Palestinian Ministry of Health ships medicine supplies to Gaza

Ramallah, 12 Muharram 143/13 October 2016 (MINA) – The Palestinian Ministry of Health shipped on Wednesday 31 truckloads of medicine and required medical aid to be stored by the ministry in the besieged Gaza Strip, Ma’an reported.

The Palestinian Minister of Health Jawad Awwad said in a statement that the trucks were loaded at the ministry’s stores in the village of Salim in the occupied West Bank district of Nablus.

The shipment, he said, included cancer medicine, arterial solutions, medication for treatment of kidney issues and hemophilia, lab material, basic daily use material, and emergency room medical equipment, among other materials.

The shipment also included a truckload of refrigerated medical products.

The shipment was expected to reach the besieged coastal enclave on Thursday evening, the minister added.

In September, the World Bank said less than half of donor aid pledged to Gaza in the aftermath of 2014’s devastating war had been disbursed.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health warned last year that the lives of Gazans were at risk if the Israeli-Egyptian blockade continued.

The majority of the more than 1.8 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are sealed inside the coastal enclave due to the continuation of a near-decade long military blockade imposed by Israel and upheld by Egypt on the southern border.

The destruction from three Israeli offensives over the past six years, including damage to the enclave’s water, sanitation, energy, and medical facilities, coupled with slow reconstruction due to the blockade led the UN in September to warn that Gaza could be “uninhabitable” by 2020. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)