Two Palestinian Women also succumb to lack of treatment bringing the number of Gazan patients to die because of the siege to 145
Ramallah, 06/05/2008: Thirteen-year-old Asmahan Al Jamal became the 145th patient to fall victim to Israel‘s crippling siege on the Gaza Strip yesterday. The teenager died of brain cancer after Israeli military authorities refused to grant her an exit permit to access advanced medical treatment unavailable in Gaza itself.
"This is the true face of the Israeli government‘s siege on Gaza," said Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative. "One that masquerades as a security measure, but that plumbs such depths of inhumanity that even a chronically ill child is left to die without medical treatment readily available outside of the Strip."
Two women from the Al Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza also died on Monday: Zakyiah Sa‘dah, 59, who was suffering from a heart condition, and Nathmiah Abdah, 55, a cancer patient.
"These victims died because Israel denied them access to life-saving medical treatment available outside of the Gaza Strip. This is a gross violation of international humanitarian law," said Dr. Barghouthi.
He accused Israel of "inflicting collective punishment on 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza" and called for an immediate end to the illegal and murderous siege on the Gaza Strip.