The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said on Thursday that the Israeli occupation authorities reduced the number of patients and wounded people allowed to leave today for treatment in Egypt from 136 to 61 patients and companions.
Hot Topics
Robots enter US construction sites Will technology solve the housing crisis?
The ministry explained in a statement that the group included 136 patients and their companions who had obtained official approvals to travel, before the Israeli authorities reduced the number to 72 patients and companions, and returned the rest of the cases.
She added that despite her protest against the procedure and the start of the patients’ transfer, the Israeli side requested the return of an additional 11 patients and companions, bringing the final number to 61 patients and companions.
The ministry stressed that the patients and wounded included in the batch need “specialized and urgent medical care” in Egypt.
As a result, the ministry decided to limit departures to critically ill patients transported by ambulances, and to return the rest of the patients “as a collective protest” against “unjustified punitive policies.”
The ministry stressed that these measures hinder the timely access of patients and the wounded to specialized medical care, and warned of the repercussions of continuing to prevent cases referred for treatment outside the sector.
The World Health Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and other international actors called for “immediate intervention and direct pressure” on the Israeli authorities to stop their “arbitrary conditions.”
She called for facilitating the departure of patients in accordance with the Sharm el-Sheikh understandings of last October.
She also stressed the need to facilitate the departure procedures for all cases referred for treatment abroad in the upcoming batches, without restrictions or exceptions.
This process of evacuating patients, which is controlled by the occupying authorities, is not suitable for the very large number of patients and injured people, which amounts to about 20,000 patients who do not have access to treatment in Gaza hospitals, due to the lack of medicine and the destruction of health facilities.
At the end of last August, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that thousands of patients in the Gaza Strip were still waiting for medical evacuation to receive urgent treatment.
since October 2023, 13,237 patients (including 6,276 children) and 16,406 companions have been evacuated from Gaza.
The health sector in Gaza is suffering the consequences of the Israeli war of genocide, as the Israeli army, according to official data, launched at least 445 attacks on health facilities, resulting in damage to 155 facilities, according to official data.
Only 47 percent of the sector's hospitals are partially operational, while more than 22,000 wounded and sick people in the sector need to receive treatment outside Gaza.
In the context of the humanitarian crisis in the sector, the residents of Gaza are awaiting the first autumn rains, expected to arrive on Friday and continue until Saturday, while they suffer due to the worn-out tents they live in, as well as the unsuitability of the displacement areas to deal with the rainfall, as pools of water and torrents form that flood the tents and destroy their belongings.
The relevant authorities and relief organizations warned of the lack of new tents to distribute to the displaced people in place of their worn-out tents, which have deteriorated as a result of their long period of use, as some families have been keeping them for more than two years.
Tags:
asiawest
