Not every life-saving intervention happens in the first critical seconds of an emergency. Some institutions support people throughout their lives, including during birth, illnesses, and emergencies.

In Jerusalem, the Red Crescent Society has embodied a long-standing humanitarian commitment to providing care to Palestinians. Through its hospital, clinics, ambulance services, and relief operations, the institution has long been an integral part of the city’s health care and humanitarian landscape.

The Red Crescent’s story is deeply intertwined with the stories of generations of Jerusalemites: patients it treated, wounded citizens that its ambulances reached in time to save, and families who chose its renowned maternity ward to bring their children into the world. Over the years, the institution’s hospital walls have absorbed countless stories about the city and its people.

With its long-standing support for the Palestinian community and the evolution of its medical and relief services over the years, the Red Crescent’s role has gone beyond providing health care—it has become a symbol of humanitarian work and medical presence in Jerusalem. Jerusalem Story visited its location to explore the institution’s history and trace the reasons that have kept it rooted in the city, despite major challenges.

During the visit, the Jerusalem Story Team first spoke with Bushra Mashahara following the birth of her child at the Red Crescent Society Hospital in the al-Sawana neighborhood, about two kilometers from Jerusalem’s Old City. Mashahara shared her experience of delivering her sixth child at the same hospital and the reason she chose the Red Crescent Society Hospital—Jerusalem for the birth of her children.

“I like to spend my recovery period in a bed overlooking al-Aqsa Mosque,”1 she said.

Mashahara went on to explain that the professionalism of the hospital nurses, midwives, and doctors was another major reason she returned for each delivery. She also praised the good service she received before, during, and after childbirth—something she has not found elsewhere in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Story Team asked Mashahara whether the language barrier—specifically Hebrew—was what prevented her from considering Israeli hospitals for childbirth. She replied:

Mashahara revealed that the hotel-style rooms overlooking the Old City and its walls, where women are transferred after giving birth, are also among the hospital’s most appealing attractions and something that distinguishes it from other hospitals.

Mashahara smiled as she said: “During one of my deliveries, none of the rooms overlooking the Old City were available, so I was transferred to one on the opposite side [overlooking settlement outposts]. I remember refusing to put any of my belongings in the room, and I waited until one of the rooms overlooking the city became available, and then I moved there.”

The Jerusalem Story Team then headed to the office of Sufian Basit, chairman of the administrative board of the Red Crescent Society—Jerusalem.

Basit discussed the Society’s origins in Jerusalem and how its role has evolved over the decades. He shared that the Society was founded in 1910, making it the first organization of its kind in the Arab region and the second in the Islamic world. The Egyptian Red Crescent followed in 1911. Basit explained that the main difference between the two institutions is that the Jerusalem society was established within the framework of the Ottoman Empire, while the Egyptian organization was founded as a national society. Therefore, some people consider the Egyptian Red Crescent to have been the first independent national Red Crescent society.

The Red Crescent Society in Jerusalem has operated through several political phases, beginning with the Colonial British Mandate, followed by Jordanian administration, and eventually reaching the current period of Israeli rule, according to Basit. He noted that the Society’s work fluctuated during the British Mandate period, and that its work was reestablished under the structure that exists today in 1951.

Jerusalem, however, occupies a particular place in the Society’s work, one that distinguishes it from its activities elsewhere in Palestine. Basit revealed that working in Jerusalem has a different character:

Basit then discussed the Society’s most important historical milestones in the city. He spoke of its establishment under Ottoman rule in 1910. It began as a local chapter of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.

Under the British Mandate and during the years following its termination including the 1948 War, there were fluctuations in the Society’s activities. Basit then highlighted what he described as its “second founding” in 1951, during the tenure of Dr. Salim Ma‘touq.

The Society officially began operating as a maternity hospital inside the Old City in 1953. It later moved to premises near the Old City after renting two adjoining houses from the Jerusalemite al-Husseini family. The Society remained there until 1995 and then moved its operations to a building that it purchased in the al-Sawana neighborhood. In 2017, the Red Crescent bought another building in al-Sawana and converted it into hotel-style accommodations for women recovering after childbirth; an additional floor dedicated to these services opened in 2023.

Today, the hospital has 37 maternity beds and 10 emergency beds. Basit considers this capacity insufficient, making it one of the challenges that the institution faces.

The Jerusalem Story Team asked Basit to explain how the Society views its role in protecting Palestinians’ right to access health care in Jerusalem.

He shared the following:

Basit added that the Red Crescent’s presence in Jerusalem extends beyond its historical and cultural significance. It also plays an important humanitarian and community role, providing care to women, children, older people, and adolescents through numerous initiatives and a large network of volunteers.

The Society operates several clinics that provide women with care before and during pregnancy, as well as childbirth, postnatal follow-up, and treatment for a wide range of gynecologic conditions. It also provides primary health-care vaccinations for children at little to no cost. The vaccination center serves Jerusalemites who are eligible for health insurance, as well as those who have lost their coverage for various reasons.

The Society also runs two fertility clinics, one in al-Sawana and another in the Kufr ‘Aqab neighborhood, beyond the Separation Wall. By the end of this year, all services for patients seeking fertility treatment are expected to be moved to Kufr ‘Aqab because of the difficulties in obtaining the necessary permits for facilities located within the wall.

These services, along with others such as the Society’s two dental clinics, help Palestinians remain rooted in Jerusalem. “The mere presence of the Society within their community, among their customs and traditions, while providing services in the environment where they live, is itself a form of support and assistance,” Basit said.

Basit could not provide an exact annual figure for the number of beneficiaries of the hospital’s services. “The numbers are enormous and simply too large to quantify,” he said. “We vaccinate around 3,500 children every year, while our clinics see hundreds of patients every day.”

The services are also not limited to childbirth. They include pregnancy follow-up appointments, gynecologic emergencies, care for premature babies, and ambulance services.

Moreover, the Jerusalem Story Team discussed with Basit the Society’s ambulance operations, its scale, and its daily work in Jerusalem. Basit revealed that the Red Crescent is the only organization that transports Palestinians from the West Bank governorates outside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem to hospitals in the city. It was also the only organization authorized to transport patients and injured people between Gaza and hospitals in the West Bank and Jerusalem, in both directions. This specific service, however, has been suspended since the outbreak of 2023 Gaza War.

“There are international agreements affirming the Red Crescent’s mandate in the territories occupied in 1967, but the Israeli side does not abide by them,” Basit said.

The Society’s ambulance operations fall into two main areas. The first is its daily emergency work: responding to incidents such as heart attacks, respiratory emergencies, strokes, fractures, and accidents involving children. The second involves emergency medical services during unrest, confrontations, and other major events in the city. According to Basit, the Society’s staff and volunteers provide these services free of charge as part of its responsibility to the community.

Progressively restricted operations: Basit also shared that the Society was historically responsible for providing medical services to Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem’s Old City during Ramadan; however, in recent years, its role has been progressively restricted.

Israeli authorities first began banning ambulances from entering the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, followed by bans on medical teams setting up first-aid tents to treat worshippers. The measures were then expanded to prevent teams from bringing in medical equipment and ambulances reaching the Old City’s vicinity. Eventually, the Red Crescent was completely barred from entering al-Aqsa Mosque.

Military checkpoints surrounding Jerusalem further restrict the Red Crescent’s freedom of movement. Ambulance traffic is largely limited to using the severely congested Hizma and Qalandiya checkpoints (see Checkpoints, Part 1), causing delays in reaching patients and transporting them to hospitals. These delays can result in serious consequences for what Basit described as the “medical window”—the critical period during which early intervention can make a significant difference in saving a patient’s life.

Back-to-back transfers: There is an ambulance service known as the back-to-back transfer. In this system, a Palestinian-registered ambulance brings a patient from areas in the West Bank to a military checkpoint at the entrance of Jerusalem where a Red Crescent ambulance, bearing an Israeli license plate, approaches and waits from the Jerusalem side. At the checkpoint, the two ambulances open their rear doors, and the patient is transferred from one vehicle to the other. The ambulance arriving from the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas and bearing a West Bank license plate then turns back, as it is not permitted to pass through the checkpoint and transport patients into Jerusalem or other areas inside Israel.

Despite all these challenges, Basit is proud that the Red Crescent Society Hospital remains the leading destination for childbirth in East Jerusalem. He attributes this to the hospital’s decades of experience in maternity care, as well as the preference of many Jerusalemite women to deliver their babies close to al-Aqsa Mosque, a place where they can look toward the Holy City and receive care from medical staff who speak their language and share similar customs and traditions.

Basit stressed that the political situation inevitably impacts the institution, as it does every other aspect of life in Jerusalem. He noted that the number of women choosing to give birth at the hospital rises significantly during periods of heightened security tensions and war. In such circumstances, women are often reluctant to risk encounters with the other side amid an increasingly charged atmosphere.

During these periods, the Society’s ambulance crews—both employees and volunteers—remain on maximum alert, ready to provide emergency care and transport injured patients. About 20 ambulances line up in the large courtyard outside the building that houses the hotel-style recovery facilities for women after childbirth.

A four-minute walk from this facility brings visitors to the main hospital building that houses the gynecology clinics, delivery rooms, and operating rooms. The Jerusalem Story Team toured the building, moving between the delivery rooms and the rooms where women spend the first few hours after giving birth before transferring to the hotel-style recovery rooms.

At the end of the tour, the Jerusalem Story Team spoke with Dr. Shaker Awad, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology at the Red Crescent Society Hospital. Awad is originally from the village of Kufr ‘Abbush, southeast of Tulkarm in the West Bank. After studying medicine in Egypt, he began his specialist training and professional career at the Red Crescent Society Hospital—Jerusalem in early October 2014.

“My relationship with Jerusalem can be summed up in one word: addiction,”3 he said. “I cannot work anywhere outside Jerusalem. Getting to work and returning to Ramallah, where I live, is not easy, but despite that, I feel that I belong to Jerusalem and its people. I consider myself incredibly fortunate that God gave me an invaluable opportunity to work and live here,” he added.

Reflecting on his 12 years of service at this medical institution, Awad shared the many reasons people choose the Red Crescent Society Hospital for childbirth.

“It is largely a family tradition passed down through generations,” he said. “For example, a grandmother may have given birth here, then shared that experience with her daughter, who in turn gives birth at the hospital and passes the tradition on to her own daughters, who come here to deliver their babies.” Additionally, the hospital is known for its exceptionally short waiting times in the emergency department before women are transferred to delivery rooms or receive other necessary interventions.

The medical staff’s incredible care toward patients is another factor that draws women to the hospital. “I am happy when the women and their families are happy, and I feel their pain when they are hurting,” Awad said. “We all go through deeply painful moments when a fetus is lost. Telling a family that they have lost their baby is one of the hardest things I have to do.”

Awad especially loves when babies are born. “That moment when a new child is born is what I love most about this profession,” he said. “Over the years, I have formed relationships of love, respect, friendship, and affection with many Jerusalemite families.”

Awad paused for a moment, then laughed: “Do you know that one Jerusalemite grandmother has 16 grandchildren, and I delivered 15 of them?” he said. “I was outside the country when the youngest was born. Their trust in me makes me incredibly happy.”

He shared an impactful moment during his career when one patient who had struggled with infertility for over 10 years finally received approval to undergo vitro fertilization.

“Her menstrual cycle had been absent for four months; she came to see me for some tests. I performed an ultrasound and discovered that she was four months pregnant with a baby boy,” he said.

“I will never forget that case for as long as I live. I remember crying with the family when I told them. In this department, tears are shed every day.”