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[17 November 2008] The impediments faced by Palestinians in Gaza in obtaining access to health care continue to be a cause for serious concern. The Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has caused a further deterioration in the humanitarian situation, health and sanitation problems, as well as extreme poverty and malnutrition. In recent months the already dire circumstances faced by patients in Gaza have been compounded by a strike of some health workers in Gaza, which has made a bad situation worse. Some 80 per cent of Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants rely on international assistance, but UN aid agencies and humanitarian organizations face additional restrictions and costs, which hinder their ability to provide assistance and services to the population. With only a few exceptions, the entire population of 1.5 million people are trapped in Gaza. Students are unable to attend university studies and jobs abroad and critically ill patients in need of medical care that is unavailable in local hospitals are often prevented from leaving Gaza. Since the blockade was imposed in 2007, dozens of patients have died due to lack of access to treatment. Medical facilities in Gaza lack the specialized staff and equipment to treat a range of conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular illnesses, and patients suffering from these and other conditions need access to hospitals outside Gaza. Amnesty International has made repeated appeals in 2008 for residents of Gaza with serious health conditions to be allowed to leave Gaza to access specialist treatment elsewhere.Requests for seriously ill Palestinians to leave Gaza to go to Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) or to hospitals in Israel, Egypt or other countries have often been denied by the Israeli authorities on unspecified “security grounds”. Those patients denied access to care have seen their condition worsen, and several have died as a result. In April 2008, the World Health Organization published a report on the deaths of seriously ill Palestinians in Gaza, citing 32 cases of deaths following delays or refusal of passage out of Gaza.[2] More patients have died since, after having been denied passage out of Gaza. Once a patient has been granted a referral for medical care outside Gaza, the cost of which is covered by the Palestinian Authority, the procedure for Palestinians to leave Gaza for medical treatment involves an application from the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry to the health coordination office at Erez Crossing, which is under the authority of the Israeli army. All applications are examined by the General Security Service (GSS), Israel’s intelligence agency, which decides if permission for passage is to be granted or refused. Often no response is received for weeks and several patients have died while waiting for a response. Recommended action download the letter to ministers a) Please write to the Israeli authorities below: b) Please write to the Egyptian authorities below: c) Please write to the Palestinian Authority caretaker government in the West Bank and the Hamas de-facto administration in Gaza (see details of officials below): Addresses a) Israeli authorities: Tzipi Livni (f) Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 9 Yitzhak Rabin Boulevard, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91035, Israel Fax: +972 2 530 3367 Email / website: [email protected] / www.mfa.gov.il Salutation: Dear Minister Major General Yoav Galant GOC Southern Command Military Post 02392, Beer Sheva, IDF Fax: +972 8 990 2655 Salutation: Dear Major General Yacov Ben Yizri Minister of Health Ministry of Health, 2 Ben Tabai Street, PO Box 1176, Jerusalem 91010, Israel Fax: +972 2 678 7662 / +972 2 623 3026 Email / website: [email protected] / [email protected] / www.health.gov.il Salutation: Dear Minister Copies to: Dr Yoram Blachar Chair of the Israel Medical Association PO Box 3566, Ramat-Gan 52136, Israel Email: [email protected] b) Egyptian authorities: Habib Ibrahim El Adly Minister of the Interior Ministry of the Interior, 25 Al-Sheikh Rihan Street, Bab al-Louk, Cairo, Egypt Fax: +20 22 794 5529 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] Salutation: Dear Minister Hatem Al-Gabali Minister of Health Ministry of Health, 3 Magles El Shaab Street, Cairo 11467 Egypt Fax: + 202-7953966 / 7959422 Salutation: Dear Minister Copies to: Dr Hamdi Al Sayed Director of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate Email: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] c) Palestinian caretaker government in West Bank: Fathi Abu Maghli Minister of Health Ministry of Health, Ramallah, West Bank Fax: +972 2 2408979 and +972 9 2384772 Email: [email protected] Hamas de-facto administration in Gaza: Basem Na’im Ministry of Health, Gaza Strip Fax: +972 8 282 6325 and +972 8 282 6295 Email: [email protected] Copies to: Shaher Sa’ad General Secretary Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) Fax: +972 9 2384374 Email: [email protected] and [email protected] Please also send copies to diplomatic representatives of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority accredited to your country. If you receive no reply within six weeks of sending your letter, please send a follow-up letter seeking a response. Please send copies of any letters you receive to the International Secretariat, attention of Health and Human Rights Team, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW or e-mail: [email protected] ·explaining that you are a health professional concerned about human rights and mentioning if you have previously written about this concern;·calling on the authorities to ensure that all patients in need of medical treatment are allowed to leave Gaza immediately to access hospitals in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) or Israel, or other countries and that their passage out of Gaza is not dependent on collaborating with the General Security Service;·specifically urging the authorities to expedite as a matter of urgency access to medical care for Bassam al-Oehidi, Rami al-Masri, Sameer Taleb, Rami al-Arouqi, Nadira Abu Oweimar, Muhammed al-Hurani, Mahmud Odeh, Naser al-Akhras, Fathi al-Ghouf, Radi Abu Rida, Ayman al-Lidawi, Ahmad al-Baghdadi, Suleiman Abu Shawish, Jamal Dughmush and Karima Abu Dalal;·calling on the authorities to ensure that children are not denied passage out of Gaza due to unspecified security concerns regarding their mothers or others accompanying them, referring in particular to Ahmed Nahid Mohsin (aged 1 year 5 months), Hamza Hassan Abu Habel (aged 1 year 2 months), Yousef Rami Abu Latifa (aged 3 years 5 months), Nour Mohammed al-Jarou (aged 5 months) and Mohammed Odeh Thabet (aged 17 years), all of whom suffer from congenital heart defects and are waiting to be allowed to travel to Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem for surgery;·urging the authorities to ensure that Palestinian students are allowed to leave Gaza to pursue medical studies abroad and that no impediments are placed in the way of developing more effective medical training in Gaza;·reminding the Israeli authorities that according to international law, Israel, as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, must ensure that the residents of Gaza have access to the necessary medical care, as well as to medical care to the same extent as nationals of the State of Israel.·explaining that you are a health professional concerned about human rights;·expressing concern at the fact that many Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who are critically ill and in need of medical care which is not available in Gaza have not been allowed entry into Egypt, including patients who waited for hours at the Rafah border crossing on the occasions when it was recently opened;·calling on the authorities to work urgently to ensure prompt passage via the Rafah crossing for all patients in Gaza who urgently need medical treatment in Egypt;·asking the authorities to clarify the criteria used to decide whether and when patients from Gaza are given access to treatment in Egypt via the Rafah border crossing.·explaining that you are a health professional concerned about human rights;·calling on them to refrain from taking any action that could worsen the already dire situation of the health sector in Gaza, including pressures of any kind against health workers, non-delivery or delayed delivery of necessary drugs and medical supplies to medical facilities in Gaza, and delays in the referral of patients who need medical care which is not available in Gaza;·calling on them to reverse any measures taken which have caused a further deterioration of the already difficult situation facing patients in Gaza.
Dar El Hekmah, 42 Kasr El-Eini Street, Cairo, Egypt