A Palestinian woman from Gaza finally joined her 12-year-old daughter, who was forced to travel without either of her parents from Gaza to the central occupied West Bank City of Ramallah on Tuesday, where she is scheduled to receive a kidney transplant from her uncle.
The girl was supposed to travel with her parents, but they were denied permits to leave Gaza by Israeli authorities.
? An’am Elatar, 12 yrs, from #Gaza, ALONE in the hospital in #Ramallah, because #Israel REFUSES to allow her mother or father to accompany her. An’am is a renal failure patient admitted to the hospital for kidney transplant. #israelCrimes #BDS pic.twitter.com/l6ehfdFTQn
— Dr. Basem Naim (@basemn63) February 27, 2018
Following a public outcry and intervention from Palestinian officials, Israel agreed to grant Attar a permit to leave Gaza to the West Bank to be with her daughter in preparation for the kidney transplant.
Earlier this month, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) released a joint statement saying the record-low rate of permits issued by Israel for Palestinians seeking vital medical treatment outside Gaza “underlines the urgent need for Israel to end its decade-long closure of the Gaza Strip.”
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights warns against ignoring the accelerated deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, in light of the continued Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and the inability to overcome the state of division.#save #Gaza pic.twitter.com/jB2cEqbIfN
— Hatem Abu Haweleh (@HHaweleh) February 27, 2018
Israeli authorities approved permits for medical appointments for only 54 percent of those who applied in 2017, the lowest rate since the World Health Organization (WHO) began collecting figures in 2008.
WHO reported that 54 Palestinians, 46 of whom had cancer, died in 2017 following denial or delay of their permits.
Gaza, which has often been compared to an “open-air prison” for its more than 2 million inhabitants crowded into 365 square kilometers, has suffered from a decade of isolation and deprivation, made all the worse by three devastating Israeli military operations, and persistent intra-Palestinian political strife.
Super woke. Mucho depressing. By the year 2020 the Gaza Strip will be deemed “unlivable” under the United Nations standards! (This is a huge deal) https://t.co/BMWxsSGckZ
— ساريس (@hammad_sarise) February 27, 2018
In 2012, the UN warned that Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020 if current trends were not altered. However, a report released in 2017 by the UN said that “life for the average Palestinian in Gaza is getting more and more wretched,” and that for the majority of Gaza’s residents, the territory may already be unlivable.
(MA’AN, PC, Social Media)
