitals we’re supporting… depend on something like three to 4,000 litres of fuel a day. We were down to an absolute bare minimum,” he says, noting recent improvements thanks to limited aid flows. Despite the obstacles, WJR has expanded its support. “We’ve added a component now… supporting IsraAID, who are procuring medicines and medical supplies in Israel, able to provide them cross-border to the hospitals that we’re supporting as well. So actually, a double whammy – supporting the hospitals to deliver services, supporting IsraAID to provide medical supplies.”

Anticoni acknowledged the sensitivity of the move. “We knew we wouldn’t do something and hide it, because that’s just not how we work. So, we had to tell people what we were doing, and we broadcast it to our supporters… done with the permission of Israeli authorities at the highest level, targeting mothers and babies in Gaza.” Crucially, the initiative has won broad support across the community – from the Chief Rabbi’s Office and United Synagogue to Progressive Judaism and JW3. “I’m immensely proud that those communal organisations said it’s the right thing to be doing. And that, I think, really espouses our Jewish values in the bravest and most courageous, but high-risk ways.”

I’m immensely proud that those communal organisations said it’s the right thing to be doing. That really espouses our Jewish values in the bravest and most courageous but high-risk ways

For Anticoni, the real measure of success remains concrete: “A life saved and a life changed, a baby that survives, a mother that gives birth safely in that context, under enormous trauma, is important. Over 3,000 were babies born in Gaza with our help over the last year – that might not have happened otherwise. But I think we have a beautiful responsibility to be doing what we can to save that life.”

The charity continues to provide trauma support in Israel while also delivering life-saving services for innocent Palestinians in Gaza, alongside leading Jewish humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Haiti and beyond. “We can’t be everything to everyone everywhere, but if we can save a life and we can do that effectively and safely, then we feel a responsibility to try,” Anticoni says. “At a time when our community is beating itself up about how divided we are, actually we should also be proud that we, as a community, are supporting organisations such as World Jewish Relief.”