Saed Bannoura - IMEMC
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A ten-year old child with cancer has died in the Gaza Strip while awaiting Israeli government permission to cross the border to reach a scheduled appointment with a specialist inside Israel. Ribhi Jindiyeh suffered from lymphoma, and underwent chemotherapy last year. In March, however, his condition worsened, and, because of the lack of medical supplies in Gaza due to the Israeli closure, his parents consulted with a doctor in Israel to get the needed medical treatment. Ribhi's father applied to the Augusta Victoria hospital in Jerusalem for treatment. According to the Associated Press, a staff member at the hospital told their reporter that a fax machine at the hospital may have been broken, and the request was not answered for weeks. Finally, the child was accepted into a treatment program in the Israeli hospital, but the Israeli government refused to issue the boy the permit needed to cross the closed border into Israel. Palestinian medical sources report that over 300 patients have died since June 2007, when the elected Hamas government began its administration in Gaza, and the Israeli government implemented a full closure on the Strip. Virtually no one has been able to enter or leave the besieged coastal Strip, and supplies of needed medicines and equipment are dwindling to near nothing in Gaza's hospitals and clinics. Israeli authorities say the siege is a way to "choke" the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in Gaza, to try to force the elected government out of power. But human rights groups from around the world have called the siege collective punishment of an entire population, which is a violation of international law and of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory. A recent report found that Israeli forces have routinely tried to force patients to work for the Israeli intelligence services as informants in order to leave Gaza to receive needed medical care. |
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