Document - Israel/OPT: Update: Health Professional Action. Patients from Gaza are still denied access to medical treatment in Israel

Public AI Index: MDE 15/039/2008

To: Health Professional Network

From: Health and Human Rights Team

Date: 9 September 2008

UPDATE: Health Professional Action

Patients from Gaza are still denied access to medical treatment in Israel

Israel/OPT

Six patients who were featured in the Health Professional Action of 29 August 2008 (AI Index: MDE 15/036/2008) were able to leave the Gaza Strip when the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt was opened exceptionally on 30 and 31 August 2008. They are now receiving medical treatment abroad. Among them is Ahmad Abu Shawish, aged 46, whose situation was critical. He is suffering from a cancerous mass in the bladder and was losing a significant amount of blood. The other patients now receiving treatment abroad are:

Rada Khdeir (f), aged 22,suffers from systemic vasculitis with damage to the kidneys;

Walid al-Swirki (m), aged 57,suffers from coronary heart disease and needs bypass surgery;

Mustafa Sha’sha’a(m), aged 51,suffers from cancer of the kidney, which has recurred with metastases to the spine;

Jihad al-Shatali (m), aged 50,suffers from heart disease;

Muhammed Owdalla (m), aged 56,needs an urgent heart operation.

The Israeli authorities continue to oppose the reopening of the Gaza-Egypt border and only allow Egypt to partially open the Rafah Crossing on an exceptional basis. The border has now been opened on four occasions in 2008, each time for a period of one to three days. The opening on 30 and 31 August was the last such occasion, ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on 1 September. It is now closed, leaving other critically ill patients unable to reach the medical treatment they need.

The only other point of exit from Gaza is via the Erez Crossing to Israel, through which all patients referred to specialized hospitals in Israel, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Jordan need to travel. However, for undisclosed security reasons, the Israeli authorities frequently deny permission to Palestinian patients to enter or pass through Israel.

Patients still in need of treatment

The other critically ill patients mentioned in the recent Health Professional Action have still not been able to leave Gaza and are therefore still unable to receive the medical treatment they desperately need. These patients have hospital referrals for Israel, the West Bank and Jordan and therefore need to travel via the Erez Crossing from Gaza to Israel and not via the Rafah Crossing to Egypt. Some are in such a poor physical condition that they cannot be moved without special facilities. Therefore they remain in hospitals in Gaza where there is no specialized treatment for their conditions, which are worsening. At the same time, health provisions in Gaza are deteriorating due to an ongoing partial strike of doctors and other medical workers in state hospitals since 30 August 2008.

Urgent cases of patients who were not able to leave the Gaza Strip when the Rafah Crossing was opened on 30 and 31 August and who remain without access to the medical treatment they need includeNufuz Husni, who is undergoing chemotherapy and was too weak to travel on 31 August, even though she had been referred to a hospital in Egypt after being refused permission in March to leave Gaza to travel to a specialized Israeli hospital. The trip from Gaza to the hospital in Egypt is physically extremely tiring.

Other cases:

Bassam al-Oehidi (m), aged 28, suffers from retinal detachment;

Rami al-Masri (m), aged 25, suffers from a tumour in the left optic nerve;

Sameer Taleb (m), aged 47, is in need of a repeat operation following a decompressive laminectomy;

Rami al-Arouqi (m), aged 29, suffers from a tumour in a bone of the right leg;

Nadira Abu Oweimar (f),aged 29, suffers from Hodgkin’s lymphoma;

Ahmad al-Baghdadi (m), aged 27, suffers from cancer of the pancreas;

Shadi Hilis (m),aged 31, suffers from a malignant tumour of the tongue;

Muhammed al-Hurani (m), aged33, suffers from a malignant brain tumour;

Nufuz Husni (f),aged 44, suffers from a malignant anal tumour;

As’ad al-Qarinawi(m), aged 47, suffered a heart attack and needs catheterization, unavailable in Gaza;

Mahmud Odeh (m), aged 31, suffers from chronic kidney disease and needs a biopsy for diagnosis;

Naser al-Akhras(m), aged 24, is wounded in the pelvis;

Fathi al-Ghouf(m), aged 43, needs a heart operation which cannot be carried out in Gaza;

Radi Abu Rida (m), aged 50, suffers from advanced kidney stones that are threatening kidney failure;

Suleiman Abu Shawish(m), aged 59, needs an eye operation due to detachment of the retina;

Ayman al-Lidawi(m), aged 35, suffers from ischaemic heart disease and needs a special procedure.

New Case:

Jamal Dughmush(m), aged 62, suffered a heart attack and needs a pacemaker.

Background

In several cases patients have been told by the Israeli General Security Service that they will not be allowed to leave Gaza to receive medical treatment unless they become informants. In December 2007, one of the above-mentioned patients told Amnesty International delegates who were visiting Gaza that, even after obtaining a permit from the Israeli authorities to leave Gaza for medical treatment at a Jerusalem hospital, he was denied passage at the crossing following his refusal to become an informant. Since then he has not been able to leave Gaza for treatment and has now lost his sight in one eye. The non-governmental organization, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, has documented several other such cases over the last year.

The Israeli authorities set up a closed shuttle service with an Israeli security escort to transfer patients to Jordan, but it has only operated four times in eight months, each time carrying two to eight patients. Israel retains effective control of the Gaza Strip and, under humanitarian law and international human rights law, is therefore responsible for the welfare of the population and must ensure that the Palestinian population under occupation receives the same medical care as its own nationals.

Recommended action

a) Please write to the Israeli authorities below:

explaining that you are a health professional concerned about human rights and mentioning if you have previously written about this concern;
urging the authorities to ensure that the above-named and other patients are allowed to leave Gaza immediately to access hospitals in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, or in Israel, Jordan or other countries and that they are not subjected to interrogation by the General Security Service;
expressing grave concern that patients are routinely prevented from leaving the Gaza strip to travel to the West Bank, Israel and other countries to receive the necessary medical treatment and that such denial puts their lives and health in danger;
calling on the Israeli authorities to ensure that the General Security Service immediately stops exploiting patients in urgent need of medical treatment for the purposes of obtaining security information;
reminding the Israeli authorities that according to international law, Israel, as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, must ensure that the residents of Gaza have access to the necessary medical care, as well as to medical care to the same extent as nationals of the State of Israel.

b) Please write to the Egyptian authorities below:

explaining that you are a health professional concerned about human rights;
commending the opening of the Rafah Crossing on 30 and 31 August 2008 to allow patients from Gaza to access treatment in Egypt;
calling on the authorities to work urgently to ensure prompt passage via the Rafah Crossing for all other patients in Gaza who urgently need medical treatment in Egypt.

Addresses

a) Israeli authorities:

Tzipi Livni (f)

Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 9 Yitzhak Rabin Boulevard, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91035, Israel

Fax: +972 2 530 3367

Email / website: sar@mfa.gov.il/ www.mfa.gov.il

Salutation: Dear Minister

Major General Yoav Galant

GOC Southern Command

Military Post 02392, Beer Sheva, IDF

Fax: +972 8 990 2655