The Israeli authorities prevented nearly 8000 Palestinian patients from traveling to seek treatment outside of the besieged enclave of Gaza in 2019, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights stated in a new report titled “Israeli restrictions on the movement of Gaza patients”, that the occupation state has prevented thousands of Gaza patients from leaving the besieged strip by imposing restrictions on their movement through Erez border crossing, which worsened their health conditions as most of them cannot be treated in Gaza due to the lack of medical equipment.

The report refuted the Israeli claims, which alleged that those who were prevented from traveling do not suffer from conditions that endanger their lives.

It also mentioned several kinds of suffering, which the patients face, like “the refusal of their requests without providing any reasons, preventing patients from traveling for family-related reasons, arresting or blackmailing patients or their escorts at Erez border crossing, delays and procrastination responding to any requests by the patients, and imposing strict restrictions on the escorts of the patients”.

The report stated that the Israelis hampered the movement of 51.056 out of 179.746 patients, who were accepted to be treated in Israeli or West Bank hospitals, in a percentage of 28.4% of the total number of treatment requests during the period between 2008-2018.

The Israelis also prevented 7.794 out of 22.144 patients from Gaza from traveling in the period between January 1- November 30, 2019.

 

Source: Europal