The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, revealed on Monday some “temporary” measures for Palestinian patients in the besieged Gaza Strip to travel for treatment.
“A temporary arrangement has been agreed to support #Palestinian patients and companions from #Gaza to access essential #health services outside the Strip,” Mladenov tweeted.
#BREAKING: A temporary arrangement has been agreed to support #Palestinian patients and companions from #Gaza to access essential #health services outside the Strip. Thank you @WHOoPt, @jamiemcgoldric8 and @UNSCO_MEPP for your amazing work with all parties.
— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) September 7, 2020
The UN official did not give details about these new arrangements or indicate who the partners are in carrying them out.
However, he thanked the World Health Organisation in the Occupied Territories; Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Development and Humanitarian Coordinator in Palestine; and the UN Special Coordinator of the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) for their “amazing work with all parties.”
Since May, when the Palestinian Authority halted security coordination with Israel over Benjamin Netanyahu’s annexation plans, the Israeli authorities have been preventing Gaza patients from traveling abroad, citing a lack of coordination with the PA.
#Gaza Announces 35% Deficit in #Cancer Medicines (VIDEO) https://t.co/3Yvz0p1TDx via @PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/fPMYtlmX1i
— @palestinechron (@PalestineChron) June 24, 2020
Due to serious shortages of medicines, medical equipment, and expertise in Gaza as a result of the 14-year-old Israeli-led siege of the territory, many patients need to travel in order to receive vital treatment available in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem, Israel, or abroad.
Gaza, with a population of 2 million, has been under a hermetic Israeli siege since 2006, when the Palestinian group Hamas won the democratic legislative elections in occupied Palestine. Since then, Israel has carried out numerous bombing campaigns and several major wars, that resulted in the death of thousands of people.
(Palestine Chronicle, MEMO, Social Media)
