Two Palestinian patients die due to Israeli siege on Gaza, cancer patient denied entry to Israel for chemical treatment

Two Palestinian patients die due to the Israeli siege on Gaza

Thursday January 31, 2008 13:17 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News ghassanb at imemc dot org
Palestinian medical sources reported that two Palestinian patients from Gaza died on Thursday due to the Israeli siege imposed on the Palestinian coastal region.

Arafat Owdah, 23, a cancer patient and Judah Obeed, 56, with a serious illness were both reported dead by Palestinian medical sources on Thursday morning after the Israeli army would not allow them to leave the coastal region to get medical care.

With the deaths of Owdah and Obeed, the number of Palestinians who have died due to the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip since June 2007 now stands at 88.

Two weeks ago the Israeli army stepped up the Siege and sealed off the Gaza strip borders totally, leaving the 1.5 million residents lacking food, medicine, and fuel supplies.

Israel bars a Gaza cancer patient from entering Israel for Chemical treatment

Thursday January 31, 2008 00:26 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies saed at imemc dot org

The Israeli Security Services refused to grant a permit to a Palestinian patient, suffering from Intestines Cancer, to leave the Gaza Strip in order to receive medical treatment in an Israeli medical center.

The patient, Mahmoud Abu Taha, 21, from Rafah city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, was diagnosed with Cancer in August 2007.

Medical centers in the Gaza Strip tried to provide Abu Taha with the needed treatment but the ongoing Israeli siege over the Gaza Strip caused sharp shortages in medicine and medical equipment.

After the health condition of Abu Taha had sharply deteriorated, physicians decided that he needs to receive Chemotherapy again and that he should be transferred to Tal Ha-Shomer Israeli hospital in Ramat Gan.

Hani, the brother of Mahmoud, told investigators of the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem) that on October 18 last year, Mahmoud received a permit to enter Israel for medical treatment, but when he and his father went to the Eretz crossing, between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and after waiting nearly for two hours, they were informed that he is not allowed to enter Israel.

Abu Taha waited the whole time in the ambulance of the European Hospital and was breathing through an oxygen mask as he cannot breathe on his own.

Yet, the Israeli Security Services arrested the father and informed the son that he is not allowed into Israel.

The family filed another appeal to allow their son into Israel for treatment but did not receive any response yet.

Israeli online daily, Haaretz, stated that the Shabak security services did not comment on this issue.

Physicians For Human Rights in Israel (PHR)received several complaints of similar cases, and said that Israel is using a policy regarding this issue; the policy states that entry for treatment in Israel have two different standards, which means that Israel would allow someone to enter Israel because he is facing death, but will not grant him entry if physicians treating him wants to save one of his body parts.

The PHR stated that it has testimonies from patients who lost some of their body parts because they were barred from leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

But senior officials at the PHR in Israel believe that after Israel declared the Gaza Strip as a hostile entity, even patients who are facing imminent death were not allowed to enter Israel. One of these cases is the case of Abu Taha as he could lose his life if not allowed to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment.

Last week, Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported that on Saturday at night (January 26) two patients died in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli Authorities barred them from leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad

The sources added that a total of 83 Palestinian patients, including 16 children, died due to the ongoing Israeli siege and blockade over the coastal region.

Related stories:

Testimony: Israel delays treatment of two Gaza toddlers

http://www.imemc.org/../article/51952

Palestinian woman dies in Gaza due to the Israeli siege imposed on the region

http://www.imemc.org/../article/52520

"A matter of revenge": Israel denying medical treatment to Gaza

http://www.imemc.org/../article/51678

Israeli occupation Jalbo prison administration delays urgent surgery needed by a Syrian political prisoner

[ 31/01/2008 - 02:01 PM ]

NAZARETH, (PIC)--

The Arab member of the Israeli parliament, Sa'eed Nafa, sent a message to Israeli internal security minister Avi Dichter asking him to expedite treatment of a seriously ill prisoner.

The MP asked the minister to give instructions to the Israeli occupation Jalbo prison authority to allow the open heart surgery for the political prisoner Bashr Al-Makt from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Makt suffered a heart attack in June last year and underwent an operation to open one of his heart's arteries. Doctors said that he still was in need of an open heart surgery but the prison authority delayed his treatment, which led to another harder heart attack.

Nafa also asked the minister to allow the prisoner's brother Sidki, who is detained in the nearby Shatta prison, to accompany his brother in the same prison in order to assist him.

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