Opinion Editorials, October 2007
|
|
Health catastrophe in Gaza if blockade persists, warns PA
PA health ministry warns of a health catastrophe in Gaza if blockade persists
[ 19/10/2007 - 11:32 AM ]
GAZA, (PIC)--
The PA health ministry has called on international humanitarian organizations, including UN organizations, the ICRC, and the EU parliament to pressure the Israeli occupation government into opening crossings to the Gaza Strip to avoid possible health catastrophe if the closure persists.
The Israeli occupation government had imposed hermitic closure on Gaza Strip since June of this year after Hamas Movement took control of the tiny Strip. The IOA sealed off all crossings, including the vital Rafah and Beit Hanon (Erez) terminals, and limited goods and supplies coming into the Strip to minimal levels since then.
In a statement it issued Thursday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC, the ministry explained that the blockade caused a severe shortage in medicine and medical equipment in Gaza hospitals that, according to the statement, would jeopardize lives of hundreds of sick Palestinians.
After IOF troops and warplanes destroyed the electricity network in the Gaza Strip last year, Palestinian hospitals depended on electric generators to operate and sanitize their equipments; yet, shortage in fuel supplies to the Strip would definitely disrupt operation of those generators and would threaten lives of patients lying there.
The ministry also indicated that it had failed to send hundreds of emergency cases for medical treatment abroad due to that unjust closure, affirming that the Israeli occupation government refused to coordinate with the ministry in this regard.
Around 500 cases were used to be referred for medication abroad every week prior to Israeli closure of the crossings, the ministry underlined.
Moreover, the ministry explained that Palestinian doctors are no longer able to leave to Arab and foreign countries to update their knowledge and to take training courses in their fields.
Hundreds of Palestinian families are currently stranded at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border, south of Gaza Strip, in very miserable and harsh conditions amidst clear indifference on the part of the international community to end their ordeal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
||||||
