On the continued prevention of the Israeli occupation to bring diagnostic medical devices to the hospitals of the Gaza Strip
Not only did the Israeli occupation tighten its grip on the various lifelines in the Gaza Strip, but it continued its systematic practices by placing obstacles in front of attempts that would maintain reasonable limits of treatment rights for the patients of the Gaza Strip, whose suffering has not disappeared throughout the sixteen years of the blockade. After they were deprived of the treatment pills, they are now being deprived of diagnostic services, to become facing a complicated crisis caused by the occupation by preventing the introduction of diagnostic medical devices to the hospitals of the Strip.
The process of purchasing medical devices is carried out by submitting a request to the donors, as the donors respond and the procurement process takes place in the utmost transparency due to their realization of the seriousness of the health situation in the Strip. The Israeli occupation punishes the Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip and prevents the issuance of permits necessary to release these devices to the Gaza Strip from the ports or warehouses of suppliers in the West Bank.
The continuation of the Israeli blockade deprived patients in the Gaza Strip of their treatment rights due to the lack of basic medicines, medical consumables, supplies of laboratories, and blood banks.
The Israeli blockade deprived about 50% of patients in the Gaza Strip of their treatment rights guaranteed by International Humanitarian Law inside and outside the Gaza Strip.
• According to UN reports, last August 2067 patients applied for treatment outside Gaza in specialized hospitals of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Green line, and 868 applications were delayed and rejected, at a rate of (42%)
• Patients with tumors, heart diseases, strokes, and complex fractures face a harsh fate as a result of the delay in obtaining diagnostic tests that help them complete their treatment and perform surgeries.
Today, another crime against humanity is being committed, as the occupation insists on preventing the entry of very important diagnostic and therapeutic devices. The occupation did not allow the Palestinian patients of Gaza to go out to receive treatment, nor did it allow the entry of equipment that allows them to be treated inside the besieged Gaza Strip, and here we list, for example, part of those devices that the occupation insists on preventing them to the torture of Palestinian patients:
The interventional catheterization device, which the occupation has been preventing from entering since last June, and the last request was submitted to enter the device at the end of September of this year, and it is a device that allows patients with strokes to be saved from death and paralysis
Four X-ray machines of the C-arm type, which the occupation has refused to enter since last March, as three requests for the entry of the devices were rejected, the last of which was submitted at the end of last June. These devices allow the diagnosis of bone and fracture cases inside the operating room
A full year ago, the Israeli occupation continues to prevent three digital basic X-ray machines, where the requests were submitted in December last year 2021 and in May, July, and October of this year, and the devices are still under unjustified Israeli procedures, and it is known that these devices allow the diagnosis of hundreds of medical conditions
The Israeli occupation has been preventing the entry of a mobile X-ray machine for six months, as the last request was submitted to enter the device was in May of this year, it is a device that enables the diagnosis and imaging of disabled and bedridden patients due to senility and patients with fractures in their beds.
In view of the continuation of this difficult and serious Israeli brutality against our patients, the Ministry of Health confirms the following
• We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the lives of Gaza patients, as it is the occupying power in accordance with international law.
• We call on the international, humanitarian, and human rights organizations today and more than ever to put pressure on the Israeli occupation to allow the entry of medical and diagnostic devices into the hospitals of the Gaza Strip.
We call on all relevant authorities to listen to the Gaza patients and feel their pain up on their moral, legal, and relief responsibilities to save the patients of Gaza
Ministry of Health- Gaza Strip
Wednesday, November 30, 2022