Israeli occupation delayed 50.7 per cent of 2,282 requests for treatment permits submitted to related Israeli department in May, Wold Health Organisation (WHO) revealed on Monday.
The treatment permits were submitted to the Coordination and Liaison Administration to the Gaza Strip –an Israeli department— and were held up with no explanation, WHO said.
WHO’s report noted that the delay caused the patients to miss their appointments for examinations or treatments.
Patients who saw their permits delayed included 255 children under age 18 and 141 people over 60, the report of the organisation said.
The UN health agency added that 2.1 per cent of the requests were refused while only 47.2 per cent of them were approved.
According to the report, the requests often belong to those who had previously received permissions to seek medical treatment outside Gaza.
Law Violation
The new revelation is mere a continuation of the Israeli policy of depriving besieged Palestinians from their right to be treated as the regime also delayed 39 per cent of the responses in April.
The Gaza-based Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights reported that the lengthy waits for an exit permit have led to the death of four women, three children and two men during the first half of 2017.
“There must be a drastic change in Israeli policy toward the exit of patients and toward Gaza in general. The fact that patients sometimes do not get answers for months is cruel and the weakest population pays the price,” Ran Goldstein, the director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israelو said.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.
Israel has also launched several wars on the Palestinian sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014. The Israeli military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.
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