AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime has prevented cancer patients who urgently need to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment since the start of the latest military offensive on the besieged enclave.
Crossings with Gaza have been closed since 10 May, especially Eretz Crossing, which is used by pedestrians rather than goods.
The Washington Post has reported that doctors, families and human rights advocates are urging the occupying regime’s authorities to reopen the border crossings for medical cases, at least, before the most vulnerable patients become critically ill and die.
The regime said last week that Gaza patients with exit permits would be allowed to cross Eretz Crossing for treatment, adding that it will also allow humanitarian teams, medical equipment, food and fuel to enter the coastal territory.
However, Israeli, Palestinian and international rights groups have reported complaints from Palestinian patients that they are not allowed to pass through the crossing closed by the regimes.
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel and the Palestinian human rights organization al-Mezan stated that Israeli officials are only allowing the entry of people needing to reach intensive care units by ambulance.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Hussein Najjar, a fisherman from southern Gaza, said that his 61-year-old mother has grown weak and depressed since missing her regular chemotherapy treatment in East al-Quds Augusta Victoria Hospital. She is suffering from colorectal and lung cancer
Health officials are also concerned about the coronavirus crisis in the Gaza Strip given that the only COVID-test laboratory is now inoperable due to the damage caused by a Zionist regime’s air raid that hit a nearby building during the 11-day aggression on the enclave.
Meanwhile, Palestine on Tuesday extended its state of emergency by another month as part of the effort to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the Palestinian territories.
In a decree issued by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the state of emergency was extended effective immediately so as to give the government enough power to tackle the increase in coronavirus cases.