WHO: Israel Delays Half of Gazans Seeking to Leave Strip for Medical Treatment

Jerusalem, MINA –  The World Health Organization has revealed that the Israeli Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) delayed about half of those seeking to exit the Gaza Strip to be treated in Israeli hospitals in May, with similar statistics for the preceding months, IINA reported, Thursday (15/8).

According to the WHO examination, of the 2,282 requests submitted to the CLA to the Gaza Strip in May, 47.2 percent were approved, 2.1 percent were refused, while 50.7 percent were held up with no explanation, causing the patients to miss their appointments for examinations or treatments. Often these are people who had previously received exit permits for treatment.

Those whose responses were delayed in May included 255 children under age 18 and 141 people over 60. In April, 39 percent of the responses were delayed, Hebrew daily newspaper Haaretz reported in its Monday issue.

WHO reported that there is a downward trend in the rate of response to patients’ requests to leave the Gaza Strip, from 92.5 percent in 2012 to 62.1 percent in 2016.

According to the daily, all those who seek permission to leave from the CLA office at the Erez Crossing are patients whom the Palestinians have allowed to leave Gaza and for whom they’ve committed to pay.(T/R04/RS5)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)