Widespread poverty and deficient health services are major hardships for Palestinian Authority (PA) residents. Many advanced curative and preventive treatments are unavailable, so Palestinians
are forced to seek medical care in Israel. Unfortunately, there is no adequate public transportation from the crossing points and taxi costs area high. For many families, whose relatives often require multiple trips to hospital a week, the economic burden is insurmountable.
These realities create a unique opportunity to help sick Palestinians and their families, and, at the same time, engage in conflict mitigation activity. Our non-profit organization of over 1000 volunteers provides free-of-charge transportation to Palestinians who need medical treatment in Israel. Every day, RtR volunteers pick up Palestinian patients from various crossing points between Israel and the PA, drive them in their own private vehicles to hospitals in Israel, and then back to the checkpoints.
The volume of our activity has continuously increased at a rate of 20-30% per year. In 2023 our volunteers drove over 18,500 patients, covering over 1,500,000 kilometers.