Edward Graham Visits Construction Sites in Israel’s North and South
On June 2, Samaritan’s Purse COO Edward Graham visited several of 11 building projects Samaritan’s Purse is currently working on in Israel, including ambulance stations to house some of the 42 vehicles we will be donating to Magen David Adom, the national emergency service, by the end of the year.
Edward Graham surveys damage from Hezbollah missile strikes in the village of Arab al-Aramshe.
Along the nation’s northern border with Lebanon, Graham stopped in Arab al-Aramshe, a community that had been evacuated and levelled with bombs and missiles. Local leaders are seeking to repopulate the region, and one way they hope to do so is by making it safe again.
A soldier with the Israeli Defence Forces stands in a damaged community centre in the north.
Samaritan’s Purse is building one of its ambulance stations in nearby Shlomi, which will house the armoured emergency vehicle gifted to Magen David Adom this past weekend. Complete with a mobile intensive care unit, this vehicle will withstand firefight and preserve lives in the previously hostile region.
Graham and Ken Isaacs, vice president of programmes and government relations (second from left), talk with a local leader in the village of Arab al-Aramshe.
“I want you to know that Samaritan’s Purse has not forgotten the north,” said Graham. “We go where other people don’t or where other people won’t. We will continue to do all that we can to help—not just because we love you, but because God loves you.”
Samaritan’s Purse COO Edward Graham greets residents in a kibbutz along the northern border of Israel.
He is hopeful that the new ambulance station will be a tool to help draw people back to the region.
“As people start to return home, we want to help build trust in these communities to let people know it’s safer,” Graham said.
Ali Wahid, a senior medic for Magen David Adom who serves northern communities, now feels safe to respond to emergency calls thanks to the generosity of Samaritan’s Purse.
Ali Wahid, a senior medic for Magen David Adom, praised the construction project that will allow ambulances to service northern communities. “This is very good. It will help us give good care for the people here. We are not afraid to respond. But now we will feel safe when we respond.”
With Prayers for a Peaceful Solution
After encouraging communities in the north, Graham travelled to Israel’s southern border with Gaza. He visited the kibbutz of Nir Oz, where one in four people were kidnapped or murdered by Hamas during the October 2023 attacks.
Guided by the regional mayor, Michal Uziyahu, Graham walked through home after home that had been torn apart by the terror attacks. Along the way, the COO passed posters of children and the elderly who had been kidnapped or killed by Hamas.
Edward Graham views posters of the kidnapped or killed in Nir Oz with a woman who survived the October 7, 2023 attacks on the kibbutz and recently moved back there.
“It breaks my heart to walk into this,” Graham said. “What happened here is not lost on me. Those are people’s loved ones. They are someone’s mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter. These are people that their families may never see again.”
As Graham toured the kibbutz, bombs could be heard exploding across the border.
“We hear the explosions shaking Gaza today, but it is my prayer that when I return, we won’t hear the sounds of war, but the sounds of children laughing here once again,” he said. “I pray for a peaceful solution. But this is something only God can do.”
Regional Mayor Michal Uziyahu meets with the delegation from Samaritan’s Purse.
Graham asked Uziyahu what help she needed to encourage people to return to Nir Oz. The mayor mentioned that they could use a resilience centre where people could come to receive therapy for trauma. Graham immediately agreed to build such a facility for the hurting community.
Nearby in the Merhavim region, Samaritan’s Purse is building a second resilience centre with hopes of ministering to the thousands of children in the area who are struggling to recover from all they have witnessed during the war.
In Eshkol, another area along the Gaza border that is under Uziyahu’s jurisdiction, Samaritan’s Purse is building an additional ambulance station. This is a welcome sign of progress, since previously victims were left to bleed to death because first responders couldn’t reach them during attacks. Positioning emergency vehicles closer to the frontlines will ultimately help save lives.
In addition to these examples of the larger construction projects, we are also building bomb shelters to protect civilians from attacks. So far, we have provided 11 such shelters in the north and 14 in the south.
Please pray that these structures will be a part of helping the nation of Israel rebuild, both physically and spiritually.
Graham said, “My hope and prayer are that our nation will never turn our back on Israel.”
Support Middle East Crisis Relief
Samaritan’s Purse is helping meet the physical and spiritual needs of people on both sides of the Israel-Hamas war. In partnership with local churches and ministry partners, we are bringing urgently needed relief to communities deeply impacted by the conflict.
