Ramallah, 25-11-07: A 69-year-old cancer patient has become the latest Gazan to die due to being blocked access to life-saving treatment outside the Strip by Israel. PNI leader, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP labelled the death an entirely avoidable tragedy, and said that Israel‘s systematic denial of passage to patients in critical condition to exit the Strip amounted to no less than premeditated murder.
Ma‘an News reported yesterday that Ali Abdullah Awada from the Nuseirat refugee camp died on Saturday morning after desperate attempts by his family to take him abroad for treatment failed.
"These patients were diagnosed with a critical condition," Dr. Barghouthi explained. "They had referrals for life-saving treatment unavailable in Gaza, they were blocked from leaving via Israeli-controlled crossings, and they died. Israel‘s shameful policy of collective punishment extends even as far as denying the basic rights of ordinary Gazans to life, a policy that it continues to practice unhindered."
Dr. Barghouthi stressed that, as an occupying power, it is the obligation of Israel to ensure the wellbeing of the Palestinian people, a fact enshrined in international law. He also underlined that the international community is bound as High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to uphold the implementation of international law, and thereby to pressure Israel to reverse the measures of collective punishment it has imposed on the peoples of Gaza and to lift its siege on the Strip.
He said that this series of entirely avoidable deaths in the run-up to the Annapolis meeting laid bare Israel‘s fundamental lack of regard for Palestinian lives. He concluded that Annapolis will not help the people of Gaza because it ignores Israel‘s gross violations of human rights, and that the Olmert government is no partner for peace.