WHO: Israel prevented 763 Palestinian patients from leaving Gaza in Sept.
Israel prevented 763 Palestinian patients from leaving the occupied Gaza Strip for medical treatment in September, reported the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the organization, 668 patient applications to travel through the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing were delayed, “receiving no definitive response to their application by the date of their hospital appointment”, the Middle East Monitor reported.
Of these, 161 applications were for children under the age of 18 and 71 applications were for patients aged 60 years or older.
Also, 95 patient applications were explicitly denied permission to cross Erez for health care in September, including seven children and 14 patients aged 60 years or older.
Eighteen percent of denied applications were for appointments in neurosurgery, 17 percent for ophthalmology, 17 percent for orthopedics, and 12 percent for cancer treatment and investigation.
More than 90 percent of denied permit applications “were for appointments at hospitals in East Al-quds or the [occupied] West Bank”, WHO said.
The report notes that 18 applications in September were for permits for those injured during Great March of Return demonstrations – only one of which was approved (one denied, 16 delayed).
Since March 30, Palestinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.
The Israel denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs with proper wages as well as adequate health care and education.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied Gaza Strip Thursday warned that a mounting, severe shortage of medicines is risking the life of thousands of patients in the blockaded territory, especially those who suffer from chronic diseases, reported Xinhua.