ICSPR PA BLOCKING PATIENTS IN GAZA FROM EXITING TERRITORY FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT IS AN ILLEGAL AND INHUMANE STEP.

Press Release

ICSPR PA blocking patients in Gaza from exiting territory for medical treatment is an illegal and inhumane step.

International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (I.C.S.P.R) followed with deep concern the deterioration of humanitarian situation and health conditions in the besieged Gaza Strip, which witnessed unprecedented degradation and decline to inhumane actions committed by the Israeli occupying forces to tighten the siege on Gaza Strip, on the other hand the successive illegal and unethical actions implemented by the presidency and the Palestinian Government to prevent Gaza patient’s to obtain medical transfers to receive proper treatment.

According to Ministry of Health, PA blocking patients in Gaza from exiting territory for medical treatment without sufficient justification, where rejected medical transfers increased by about 1750 request which have been rejected or delayed, resulting in worsening health conditions of thousands of patients from Gaza, where the Gaza’s hospitals has failed to provide the necessary medical services  that led to the deaths of at least seven people (three of whom were children) in recent days as a result of blocking medical permits abroad.

What further exacerbate the health conditions in Gaza, which may experience complete collapse at any moment, the lack of nearly 170 of necessary treatment items, including 37 species of cancer medicines.  Moreover, there are approximately 40% deficit in medical consumables and supplies, threatening to undo the health services provided by hospitals are private sector including kidney transplantation, arthroscopic surgery, cardiac surgery, cardiac catheterization, and will affected the employee crisis threatened by early retirement.

International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (I.C.S.P.R) strongly condemns the PA blocking patients in Gaza from exiting territory for medical treatment considering it as illegal and unethical step, and emphasizing the responsibilities of the Israeli Occupation to provide all that would facilitate and ensure the life of the population in the occupied territory, ICSPR condemns the silence of all Palestinian parties about the renewable crises affecting the health sector in Gaza, which happened because of the Israeli blockade and the illegal actions of the Presidency and the Palestinian Government that deepen the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip in particular on health and treatment system, therefore; ICSPR demands the following:

1. ICSPR emphasize that the Israeli blockade over the ten past years has led to serious decline in human rights, especially on the health system, which considered a clear violation of IHL and IHRL.
2. ICSPR consider the PA decision as unethical and illegal collective punishment that must be held accountable considering that such measures are contrary to the Palestinian Basic Law, the human rights system and the international human rights conventions to which Palestine has recently acceded.
3. ICSPR hold the Palestinian Government the legal responsibility of the catastrophic consequences of crises affecting health sector in Gaza, and it calls upon the PA to intervene and find definitive solutions to these crises, that ensures the right of patients of appropriate treatment.
4. ICSPR considers the issue of time very important in dealing with the expected collapse of the Medical and Health System in the Gaza Strip, as well as for assuring a rational response to patients’ needs in the Gaza Strip; especially those are willing and forced to receive treatments abroad before it is too late. Patients need a quick and urgent intervention.
5. ICSPR calls upon the World Health Organization to urgently intervene and pressure on the Palestinian parties to take real measures to alleviate the crises in Gaza; especially these the Health Sector suffers from.
6. ICSPR calls upon the International Community with all its Humanitarian Organizations to urgently intervene and pressure on the occupying state to stop its systematic policies against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, to end the siege imposed for more than ten years, and to fulfill its moral and legal obligations towards civilians in the Gaza Strip according to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.