Baby dies after Palestinians cut ties with Israel
Child misses life-saving surgery after halting of security co-ordination
Baby Omar Yaghi was eight months old when he died, unable to travel from Gaza to Israel for life-saving heart surgery after Palestinian officials cut co-ordination.
The baby’s mother, Raneen, had been unable to speak or eat since losing her son last week, his uncle Mohammed Yaghi said.
They are one of a number of families caught up in a highlevel dispute after the Palestinian Authority ended security co-ordination with Israel last month over its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
The move has had a dramatic impact on scores of Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza who need Israeli paperwork to access treatment not available closer to home.
“Omar was supposed to undergo major surgery on May 24, but they told us our travel to Israel was prevented because co-ordination was stopped,” the infant’s uncle said.
Several human rights organisations lobbied successfully for a new date, but Yaghi died on June 18 just three days before the planned operation.
Gaza’s two-million residents have lived under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007, with Palestinians having to apply for exit permits to leave the enclave.
Israel’s military branch responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, Cogat, said the Erez crossing with Gaza was ready and well prepared to facilitate transfers.
Cogat “keeps allowing, also at these times, an entrance of residents from the Gaza Strip for life-saving medical treatment and in other humanitarian cases”, a spokesperson said.
Omar was born with heart problems and started treatment at Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre when he was one month old.
Unable to return for the surgery, Omar suffered heart failure on Wednesday and was resuscitated at a Gaza hospital.
“They told us the situation was very serious,” Mohammed Yaghi, who tried desperately to arrange an emergency transfer to Israel while his nephew was put on a ventilator, said.
“At 10am, the hospital management called and told us he had died.” The boy’s father, also Omar, found out his son had not survived while on the way to hospital.
“My brother was completely destroyed, especially when he received the child’s body,” Mohammed Yaghi said.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel said the baby died because of the surgery delay, which was caused by the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) civil affairs committee ending its coordination with Israel.
“Patients have described how the Palestinian agencies in charge of co-ordinating their travel with the Israeli authorities stopped transferring their application for exit permits on medical grounds,” the organisation said.
Haitham al-Hadra from the Palestinian health ministry, who is in charge of medical transfers, said he remained committed to the PA’s decision to stop working with the Israelis.
“We do not even pick up the phone or answer e-mails,” he said.
Some Palestinians had accessed treatment in Israel by co-ordinating with authorities directly, he said.
“Ninety-five percent of medical conditions can be treated in Palestinian hospitals, whether a government or private one,” he said.
Not everyone can arrange their own transfers or afford costly treatment.
Hala al-Johari, 58, has not had leukaemia treatment for nearly 1½ months.
Johari had travelled to Jerusalem over the previous eight months for treatment.
The PA had been picking up the bill, but without its support she cannot afford the 1,000 shekels (R5,008) for her daily pill or the $100 (about R1,726) weekly transport costs.
Cancer patients protested on Wednesday outside the Palestinian government office in Ramallah, and days later Johari received some good news.
“They called me and told me there will be enough medicine for a month,” she said.
But with no end in sight to the rift between Palestinian and Israeli officials, Johari and other patients are unsure when they will reach hospital. —