For most of us, an illness might call for a day of rest, medicine from the local drugstore, maybe even a trip to the clinic. But for too many Palestinians, these options simply don’t exist.

The Nablus-based Union of Healthcare Committees, for example, reports that tens of thousands of Palestinian families have been cut off from a vital network of 26 clinics in the northern West Bank. And in Gaza, more than a million Palestinians are running out of treatment options altogether.

With movement severely restricted across the West Bank, and Gaza effectively shut off to the world, Palestinians are literally dying to access medical services.

Their stories are told in first-hand testimonies gathered by the human rights group B’tselem.

There was the ailing newborn, barely a week old, whose frantic mother was delayed at a checkpoint into Nablus. Sahar’s baby died of complications that day.

There was the severely injured young man, whose friends spent 70 minutes negotiating passage through the wall surrounding their village. By the time Adel’s friends made it to a hospital in Qalqilya, he had died of internal bleeding.

In Gaza, the situation is even more dire. Physicians for Human Rights reports that, in the three-week period between June 14 and July 4, 15 Palestinians with “urgent” and “life-threatening” conditions were denied permits to seek emergency treatment. Three of these patients died, and four of them lost limbs to their conditions.

There’s no telling how many more stories like these go unrecorded or, worse, how many Palestinians have given up hope for treatment altogether. Unable to pass through checkpoints and concrete barriers, even those without life-threatening conditions are getting more sick, raising fears of a broader health crisis.

In the northern West Bank, for example, some 132,000 Palestinian children have been deprived of routine vaccinations against potentially fatal diseases. And across the West Bank and Gaza, fewer than half of newborn children are receiving their basic vaccinations, according to the UHCC.

That’s why, with your help, we want to bring healthcare services directly to Palestinian villages and towns walled off from the rest of the world.

UPA is working with some of the most respected Palestinian healthcare organizations -- like UHCC, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, and St. John’s Eye Hospital -- to design and fund mobile clinics that will bring vital services to tens of thousands of the most vulnerable Palestinians.

Why mobile clinics? Anywhere there’s conflict or restriction of movement, these clinics have proven highly effective in not only sustaining the health and well-being of people caught in the crossfire, but also in empowering them to take control of their lives.

From vaccinations, to maternal health and eyecare services, to chronic disease screening and treatment, these clinics will save lives, prevent illness, and help Palestinians make the best of their difficult situation.

Breadwinners will be better positioned to earn a living for themselves and their families, children will be more focused on their studies, and mothers will be better equipped to care for newborns -- the next generation of Palestinians.

But we need your help to make these mobile clinics a reality. Your contribution will help thousands of women deliver their babies safely; help children receive vaccinations against fatal diseases; help chronically ill patients manage their conditions; and help men, women, and children prevent and cope with eye disease.

Please show your support for Palestinians by making your donation today. In the last year alone, your contributions have helped UPA provide $6.5 million worth of pharmaceuticals to Gaza and hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct assistance to needy children, orphans, and students throughout the West Bank, Gaza, and refugee camps of Lebanon.

With your assistance, we can continue to address the needs of Palestinians. The situation today is more urgent than ever, and we need to hear from you very soon. Please take a moment to contribute today. Your gift will bring hope to those most desperately in need.

Contribute now through UPA's secure credit card server.

Send a check or money order payable to "UPA" to the following address:

United Palestinian Appeal, Inc.
1330 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Suite 104
Washington, DC 20036