Some 43,642 people are living with disabilities in the Gaza Strip, 2.4 per cent of the enclave’s population, a report issued by the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and the National Society for Rehabilitation revealed yesterday.

Board member of the National Society for Rehabilitation and Palestinian Medical Relief Society Director, Dr Aed Yaghi, said: “The issue of disability is one of the important humanitarian issues that occupies a large space of interest across all communities, where the issue affects a significant proportion of the total population – the World Health Organisation’s 2015 figures indicate that those with disabilities represent 15 per cent of the world’s population, which means that there are more than one billion people with disabilities in the world.”

Yaghi estimated that the real number of those with disabilities is far greater than the report shows, pointing out that the figures which the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and the National Society for Rehabilitation based their findings on are the most accurate however they are not the complete numbers.

He stressed on the need for rehabilitation institutions in the Gaza Strip to take advantage of the report and develop a comprehensive perception of the reality of living with a disability in Gaza, as people are now in dire need of rehabilitation services because the majority of them are poor or have limited incomes and need to be empowered.

The figures refer to only the persons with disabilities who were enrolled in the National Society for Rehabilitation and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

(MEMO)