Ramallah, 27-05-08: Seven patients – including three newborn children - have died in Gaza in less than a week as a direct result of Israel‘s ongoing, devastating siege on the Strip.
Twenty-two-year-old leukemia sufferer, Mohammad Amawi, became the 167th Gazan patient to die today. Mohammad‘s father spent nearly US$ 80,000 dollars on treatment for his son in hospitals inside Israel since Mohammad was diagnosed with cancer of the blood. Mohammad was scheduled to visit the hospital in Israel on Sunday, 25 May to receive further treatment, but was prevented from exiting the Strip due to the closure of the Erez Crossing. He suffered severe blood loss and loss of vision, and died at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City today.
His death came the same day as three newborn children: 10-day-old Hashim Sbeiha, and one-week-old twins, Fayza and Sijoud Al-Farrah. All children died from chronic illnesses due to the unavailability of life-saving medications in Gaza because of the prolonged closure of Gaza‘s borders by the Israeli military. This has led to shortages of essential medications, medical equipment and supplies, and basic foodstuffs, among other things.
"The Israeli government is justifying what former US President Jimmy Carter recently described as ‘one of the greatest human rights crimes on Earth‘ under the pretext of security," said Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative. "But tell me who is safer now that Mohammad, Hashim, Fayza, Sijoud, and many others are dead?" Are the lives of these children, these chronically ill people, worth less than any other human being? The Israeli government and military‘s clear and fundamental lack of regard for the basic right of Palestinians to life is racist and criminal," the MP stressed.
In a recent report on the deaths of Gazan patients as a result of Israel‘s siege, World Health Organisation Head in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Ambrogio Manenti, described the deaths as "nonsense, inhumanity and, [in] the end, tragedies. Tragedies that could and should have been avoided."
Recent victims of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip
|
Patient death # |
Date of death |
Name | Age | Sex | Details |
| 167 | 27 May | Mohammad Amawi | 22 years | Male | Suffered from leukaemia. He was scheduled to receive treatment at a hospital in Israel on Sunday 25 May, but the Erez Crossing was closed. He suffered severe blood loss and loss of vision, and died at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. |
| 166 | 27 May | Hashim Sbeiha | 10 days | Male | Suffered from kidney problems and required medications unavailable in the Gaza Strip. Died at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. |
|
165 164 |
27 May | Fayza and Sijoud Al-Farrah (twins) | 1 week | Female | Born prematurely, these twin girls needed a respiratory surfactant to enable them to breath. This surfactant is unavailable in the Gaza Strip. |
| 163 | 25 May | Hind Al Ashkar | Unknown | Female | Died from kidney failure after being repeatedly denied permission by the Israeli army to receive treatment outside of Gaza. |
| 162 | 24 May | Lolo Habbush (wife of Nabhan) | 59 years | Female | Died of kidney failure after being delayed in accessing life-saving treatment in Egypt due to the closure of the Rafah Crossing. Died two days after her husband, Nabhan. |
| 161 | 22 May | Nabhan Habbush | 62 years | Male | Died of cancer after being prevented from crossing through Erez three times, despite having a permit to do so. He then tried to cross to Egypt through Rafah, but the Crossing was closed. |