The destruction of Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza city in an Israeli air strike last Sunday, tore “very strongly at my heart,” Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough Michael Jackson has said.
The medical facility, the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza City, was run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, part of the Anglican Church, which has close ties with the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough.
It was the fifth attack on the hospital since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.
“To see it reduced to rubble – it’s a bit like a nuclear wasteland – would tear very strongly at my heart,” Archbishop Jackson said in statement on the Church of Ireland’s website.
“As far back as 2018 I was there. I was physically in that hospital. I saw its workings, I saw the commitment and integrity of the people responsible for it and the people who carried out all the medical and nursing facilities, and actually celebrated Holy Communion in its chapel.”
Last year the Church of Ireland raised more than €220,000 for restoration of the hospital following an attack in October 2023. It was badly damaged in an explosion then, which killed more than 200 people sheltering there and injured many more.
The Israel Defense Forces and Hamas disputed responsibility for that blast.
In May 2024 the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem Hosam Naoum visited Dublin, where they took part in a joint retreat with clergy of the Dublin and Glendalough dioceses.
At a special service in St Ann’s Church on Dawson Street in Dublin, Archbishop Naoum warmly thanked the Church of Ireland dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough for the €216,000 they raised for rebuilding the Al Ahli Hospital.
In a statement last Sunday, Palm Sunday, the Diocese of Jerusalem strongly condemned the air strike on the hospital.
It recalled how “a mere 20 minutes prior to the attack, the Israeli army ordered all patients, employees, and displaced people to immediately evacuate the hospital premises prior to its bombing”.
One child who had previously suffered a head injury died in the evacuation.
The Diocese of Jerusalem said it was “appalled” at the bombing of the hospital “on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week”.
Archbishop Jackson said people in the diocese of Jerusalem were now “entirely horrified.” He said it was not lost on him that this air strike happened on Palm Sunday, at the beginning of the most significant week in the Christian calendar.
“We walk in solidarity and in sadness with the brave souls – staff and patients – who have kept Al Ahli Hospital functioning against the odds for so so long,” he said.
“I share their outrage, having experienced their selfless work and worshipped with them in their hospital chapel, at the destruction and desecration of the hospital – a place of care and healing for all in need.”
