Siege

Akram Ahmad Al-Sultan

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October 17, 2022: Akram Ahmad Mohammad Al-Sultan, 62, died after the Israeli authorities denied travel for treatment at Al-Muttala’ (Augusta Victoria) Hospital in occupied Jerusalem, in the West Bank.

Hazem Akram Al-Sultan, 38, said that his father had sustained a fracture in the eleventh thoracic vertebra (T11) in June 2022.

After conducting many examinations, it turned out that he had leukemia, and the doctors decided to refer him to Al-Muttala’ (Augusta Victoria) Hospital in occupied Jerusalem due to his bad health condition and urgent need for radiotherapy that is not available at the Gaza Strip’s hospitals.

On 18 July 2022, the patient applied for a permit to the Israeli authorities to travel for treatment at Al-Muttala’ Hospital, but on 08 August 2022, the Israeli authorities responded that his request was still “under study”.

The patient had to obtain a new appointment on 13 August 2022, and applied for another permit, but the Israeli authorities put his request under study again. The patient repeated the same procedures to obtain a new appointment on 30 September 2022.

On 06 October 2022, he received a text message to go to Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing for an interview with the Israeli intelligence, so in the same morning he went there.  After waiting for 3 hours, he was asked to return to the Gaza Strip without conducting the interview.

On 17 October 2022, his health condition got worse, and he was referred to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza Strip, where he was pronounced dead.

According to PCHR’s follow-up, so far this year, the Israeli authorities have obstructed the travel of 5,472 patients with serious diseases that lack treatment at the Strip’s hospitals.

These restrictions coincide with the deterioration of the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli-imposed closure on the Strip for the last 16 years, causing a perpetual shortage of essential drugs and medical devices and insufficient number of specialized health personnel.

PCHR condemns the obstruction of Gaza Strip Patients’ travel for treatment abroad, and calls on the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to exert pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities to assume their legal responsibilities towards the Gaza Strip population, including patients, and to ensure that adequate and safe mechanism is provided for their travel to receive treatment abroad.

PCHR urges the international community to pressure Israel to lift the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip in line with Security Council Resolution No. 1860 that calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza, including of food, fuel, and medical treatment, meaning allowing the entry of medical supplies used in radiotherapy, chemical drugs and periodic examinations for cancer patients that are not available in Gaza hospitals.

The Palestinian Center For Human Rights – PCHR, said Akram is eight Palestinian patient from Gaza, including three children, to die due to Israeli restrictions since the beginning of this year.

Akram was from the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Source: The Palestinian Center For Human Rights – PCHR

 

Tayseer Daoud Yousuf Al-Sayegh

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September 20, 2022: Tayseer Daoud Yousuf Al-Sayegh, 67, died after the Israeli authorities denied his travel for treatment at Al-Muttala Hospital in occupied Jerusalem.

Mikhail Yousuf Nicola Al-Nasrawi, 28, the patient’s companion, said that in a medical examination for Dr. al-Sayegh at al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City late in July 2022, doctors discovered a cancerous tumor spread in his lung and liver and confirmed the urgent need for an urgent treatment protocol that is not available in the Gaza Strip Hospitals and only available in Al-Muttala’ Hospital in occupied Jerusalem.

Al-Sayegh received a referral for medical referral and a hospital appointment on 05 September 2022.

He then applied for a permit to the Israeli authorities to travel via Beit Hanoun ‘Erez’ crossing and receive treatment at the Hospital on the date appointed for his treatment, yet the latter delayed responding to his travel permit and the appointment date expired.

As a result, he had to obtain a new appointment on October 22, 2022, and applied again for the permit to allow him to travel.

The patient headed to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) to help him obtaining a permit, but his health condition deteriorated, and he died at dawn on Tuesday before his permit was issued.

PCHR, in its capacity as the legal representative, intervened and sent an urgent request to the Israeli legal advisor at Bein Hanoun “Erez” crossing to allow the patient to travel on September 5, 2022, but received a response that the permit was denied.

PCHR then submitted a challenge to the Israeli Prosecution on September 15, to all the patient to travel due to his serious condition, but the patient died before receiving a response to the challenge.

According to PCHR’s follow-up, since the beginning of so far this year, the Israeli authorities have obstructed the travel of 5,001 patients with serious diseases that lack treatment at the Strip’s hospitals.[1]

These restrictions coincide with the deterioration of the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli-imposed closure on the Gaza Strip for the last 16 years, causing a perpetual shortage of essential drugs and medical devices and insufficient number of specialized health personnel.

PCHR condemned the obstruction of Gaza Strip Patients’ travel for treatment abroad, and calls on the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to exert pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities to assume their legal responsibilities towards the Gaza Strip population, including patients, and to ensure that adequate and safe mechanism is provided for their travel.

It called on the international community to pressure Israel to lift the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip in line with Security Council Resolution No. 1860 that calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza, including of food, fuel, and medical treatment which means allowing the entry of medical supplies used in radiotherapy, chemical drugs and periodic examinations for cancer patients that are not available in Gaza hospitals.

Since the beginning of this year, the number of patients denied travel for treatment abroad has risen to 6, including 3 children.

Dr. Taiseer was from Gaza. Source: The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR)

[1] Date obtained by PCHR’s fieldworkers from the Coordination and Liaison Department at the Ministry of Health

Farouq Mohammad Abu Naja

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August 28, 2022: Farouq Mohammad Abu Naja, 6, died after Israeli denied his travel for medical treatment at the Hadassah Ein Karem Israeli Medical Center in Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned the Israeli continuous obstacles to the travel of Gaza Strip’s patients, denying them access to the Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and Israeli hospitals for receiving or resuming their medical treatment.

The PCHR added that these obstacles have aggravated the suffering of thousands of patients and resulted in the death of 4 patients; the last one was Farouq whose travel permit for treatment at Hadassah hospital in the occupied Jerusalem, was denied.

Suleiman Ahmad Abu Naja, 56, the deceased child’s grandfather, from Yabna refugee camp in Rafah, said that his grandson was denied travel for treatment at Hadassah- ‘Ein Karem Hospital as he suffers from cerebral atrophy.

Abu Naja added that his grandson received a medical referral for treatment on 12 January 2022 at Hadassah ‘Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem; the referral is funded by the Christian Aid Ministries.

He applied to have a travel permit from the Israeli occupation authorities; however, the latter replied that his request is still under study.  Thus, the child could not travel for treatment on the given appointment.

Abu Naja said that they obtained another appointment on 10 August 2022 and then re-applied for the travel permit, but the Israeli authorities kept replying that the request is “under study”. While waiting for the Israeli approval, the child’s health deteriorated until he died at the European Gaza Hospital on Wednesday evening, 24 August 2022.

According to the Health Department of the General Authority for Civil Affairs (GACA) statistics, since the beginning of this year, the Israeli authorities have obstructed the travel of 4,169 patients from the Gaza strip for treatment abroad since.  Most of these patients suffer serious diseases that lack treatment at the Strip’s hospitals.

The Israeli occupation army invokes various reasons and excuses to prevent Gaza patients from traveling for treatment; including requests under study, summoning patients for a security interview, requests denied for having a relative illegally residing in the West Bank or Israel, and the treatment available in Gaza hospitals.

These restrictions come with the deterioration of the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip triggered by the Israeli-imposed closure for 16 years, as the Gaza Strip hospitals suffer from acute shortage of essential drugs and medical devices and insufficient number of specialized health professionals; rendering the hospitals unable to treat many serious diseases and so raising the number of patients referred for treatment abroad during the past years.

In light of the above, PCHR calls on the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, and the UN bodies and international organizations to exert pressure on the occupation to assume their legal responsibilities towards the residents of the Gaza Strip, including patients, and to ensure an appropriate and safe mechanism is provided for their travel.

PCHR calls on the international community to pressure Israel to lift the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip in line with Security Council Resolution No. 1860, and to import the medical supplies used in radiotherapy, chemical drugs and periodic examinations for cancer patients that are not available in Gaza hospitals.

Farouq was from Yabna refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Source: The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR):

Ahmad Harb Ayyad

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July 05, 2022: Ahmad Harb Ayyad, 32, was killed by Israeli soldiers who assaulted and repeatedly struck him when he and other workers tried to cross through a breach of the illegal Annexation Wall, in Tulkarem, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The slain man was from the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip but had been living in the West Bank and was working in construction inside the Green Line to support his family.

The Israeli soldiers also fired many live rounds and gas bombs at Palestinian workers in the same area, wounding one.

The Ayyad family in Gaza said Israel informed them about their son’s death and added that the Israeli occupation authorities allowed the transfer of his corpse to them through the Erez (Beit Hanoun) Terminal in northern Gaza.

His funeral procession was held, on Tuesday morning, at a local mosque in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza before being buried at the Shuhada Graveyard, east of Gaza.

The Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions issued a statement denouncing the Israeli crime and said that Ahmad is not the first worker to be killed by the Israeli occupation army, in addition to the hundreds who have been shot and injured and those who have been abducted and imprisoned.

The Federation added that many workers from the Gaza Strip have to leave their homes and families in the impoverished region to look for work in the West Bank or Israel and face constant violations.

It called on the International Labor Organization to intervene and ensure Israel abides by International Law and stops its deadly violations against the Palestinian workers.

The Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates also denounced the worker’s killing and described it as an execution.

It called on the International Community to hold Israel accountable for its violations against the Palestinian civilians and to act on ending the illegal occupation.

On June 19, 2022, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian worker, Nabil Ahmad Taiseer Ghanem, 53, near the Annexation Wall, south of Qalqilia, in the northern part of the West Bank.

On the same day, the soldiers attacked workers and detained thirteen Barta’a towns southwest of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank.

Ahmad was from the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza city. Source: IMEMC

Fatma Jalal al-Masri

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March 25, 2022: Fatma Jalal al-Masri, 19 months, died at the Gaza European Hospital after she was denied access to a hospital outside Gaza by Israeli authorities at the Erez crossing.

The Al-Mezan Center For Uman Rights said Fatma was subjected to Israel’s arbitrary and discriminatory permit system, which delays access to hospitals outside the Strip and denies care in around 30 percent of urgent cases. The continued movement restrictions by Israeli authorities on Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip systematically violate inhabitants’ right to health by aggravating health conditions and placing numerous barriers to health access.

According to Al Mezan, Fatma’s legal representative, she was diagnosed with a ventricular septal defect in 2021. Despite having obtained a medical referral from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and confirming three hospital appointments at Al-Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem, Israeli authorities denied Fatma the requisite exit permit to travel to Jerusalem for the appointments, the last of which was on 5 March 2022.

The young patient’s health deteriorated over the course of several months of denied care and she died three weeks after her last missed appointment.

Al Mezan deeply regrets Fatma’s death and strongly condemns Israel’s ongoing closure of the Gaza Strip and its associated restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, which includes denying patients access to the hospitals in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel, and abroad.

Al Mezan’s documentation shows that since 2011, 71 Palestinians—including twenty-five women and nine children—have died following Israel’s denial of requests for exit permits and delays. Notably, Israel’s targeted, discriminatory permit system is one of the practices and policies at the core of its apartheid regime against the Palestinian people as a whole.

This case is yet another example of Israel’s continuing violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and its obligations as an occupying power, notably to respect and ensure freedom of movement in occupied territory and to guarantee the right to health of the occupied population.

These obligations bear greater weight when involving children and as provided in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Israel has an obligation to ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child. Delaying access to necessary medical care for a toddler for more than five months is unwarranted and grave.

Al Mezan emphasizes that Israel is fully responsible for Fatma’s death as the occupying power and relevant duty bearer in these circumstances. The State’s persistent breaches of its international law obligations require the intervention of the international community and accountability of perpetrators.

Al Mezan called on the international community—in particular, the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions—to uphold their moral and legal obligations vis-à-vis the protected Palestinian people and to ensure Israel complies with its obligations under international law, ends the closure and blockade on the Gaza Strip, and stops its ongoing restrictions of Palestinian patients’ access to medical care outside the Gaza Strip.

Fatima was from Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Source: Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights

Mohammad Ammar

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September, 30, 2021: Mohammad Ammar, 41, was killed by Israeli soldiers killed, east of the al-Boreij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medical sources said the Mohammad was shot with a live round in the head before he was rushed to the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the nearby Deir al-Balah city, where he was officially pronounced dead.

The slain man was shot on Palestinian land close to the perimeter fence of the besieged coastal region.

Local sources said Ammar was hunting birds when the soldiers delivered the fatal shots.

Israeli Ynet news quoted that army claiming that the soldiers reportedly observed, through surveillance cameras, three Palestinians approaching the fence, and added that “one of them was digging in the ground while carrying a suspicious bag.”

It said that the army did not provide further clarification besides stating that the soldiers spotted the man and opened fire at him.

His mother said that Mohammad was a married father of seven children (four boys and three girls), and worked at the local town council, and added that he took a four-day vacation from work to hunt for birds and spend time with the family.

The attack is part of frequent Israeli violations against the Palestinians, especially the fishermen, farmers, shepherds, and workers in the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip, and have led to dozens of casualties, including fatalities, in addition to serious property damage and the confiscation of many boats after abducting the fishermen.

Also Thursday, the soldiers killed a Palestinian woman in Jerusalem, identified as Isra’ Khaled Khzaimiah, 30, in Burqin town, southwest of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and Ala’ Nasser Zayyoud, 22, from Qabatia, south of Jenin.

Mohammad was from the al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza Strip. Source: IMEMC

Suhaib Ibrahim Al-Khatib

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October 9th, 2020: Suhaib Ibrahim Al-Khatib, 19, died in a tunnel accident, in one of the many ‘siege-busting’ tunnels constructed underground to bring lifesaving aid to the people of Gaza.

The Al-Qassam Brigades confirmed the accidental death of a Palestinian resistance fighter in the southern besieged Gaza Strip

The military wing of the Hamas Resistance Movement, said the young man, Suhaib Ibrahim Al-Khatib, 19, was killed in an undisclosed accident in Rafah, on Friday night.

The correspondent stated that Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas leaders and hundreds of Palestinian civilians attended the funeral, on Saturday, at the “Al-Nour” mosque in Rafah, then carried out in a march to the cemetery.

Suhaib was from Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Source: IMEMC

Khalil Mohammad Lubbad

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Khalil LubbadSeptember 20th, 2020: Khalil Mohammad Lubbad, 27, died when a tunnel collapsed on him in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Three other fighters were injured in the collapse, all of whom were members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

Medical sources said the fighter was taken to the Indonesian Hospital, in Jabalia, along with three other Palestinians who were injured in the same incident, and that one of them is in a serious condition.

Dozens of Palestinians, including civilians not affiliated with any armed resistance groups, were killed and scores were injured in similar accidents, while many were killed or injured when the Israeli army bombarded the tunnels while they were working in them.

Tunnels in Gaza are not all used by armed resistance groups to smuggle weapons into the besieged coastal region, as many are used to smuggle goods and supplies, including medical supplies and fuel, into the enclave.

Many Palestinian civilians work in the tunnels to provide for their families due to the high levels of unemployment and poverty.

Khalil was from Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza. Source: IMEMC

Ala’ Hani al-Abbassi

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Ala AbassiJanuary 31, 2020: Ala’ Hani al-Abbassi, 15, died from serious wounds he suffered in mid-October of 2019, after Israeli soldiers shot him in southern Gaza.

Palestinian sources said the child, Ala’ Hani al-Abbassi, 15, was shot by the soldiers with a high-velocity gas bomb in his head, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

After his injury, the child received the needed first aid before he was rushed to a hospital in Khan Younis.

The child underwent surgeries and remained in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit for three months, until he was pronounced dead on January 31st.

On Friday at dawn, the Israeli army carried out a series of airstrikes targeting several areas in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

Media sources said the army carried out ten strikes that led to extensive property damage and caused a power blackout over most of the Rafah. This blackout may have affected the life support systems at the hospital, leading to his death.

Ala’ was from Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Source: IMEMC

Saleh Hamad

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September 9, 2019: Saleh Hamad, 22, drowned to death in Bosnia-Herzegovina, after he tried to immigrate to Europe to escape the dire conditions in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The family of Saleh Hamad, 22, from Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, said it was officially informed that its son drowned to death.

They stated that he managed to leave the Gaza Strip and was trying to seek refuge in Europe, adding that they lost contact with him three weeks ago.

It is worth mentioning that another Palestinian, identified as Dr. Tamer Sultan, 38, and a father of three children, died on August 17th, died just days after he was admitted to a hospital in Bosnia.

He fled Gaza and tried to seek refuge in Bosnia; he was initially hospitalized suffering from severe fatigue and seriously swollen feet.

His autopsy also revealed that he suffered from a spinal tumor, which apparently was never discovered before his death.

Media sources in Gaza said Sultan did not only try to escape poverty and the deadly siege on Gaza, but was also repeatedly arrested and imprisoned by Hamas before he fled the coastal region.

Saleh was from Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza. Source: IMEMC