Chaplaincy teams in the National Health Service are good value and bring added benefits and resources to clinical treatment, say health specialists responding to a call to stop their official funding.

The National Secular Society wants to end taxpayer funding for chaplaincy in the NHS. Matt Wardman subjects the figures to scrutiny, and is left with a lot of questions.

It can be hard to quantify the benefit of having chaplains, says Mark Vernon. Their work is not amenable to a cost-benefit analysis. But that does not mean it has no value or effect, just that it has to be assessed in human rather than statistical terms.

Churches and religious organisations should fund chaplaincy and spiritual care in the National Health Service instead of the taxpayer, says the National Secular Society.

Following an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza, Palestinians are only beginning to realise the scope of their losses from a three-week Israeli onslaught, says the director of the Anglican Al Ahli Arab Hospital.

Doopsgezind WereldWerk, the Dutch Mennonite Organization for Solidarity and Peace has been sending shipments of medical supplies and hospital equipment on to hospitals in Shirati and Mugumu in Tanzania, pioneering health care institutions.

As tension and violence continues to escalate in Gaza, Caritas Jerusalem, the Catholic aid agency, continues to be alarmed at the ongoing deterioration of the health situation in the Palestinian Territories - and involved in practical work to redress the situation.