Israeli human rights organization on Wednesday revealed that the number of minors that Israel prevented from leaving the Gaza Strip to receive medical care has doubled during 2021.
Israel-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said, “The year 2021 witnessed a doubling of the number of times the Israeli authorities rejected the requests of minors to undergo medical treatment in hospitals in East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Jordan, compared to 2020.”
The association indicated that its information is based on data obtained from the Israeli occupation army, as part of a request submitted by the association under the Freedom of Information Law.
According to the data, 17 per cent of minors’ requests to leave the Gaza Strip in 2020 were rejected for the purpose of receiving medical care not available in the Strip (347 out of 2,070 requests),” she said.
In 2021, the rejection rate of such requests jumped to 32 per cent, as the occupation authorities rejected 812 requests out of 2,578 requests submitted.
The Israeli organization assists Gaza Strip patients in obtaining exit permits for the purpose of receiving health care.
The association attributed the reasons for the rise to the tightening of Israeli policies related to issuing exit permits for Gazan patients for several reasons, including restrictions imposed by the authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in May 2021.
According to the association, the main reasons for the high rates of denial of permit applications for minors are attributed to Israel’s refusal to allow their parents to accompany them while they are undergoing medical care, and the allegation of problems with the medical documents attached to the applications.
Many Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip depend on hospitals in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel for treatments that are not available in the Strip.
Since 2008, Gaza’s population has doubled while medical facilities remained poor.
With severe restrictions on access to basic services, Gaza has been dubbed the world’s largest open-air prison.
