<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"
dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/54-patients-died-waiting-israel-let-them-out-gaza">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/54-patients-died-waiting-israel-let-them-out-gaza</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">54 patients died waiting for Israel to let
them out of Gaza</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-02-14T20:09:35+00:00">14 February 2018</span></span>
</p>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4" dir="ltr"
style="display: block;">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div class="sumud-region-main">
<article class="node-23316 node node-blog view-mode-full
node-is-page image-landscape">
<figure id="file-56836" class="media
media-element-container media-figure file file-image
file-image-jpeg"><source media="(min-width: 72rem)"><figcaption
class="group-caption field-group-html-element"><small
class="credit"><span class="field field-publisher"></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Fifty-four Palestinians died last year waiting for
Israeli permits to leave the Gaza Strip for medical
treatment.</p>
<p>One of them was Faten Ahmed, a 26-year-old with a
rare form of cancer. She died in August while awaiting
an Israeli permit to travel for chemotherapy and
radiotherapy not available in Gaza.</p>
<p>She had previously missed eight hospital appointments
after Israeli “security approval” was delayed or
denied, according to the World Health Organization.</p>
<p>Ahmed was <a
href="http://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/palestine/documents/WHO_monthly_Gaza_access_report_Aug_2017_Final.pdf?ua=1">one
of five women</a> who died from cancer in that month
alone waiting for Israeli permission that never came.</p>
<p>Overall, 46 of those who died last year waiting for
permits were <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/cancer">cancer</a>
patients.</p>
<h2>Shocking number of deaths</h2>
<p>This staggering toll highlights the lethal impact of
Israel’s ever-tightening siege on the two million
people who live in Gaza.</p>
<p>“We’re seeing Israel increasingly deny or delay
access to potentially life-saving cancer and other
treatment outside Gaza, with shockingly high numbers
of Palestinian patients subsequently dying, while
Gaza’s healthcare system – subjected to half a century
of occupation and a decade of blockade – is
decreasingly able to meet the needs of its
population,” Aimee Shalan, CEO of Medical Aid for
Palestinians, <a
href="https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/795-press-release-54-gaza-patients-died-in-2017-while-following-denial-or-delay-to-exit-permits">said</a>
on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Her charity, along with Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and
Physicians for Human Rights Israel, has issued an
urgent call on Israel to “lift the <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/04/02/unwilling-or-unable/israeli-restrictions-access-and-gaza-human-rights-workers">unlawful</a>
sweeping restrictions on the freedom of movement of
people from Gaza, most critically those with
significant health problems.”</p>
<p>In 2017 Israeli occupation authorities approved just
54 percent of applications for permits to leave Gaza
for medical appointments, the <a
href="http://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/palestine/documents/WHO_monthly_Gaza_access_report_Dec_2017-final.pdf">lowest
rate</a> since the World Health Organization began
collecting data in 2008.</p>
<p>Israel has dramatically tightened the deadly squeeze;
its approval rate for permits fell from 92 percent in
2012 to 82 percent in 2014 and then 62 percent in
2016, before hitting its lowest point last year.</p>
<p>The health and human rights groups note that the UN
and the International Committee of the Red Cross have
declared Israel’s land, sea and air blockade on Gaza,
preventing the movement of its population, to be
“collective punishment” – a <a
href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul_rule103">war
crime</a>.</p>
<p>“Palestinians from Gaza missed at least 11,000
scheduled medical appointments in 2017 after Israeli
authorities denied or failed to respond in time to
applications for permits,” the groups state.</p>
<h2>Egypt and Palestinian Authority complicit</h2>
<p>The groups also note that Egypt and the
Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority played a role in
worsening the situation: “Egypt has kept the Rafah
crossing mostly closed for the population in Gaza
since 2013, which contributed to restricting access to
health care.”</p>
<p>“As a state bordering a territory with a protracted
humanitarian crisis, Egypt should facilitate
humanitarian access for the population,” they state.
“Nevertheless, ultimate responsibility remains with
Israel, the occupying power.”</p>
<p>The Palestinian Authority also sharply reduced its
financial approvals for medical treatment outside Gaza
as part of its sanctions aimed at forcing Hamas to
hand over control of the governance of Gaza.</p>
<p>These PA restrictions resulted in at least one death,
according to the groups. But medical authorities in
Gaza have said that <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-mahmoud-abbas-letting-children-die-gaza">more
than a dozen people</a>, including a 3-year-old girl
with a heart condition, died waiting for payment
approval from Ramallah.</p>
<p>All of this comes amid the protracted siege-induced
crisis which has brought the collapse of key parts of
the health system.</p>
<p>“Amid widespread poverty and unemployment, at least
10 percent of young children are stunted by chronic <a
href="https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/786-hope-for-a-healthy-future-combatting-malnutrition-in-gaza">malnutrition</a>,
up to half of all medicines and medical items in Gaza
are completely depleted or below one month’s supply,
and chronic electricity shortages have caused
officials to cut health and other essential services,”
the human rights and medical groups state.</p>
<h2>End the siege</h2>
<p>Earlier this month, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-hospitals-shut-down-deadly-siege-tightens">hospitals
in Gaza began shutting down</a> as emergency
generators ran out of fuel, forcing the postponement
of hundreds of operations.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, RT posted this report from Gaza about
the plight of cancer patients. Correspondent Anya
Parampil spoke to Zakia Tafish whose husband Jamil
died after he was repeatedly blocked from traveling to
Jerusalem for surgery.</p>
<p>The channel also aired a <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCbA-siNsW4">report</a>
about the worsening situation in the territory’s
hospitals.</p>
<p>Following UN warnings of looming catastrophe, Qatar
and the United Arab Emirates last week <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-health/uae-qatar-donate-funds-to-stave-off-gaza-health-crisis-idUSKBN1FT2L6">pledged
$11 million</a> in short-term funding to stave off
an even worse catastrophe for another few months.</p>
<p>However, as the human rights groups note, there is no
long-term solution but to end the siege.</p>
<p>“The Israeli government’s restrictions on movement
are directly connected to patient deaths and
compounded suffering as ill patients seek permits,” Al
Mezan director Issam Younis said.</p>
<p>“These practices form part of the closure and permit
regime that prevents patients from a life of dignity,
and violates the right to life.”</p>
<p>The UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians is <a
href="https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/795-press-release-54-gaza-patients-died-in-2017-while-following-denial-or-delay-to-exit-permits">calling
on</a> the public to contact lawmakers in the
British parliament and “ask them to urge the UK
government to take action and save lives in Gaza.”</p>
<br>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>