RAMALLAH, April 8, 2017 (WAFA) – Marking World Health Day, the Palestinian human rights group, Al-Haq, said on Saturday that two ill children from Gaza died since the start of this year because they were denied Israeli exit permit to get treatment abroad.
Ahmed Shubeir, 17, was born with congenital heart disease, for which he had received treatment in Israeli and Palestinian hospitals outside of Gaza since he was a child.
In late 2015, it was determined that he would require surgery at a Jerusalem hospital. After several delays by the Israeli occupation forces, his surgery date was set for September 10, 2016. However, and despite his deteriorating health condition, Israel banned him from travel under the claim of “security.”
In October 2016, Ahmed was summoned by the Israeli intelligence services. During a nearly seven-hour-long interrogation, Ahmed was stripped searched and had all of his medicines taken away from him. An intelligence officer said to him: "we know that your health condition is very difficult and we are ready to [...] give you the best doctors in exchange for your cooperation with us."
Ahmed refused to provide the officer with information about his neighbors, acquaintances, and family members, telling the officer that he preferred to die rather than to become a collaborator.
As Ahmed‘s condition continued to deteriorate, Ahmed‘s surgery dates were rescheduled by the hospital in the hopes that he would receive permission to travel. Instead, Ahmed‘s mother was summoned by the occupation forces. After being strip searched, she was offered to become a collaborator in exchange for her son‘s treatment; she refused.
Although human rights organizations and the World Health Organization intervened in Ahmed‘s case and urged Israel to allow Ahmed to travel, the travel ban was not lifted. Ahmed passed away on January 14.
Muhammad Habib, 7, had cancer and required treatment outside of Gaza. The Israeli occupation forces refused patient-companion permits out of Gaza for most of his family members although, as a child, it is an Israeli requirement that he travel with a companion.
Instead, the Israeli intelligence service made it clear to Mohammad‘s father that he would be the only person whom they would grant permission to accompany his son outside of Gaza for his treatment. Muhammad‘s father was troubled by this insistence that he be the one to accompany the child, and was concerned that the Israeli intelligence intended to detain him or coerce him into collaborating in exchange for his son‘s continued treatment, a tactic that it has regularly used.
Muhammad‘s father informed the Israeli intelligence service that as the sole breadwinner for his family, he was unable to leave his wife and three other children. The intelligence position remained unchanged and no other family member received a patient-companion permit.
As a result, Muhammad could not travel outside of Gaza, he could not receive the treatment he needed, and he died on February 12, two months before his 8th birthday.
Al-Haq said that the right to the highest attainable standard of health is among the most basic human rights applicable to all without exception.
“As Occupying Power, Israel is obliged to respect, protect, and fulfil this right for the protected Palestinian population. Instead, Israeli policies and practices, ranging from collective punishment measures to excessive use of force to the torture of detainees, regularly impact the physical and mental health of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” it said in a statement.
“On World Health Day, Al-Haq draws attention to the lives of the two young boys from Gaza who passed away in 2017 as a result of Israel‘s closure on Gaza and their inability to access health care. The cases are emblematic of Israel‘s disregard for the lives of Palestinians and the oppressive environment created by the occupation,” it said.
It warned that Israel‘s actions in the cases of Ahmed and Muhammad, along with countless others, may constitute the grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention of “willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health.”
Accordingly, Al-Haq called on the international community at-large to take effective action to end Israel‘s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and for States to fulfil their duties under international law.
M.K.
