Dear John,

I'm Mandy Patinkin, an actor and an IRC Ambassador. I write to you today with sadness and anger.

I can't begin to explain my feelings about the horrors unfolding in Gaza every moment of every day. What families are facing… the starvation, the dehydration, the loss of parents, the loss of a child... doctors in Gaza are seeing newborn babies simply dying because their birth weight is just too low.

A few days ago, I broke down hearing this story from Dr. Seema Jilani, a pediatrician with the IRC. She spoke about a family she treated with severe burns on the floor of a Gaza hospital because there were no beds. There was a toddler in this family whose eyes were swollen shut from the burns.

Dr. Jilani said, “If you can imagine seeing a toddler not being able to see her mother in such an instance, being on the ground of an emergency room, it sticks with me. Her trying to reach out to her parents, and the parents themselves are unavailable [because of their severe burns].”

I am a father of two sons and a grandfather of a two-year-old little boy, and I look at them and just can’t imagine any of them having to face such horrific and inhumane circumstances.

There's profound sadness and anger in my heart about all of this. But I have not lost hope. I deeply believe in the work of the IRC and in the kindness we all have within us. As an IRC Ambassador, I've seen this IRC community take action, time and time again, to support families facing the world's worst emergencies.

IRC doctors, like Dr. Jilani, and their local partners are saving lives, despite every challenge that has been put in front of them—and there have been many. They're prioritizing providing lifesaving health care and helping women and children recover from immense trauma.

The IRC and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) are delivering surgical care, providing nearly 10% of all surgeries in Gaza. They are working hand in hand with the few hospitals that remain in Gaza. Because of their dedication, persistence and experience, people are surviving this nightmare. But so many more people need help.

I'm heartbroken. No one should ever have to suffer through what Palestinian families in Gaza are continuing to experience due to Israeli bombardment and blockade, or what Israeli families who are victims of the Hamas attack are also going through.

Israeli families need the hostages to come home and be reunited with their loved ones. Palestinian families need a ceasefire and humanitarian aid to start pouring in so more lives can be saved, not taken away.

Thank you so very much,

Mandy Patinkin
IRC Ambassador

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Tony-winning actor and singer Mandy Patinkin embodies the IRC's commitment to empowering refugees and raising the voices of the people we serve. Having partnered with the IRC for almost a decade, Mandy and his wife Kathryn have visited our programming in Greece, Germany, Italy, Uganda, the United States, and Jordan on the Syrian border, where they have taken every opportunity to draw awareness to and compassion for the plight of displaced people everywhere.

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