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

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

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

Mohammad Jihad Debabeche

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Mohammad Jihad DebabecheMay 6, 2018: Mohammad Jihad Debabeche, 41, died after the Israeli authorities refused to allow him to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment, according to Palestinian medical sources.

The National Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza issued a statement revealing that Mohammad Jihad Debabeche, 41, suffered from cancer and urgently needed treatment in an Israeli hospital, but the army refused to allow him to leave the besieged Gaza Strip.

Mohammad was the brother of Bassel Jihad Debabeche, who was killed along with nine other Palestinians, on December 27, 2008, when the Israeli army fired missiles into Palestinian security headquarters in Gaza.

The Palestinians who were killed along with Bassel in 2008 were identified as Hasan Ibrahim Abu Shanab, Mohammad al-Adgham, Husam Siyam, Ali Awad, Rafat Shaniya, Mahmoud al-Khalidi, Sha’lan Abdul-Salam, Soheib Abdul’al and Yousef Abdul’al.

Their bodies were severely mutilated due to the Israeli bombardment of the security headquarters on the first day of “Operation Cast Lead” three-week offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which at least 1417 Palestinians were killed, Including 926 civilians, among the 111 women and 412, children.

13 Israelis were also killed in that invasion; including eight soldiers, five of whom were killed by friendly fire.

Another of Mohammad’s brothers, Nidal Jihad Debabeche, was killed on April 2, 1995, in an explosion in Sheikh Radwan, also leading to the death of several fighters of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

Mohammad was from Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza city, in the central part of the Gaza Strip. Source: IMEMC

Husam Soufi

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February 9, 2017: Husam Hameed Soufi, 24, was killed by Israeli missiles while he was working in a siege-busting border tunnel, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Mohammad Anwar al-Aqra’, 38, was also killed in the strike, while at least five Palestinians were injured and buried under the rubble.

The two Palestinians were workers trying to support their families amidst the ongoing Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. Husam was from Rafah. Source: IMEMC

Mohammad al-Aqra’

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February 9, 2017: Mohammad Anwar al-Aqra’, 38, was killed by Israeli missiles while he was working in a siege-busting border tunnel, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Husam Hameed Soufi, 24, was also killed in the strike, while at least five Palestinians were injured and buried under the rubble.

The two Palestinians were workers trying to support their families amidst the ongoing Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. Husam was from Rafah. Source: IMEMC

Saleh al-Astal

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July 18, 2016: Saleh al-Astal, 28, was killed when a border tunnel collapsed on him, in the town of Al-Qarara, in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, said the Palestinian was one of its fighters, and that he was working in the tunnel, along with other Palestinians, when it collapsed.

Medical sources in Khan Younis said First Responders managed to locate al-Astal’s body, and rescued three other Palestinians, who suffered various injuries.

Many tunnels spread across the border fence in the Gaza Strip; while some are used by armed groups such as Hamas, most tunnels are used for smuggling food, goods and medicines into the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip.

Hundreds of Palestinians were killed, and injured, in numerous tunnel accident across the border fence in Gaza.

Most of them were civilians who resorted to working in the dangerous tunnels to provide for their families, suffering under a tight siege, and repeated Israeli wars on the Gaza Strip. Saleh was from Khan Younis. Source: IMEMC