Ramallah, 08-11-07: The death of a Palestinian doctor awaiting transfer to an Israeli hospital to receive life-saving treatment after the ambulance carrying him was delayed at the Erez crossing, is "tantamount to murder," said PNI General Secretary Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi today.
Nathmi Ashur died after waiting 48 hours to be transferred to a hospital in Israel for treatment for a blood clot in the brain via the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing. He is the fifth Gazan patient to die in such circumstances in just two weeks.
The referral of Gazan patients to Israel and abroad to receive essential treatment used to be normal practice in light of the poor state of Gaza‘s health infrastructure, which has been decimated by Israeli‘s ongoing occupation of the Strip. Yet as Israel has increased its stranglehold over Gaza since January 2006, the number of patients permitted to leave the Strip has slowed to a trickle, causing unnecessary deaths.
Other patients who have died recently after being denied passage through the Erez crossing include:
* 36-year-old kidney patient, Younis Harara, who died at Gaza‘s Ash-Shifa Hospital on 6 November after being repeatedly refused permission by Israeli authorities to travel abroad for surgery.
* 31-year-old Mahmoud Kamal Kamel Abu Taha, who died at Tal Hashomer Hospital inside Israel on 29 October. Abu Taha had obtained permission to cross Erez on 18 October to receive medical treatment for cancer in the intestines but was turned back by Israeli soldiers. He was finally allowed to cross on 28 October, by which time his condition had become critical. He died less than 24 hours after his transfer to the hospital, having lost more than one third of his weight while at the hospital.
* 77-year-old Nemer Mohammed Salim Shuhaiber, who died on 25 October after the Israeli military prevented his passage through Erez crossing to receive medical treatment at an Israeli hospital, despite the fact that he had obtained a permit to enter Israel. Shuhaiber had suffered an acute heart attack on 22 October. When the ambulance carrying him first attempted to cross on 23 October, it was shot at by Israeli soldiers, forcing it to turn back. A second attempt was made to transfer him the following day. This time, the ambulance was delayed for five hours and Shuhaiber was laid on the ground in direct sunlight for over an hour. At the end of the inspection, the border guards order the ambulance back to Gaza, where Shuhaiber died.
This denial of access is part of a wider, systematic policy of collective punishment imposed by Israel on Gaza since its redeployment from the Strip in August 2005. This was consolidated by Israel‘s declaration of Gaza as a "hostile entity" in September 2007, which Dr. Barghouthi labelled "an effort by the Israeli government to continue its complete evasion of all principles of human rights and international law."
The MP urged the international community to pressure Israel to reverse the measures of collective punishment imposed on the inhabitants of Gaza and to lift its siege on the Strip, which continues to cause immense suffering to Gaza‘s 1.5 million inhabitants.
He added that through its lack of reaction to Israeli human rights violations and its passivity towards Israel‘s policy of collective punishment, the international community was enabling further Israeli violations against the Palestinian people and bypassing its responsibility to ensure adherence to international Humanitarian Law and respect for human rights.