GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Following 10 months of its systematic and widespread destruction of the health sector, and imposing an arbitrary blockade, Israel continues to deliberately prevent the entry of medical supplies, including medical devices and essential medicines, into the Gaza Strip, resulting in a high death toll there, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor revealed on Monday evening.
The rights group stressed that an immediate action is needed to lift Israel’s blockade on the Strip, bring in medical supplies to save the lives of sick and injured persons, guarantee the right to travel for those in need of critical treatment, and bring in the supplies required to immediately rebuild the health system and ensure its safety from Israeli targeting.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor received dozens of daily complaints from Palestinians seeking to travel for life-saving treatment outside the Gaza Strip due to the lack of adequate treatment, medicines, and medical devices, as the majority of hospitals are out of service due to the ongoing Israeli blockade and direct targeting.
Since the redeployment of its military forces and the destruction of large parts of it last May, Israel has closed the Rafah land crossing with Egypt—the only route for travel in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians there. The closure has prevented thousands of sick and injured people from traveling for treatment, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of them thus far.
The latest statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza indicate that more than 12,000 injured people and 14,000 sick patients are in urgent need of traveling for treatment, stressing that these are part of the tens of thousands who are in dire need of travel to complete treatment or receive essential therapy and rehabilitation services that are not available anymore in the Gaza Strip.
Dozens of patient deaths, including those of elderly people, are reported on a daily basis, the majority of which are the result of inadequate medical care, medication, or treatment. Euro-Med Monitor emphasized that these individuals are not formally included in the official list of those killed by Israel’s ongoing genocide.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that the death rate in the Gaza Strip has significantly increased in the past few months when compared to the same period in the last two years. A correlation has also been noted between the increasing deaths, hospitals that are no longer operational, and the breakdown of the health system because of systematic Israeli targeting and blockade.
In this regard, the Euro-Med called for a swift international intervention to put an end to Israel’s crime of genocide; lift its arbitrary siege on the Gaza Strip; permit the entry of food and non-food items as well as life-saving medical aid into the enclave; immediately rebuild the health sector; establish field hospitals in the northern section of the Strip; pressure Israel to stop its systematic attacks against hospitals that have been rendered inoperable and guarantee the safety of the medical personnel, sick and injured patients, and displaced people inside; allow anyone who needs it to receive life-saving treatment; and facilitate the transfer of thousands of emergency cases for medical treatment abroad.
