Palestine Children’s Relief Fund

The IDF’s code name for the invasion of Southern Gaza was “Operation Rainbow.” According to Palestinian medical sources, 56 Palestinians were killed during the military operation, including 22 children. Eleven-year-old Hamad El-Neirab remembers “I was in the demonstration, we were clapping and chanting, suddenly the Israeli helicopters fired a missile into the demonstration. I fell to the ground. After the explosion, I stood to run away but a second rocket blew up near me, and I was wounded in both legs.” Today, the boy from a Gaza Strip refugee camp sat half a world away in a state-of-the-art Washington, DC examination room to be fitted for a new leg.

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) hosted a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. on June 21, 2003 featuring special guest Dr. Hunter “Patch” Adams. Dr. Adams — a medical doctor, professional clown, social activist, and D.C. native whose life was celebrated in a 1997 motion picture starring Robin Williams — led a clown delegation into Israel and the occupied Gaza Strip in December 2002 on a tour of schools and hospitals.