Karen Abu Zaid: Gaza is experiencing its own unique Nakba

[ 17/05/2008 - 04:55 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Karen Abu Zaid, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, stated on Saturday that Gaza is experiencing its own unique Nakba, a catastrophe which was wrought on it by the cruelties of continuing occupation and the tightening siege.

These statements came during a photo exhibition held in Gaza by UNRWA, "I am from there and I remember," which commemorates and celebrates the Palestinian life before the Nakba.

"As you view each photograph, I urge you to spare a thought for the lives and the humanity that lie behind them, the sheer human resourcefulness, and the sense of lost potential. These are real people, people whose history cannot be airbrushed away. Indeed they are a people with a past, a history that will cannot be denied," Abu Zaid said at the opening of the exhibition.

In another context, the popular committee against the siege announced Saturday the death of an eight-month-old female infant called Salwa Abu Tawaheen who was suffering from blood cancer.

The Abu Tawaheen family said that they submitted 20 days ago a request to the IOA to allow their daughter to receive medical treatment outside Gaza, but the infant died in hospital while her family was waiting for the permission.

Palestinian medical sources also announced the death of another Palestinian patient called Husni Salah, 45, who suffered cardiac failure due to the lack of medicines and the Israeli restrictions imposed on travel.

These new deaths bring the number of Israeli siege victims to 156 patients, while the specter of death is threatening a long list of patients in Gaza who have serious and chronic diseases.

Two sick patients, one infant and one adult, die due to ongoing siege on Gaza

Saturday May 17, 2008 23:22 by IMEMC News

Rami Abdo, spokesperson of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, reported on Saturday that an eight-month old infant and a 45-year old man died due to the ongoing siege in Gaza after suffering from serious illnesses and were not allowed to leave the coastal region for medical treatment in abroad. Several patients died in Gaza last week.

Abdo stated that Fahidh Tawafeen, 8 months old, suffered from leukemia and her family filed an appeal to the Israeli Authorities more than twenty days ago to allow them transfer her to a hospital outside the Gaza Strip but received no response and the child died at the Al Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip.

Also, medical sources reported on Saturday morning that Hosny Sobhy Salah, 45, died of a heart condition at a Gaza hospital.

The siege on Gaza emptied its hospital from medical equipment and even medications, and Salah had no more medication available.

The death of the infant and the 45-year old man raises the number of Palestinians who died due to the ongoing siege in Gaza to 145.

Two more patients, identified as Nofouth Hamada, 52, and Mohammad Abdul-Shafy, 51, died at local hospitals in Gaza due to the lack of medications and medical equipment as the siege emptied Gaza hospitals and medical centers from the basic equipment and medical supplies.

Hamada was a cancer patient and Abdul-Shafy suffered a heart condition.

Furthermore, resident Yasser Arafat Nasyo, 30, died on Saturday after nearly twenty years of suffering due to gunshot injuries he suffered during the first Intifada.

He was shot and wounded by Israeli military gunfire, as a bullet penetrated his heart. He underwent several surgeries and always needed ongoing medical attention and follow-up at Egyptian hospital.

The ongoing siege on Gaza barred him from leaving the area after the Israeli authorities rejected four requests.

Earlier this past week, resident Samia Ahmad Al Saftawi, 55, died of cancer after she ran out of medications and was not allowed to leave Gaza for medical treatment in Egypt.

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