CLOSING RAFAH GATE SERIOUS REPERCUSSIONS ON GAZA HEALTH SERVICES
Gaza City, 2 Zulqaidah 1434/7 September 2013 (MINA) – Ministry of Health warned of the serious repercussions of the paralysis in the Rafah crossing operation on health services provision to the population of the Gaza Strip.
The ministry said Wednesday in a press release that “the crisis has apparently impacted Gaza as it’s being deprived of 30 % of the medicines and consumables used to be entered through Egypt,”
“it also led to a 50 % reduction of the number of non- emergency surgeries and thus increasing the waiting list of patients needing surgery. It also caused delay in transferring patients to Egypt for treatment, especially those suffering cancer, heart or bone diseases, or nerve disorders,” the ministry added.
The statement pointed to “a decrease in the number of the medical convoys coming to the Gaza Strip, which amounted to 63 during the first six months of 2013,”
“All the convoys scheduled to come to arrive in Gaza during July and August have been called off, depriving large numbers of patients from medical and therapeutic services,” it said.
“The halt in fuel imports to the Gaza Strip has had a negative impact on the ability to run electric generators in hospitals during the daily electricity cut-offs, as those generators need monthly 240 thousand liters of fuel,”
The ministry also warned of the partial stop for a number of construction, rehabilitation, maintenance of medical devices projects.
It asked the brotherly Arab Republic of Egypt to put the issue of the Rafah crossing aside by dealing with it as a humanitarian issue and to fully re-open it to medical supplies, construction materials and fuel.
It called on the Egyptian side to facilitate the passage of medical convoys and the movement of medical personnel and patients to and from the Gaza Strip.
The ministry confirmed that “if the current situation portends disastrous consequences to be added to the repercussions of the blockade being already imposed on the population of the Gaza Strip.
The statement called on the Arab, Islamic and European peoples and governments to assume its natural role in upholding the Palestinian right to health services as a purely humanitarian issue that does not has political dimension.
It also called on health and humanitarian institutions and civil society organizations to immediately intervene to save health services in the Gaza Strip. (T/P02/P04)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
