( Middle East Monitor ) – Even after ten months of its systematic and widespread destruction of the healthcare sector in the Gaza Strip, and its arbitrary blockade of the territory, Israel continues to prevent the entry of medical supplies, including medical devices and essential medicines. The direct result is that more Palestinians are dying unnecessarily due to an absence of adequate treatment, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has reported.
“Now more than ever, immediate action is needed to lift Israel’s blockade on the Strip, bring in medical supplies to save the lives of sick and injured persons, guarantee the right to travel for those in need of critical treatment, and bring in the supplies required to immediately rebuild the healthcare system and ensure its protection from Israeli bombs,” said Euro-Med.
The NGO receives dozens of complaints daily from Palestinians seeking to travel for life-saving treatment outside of the Gaza Strip due to the lack of adequate treatment, medicines and medical devices in the besieged enclave. Moreover, the majority of hospitals are out of service due to the ongoing Israeli blockade and direct targeting.
“Israel has closed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt since May,” said Euro-Med. “It’s the only way out of the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians. The closure has prevented thousands of sick and injured people from traveling for treatment, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of them so far.”
The latest statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza indicate that more than 12,000 wounded people and 14,000 sick patients are in urgent need of being allowed to travel for treatment. There are tens of thousands more who are in dire need of travel to complete treatment or receive essential therapy and rehabilitation services that are no longer available in the Gaza Strip.
“Dozens of patients die on a daily basis, including elderly people, most due a lack of adequate medical care, medication or treatment,” explained the human rights group.
We must stress that these individuals are not included in the official list of those killed by Israel’s ongoing genocide.
Data from the Ministry of Health shows that the death rate in the Gaza Strip has increased significantly in the past few months when compared with the same period in the last two years. A correlation has also been noted between the increasing number of deaths, hospitals that are no longer operational, and the breakdown of the health system because of Israel’s systematic targeting and blockade.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ishaq Nael Mushtaha, for example, died on 3 August as a result of malnutrition and being unable to travel for treatment. His brother, Mohammed, had previously requested in a statement seen by the Euro-Med Monitor team that his brother be permitted to travel for treatment for the Crohn’s disease from which he had been suffering since before the start of the genocide last October. On 2 May, Ishaq had an operation that removed 30 centimetres of his intestines and saw his weight drop from 75 to 39 kilogrammes. The request for permission to travel was refused.
Numerous other complaints about the suffering of patients or their families due to inadequate treatment have been received by the NGO. One such complaint was from the mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old from northern Gaza named Youssef Basil Al-Adham. Youssef’s mother told the Euro-Med team that her child had been injured in the Israeli bombing. Although Youssef has had multiple surgical procedures in an attempt to treat him, the ongoing Israeli offensive has made it impossible for him to receive the proper care. “The doctor told me that my child needs to travel abroad for treatment so that I can see him able to sit again,” said Youssef’s mother, “but despite registering for a transfer abroad, the crossing is closed, and he cannot travel.”
Thousands of cancer patients, meanwhile, need to travel as a matter of urgency in order to receive essential courses of chemotherapy and other treatment.
Maysaa Alian Kamel Aliwa is one of them. She has been deprived of medical care due to the ongoing genocide.
“I have been a cancer patient since 2018, and in addition to the Israeli bombing, another challenge we’ve faced has been getting fresh water, because it is scarce,” she told Euro-Med. “I’ve suffered from forced displacement and bombing… we’ve had to spend nights under artillery shells and aircraft bombs. We were spared miraculously from certain death when an area behind us was bombed, [but] we were forced to evacuate to Khan Yunis without access to even the most basic necessities, including food and water.” Having had no access to follow-up care or treatment during that time, she was using ineffective, basic painkillers to get by. “The hospitals were far away, and because of the collapse of the healthcare system, we were unable to get the essential medical care. I feel like I am getting closer to death every day.”
The mother of nine-year-old Abdullah Muhammad Akrim told Euro-Med that when her son became ill after a forced displacement, the family took him to the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the only hospital in northern Gaza that was still open at a time when the health system was failing. “After three days of intensive care, the doctors determined that he had kidney failure and required dialysis,” she explained. “I blame this on his months-long reliance on canned food and his deficiency in minerals and vitamins, which are unavailable in northern Gaza due to a shortage of produce, food, medical care and supplements.”
According to Saher Nasr, a paediatrician at the same hospital, a lack of nourishment and weakened immunity have caused a rise in illnesses among children in northern Gaza. “Many skin diseases have spread among children during the war,” said Dr Nasr. “Most of these diseases are caused by bacteria, viruses and fungi, which only affect people with weakened immune systems.”
This, she added, is a result of overcrowding in shelters, poor hygiene, contaminated water supplies and a diet high in processed foods and low in protein. “People are becoming more and more susceptible to these diseases. This has caused delays in the healing of wounds and infections in the wounds, for which treatment in the form of ointments or antibiotics is currently unavailable.”
Israel’s destruction of the Strip’s healthcare sector is a fundamental pillar of the systematic, organised and large-scale plan it has implemented to destroy the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and eliminate them entirely by turning their homeland into an uninhabitable place devoid of basic services. Hospitals, medical equipment and ambulances have been targeted and destroyed; medical personnel have been forcibly disappeared and killed; and new equipment and medicines, as well as basic disposables, are not allowed in by the Israeli blockade.
“All of this is intentional,” insists Euro-Med. “Those who are not killed in the bombing campaign are being killed slowly by the destruction of the healthcare sector. Israel is depriving Palestinians of any opportunities for survival, recovery, shelter and even life itself.”
Alongside the occupation state’s attack on civilian infrastructure, is the wholesale killing of the civilian population and protected individuals, such as the sick and wounded. “Israel is committing crimes against humanity and war crimes with impunity,” said the NGO. “By violating the principles of distinction, proportionality and military necessity, as well as refusing to take the necessary precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects, the Israeli army is violating international humanitarian law, and the special protections enjoyed by civilian hospitals and medical personnel specifically.”
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has called for swift international intervention to put an end to Israel’s genocide; to force the occupation state to lift its arbitrary siege on the Gaza Strip and permit the entry of food and non-food items as well as life-saving medical aid into the enclave; to have the healthcare sector rebuilt without delay; to establish field hospitals in the northern section of the Strip; to stop Israel’s systematic attacks on hospitals and medical personnel, the sick and the wounded; and to allow all who need to go abroad for treatment to do so without further delay.
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Bonus Video added by Informed Comment:
Reuters: “Gaza’s children suffer skin diseases with little help or relief | REUTERS”
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