By Emina Ćerimović
Associate Director, Disability Rights Division
Lift Arbitrary Restrictions, Allow Health Care Workers Entry
( Human Rights Watch ) – Israeli authorities denied an orthopedic surgeon entry into Gaza last week, preventing her from providing crucial treatment to children with disabilities. One of her patients, Minah, a 3-year-old girl with a clubfoot condition, has been left without necessary treatment for months. As a result, Minah’s feet started to turn in again. The orthopedic surgeon had planned surgery to reverse this.
Minah’s case is one of many. Before October 2023, an estimated 98,000 children in Gaza had disabilities, and since then thousands of children have acquired disabilities due to Israel’s use of explosive weapons and now require reconstructive surgeries. Newborns have had almost no access to follow-up health care for 15 months, increasing risks of health complications.
Despite the mid-January ceasefire, Israel’s military has denied numerous medical professionals entry into Gaza without an explanation. On the day Minah’s doctor was rejected, another orthopedic surgeon on the team was denied entry, according to the doctor. Also, Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency doctor planning to help reopen Shifa hospital and provide medical training, said he and his team as well as four other medical staff traveling with a partner organization were denied entry two days later.
On February 12, Victoria Rose, a plastic surgeon, said Israeli authorities denied her entry. She was denied again the following week. Dr. Rose intended to provide reconstructive surgeries and, similarly to Dr. Subeh, train medical students – a crucial need given the severe shortage of specialists amid Israel’s assault on Gaza’s healthcare system. On February 12, when Israeli authorities denied Dr. Rose entry, she said two other plastic surgeons and one orthopedic surgeon on her team were also denied.
File: “Wounded Palestinians wait for treatment at the overcrowded emergency ward of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October 11, 2023.” By Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Nabeel Rana, a vascular surgeon was denied entry on February 23 – just eight hours before his scheduled deployment. Dr. Rana had received preliminary clearance over a month in advance but was given no explanation for the sudden denial – a situation experienced by many of his colleagues.
Gaza’s healthcare system collapsed amid Israeli forces’ repeated unlawful strikes on hospitals and medical facilities and personnel, unlawful cutting of water, fuel, and electricity, and arbitrary detention and torture of Palestinian health care workers.
These denials to enter Gaza exacerbate a cycle of Israeli violations of Palestinians’ right to health. Israeli authorities control both entry into and exit from Gaza, including medical evacuations.
Israel’s allies should urge the country to comply with its duties as the occupying power and allow health care workers into Gaza. Children like Minah deserve the care they urgently need.
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