PHRI: Israel approved only half of our medical permits for Gaza patients
“Hundreds of Palestinians patients in the Gaza Strip still cannot leave Gaza for treatment,” PHRI said.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFAhmed Yaghi, the father of Palestinian infant Omar, who died of illness, shows his picture on his mobile phone in the central Gaza Strip June 24, 2020. Picture taken June 24, 2020.(photo credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS)
Israel has approved only half of the medical permits Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI) submitted on behalf of Palestinians who need to leave Gaza to seek urgent treatment, the non-government group reported on Thursday.PHRI said that it had secured only 195 Palestinians in Gaza had received medical exit permits in June and July.“Hundreds of Palestinians patients in the Gaza Strip still cannot leave Gaza for treatment,” PHRI said.The NGO held the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities (COGAT) in the Territories responsible for not streamlining the process of medical applications, particularly during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.In addition, the NGO blamed the Palestinian Authority for halting its work with COGAT on this matter, as part of the PA’s protest against Israel’s pending annexation of portions of the West Bank.The group also urged the United Nations, to keep to its promise of creating a by-pass mechanism to help ease the situation. The UN had spoken of putting in place such a system in August, but as of Thursday August 6, no such mechanism was in place, PHRI said.“Every day that goes by without the international mechanism in operation takes a toll in human life. Ultimately, since Israel has control over the crossings and decides all matters regarding patients’ travel for treatment, Israel must act to safeguard patients’ lives until a solution is found,” PHRI said.For the last two months, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov has warned of the humanitarian situation that has been created since the PA halted its security coordination with Israel in June.At that time, the Palestinian Civilian Affairs Committee stopped reviewing medical exit permit requests, a move that would have made it impossible for Palestinians in Gaza to seek outside medical aid if the UN and organizations such as PHRI had not stepped in to fill the void.The IDF also made some changes to the process, but PHRI said that those changes were not enough and that organizations such as theirs could not replace the PA.
In a July report, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the problem had begun already in March, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the PA limiting services and Israel tightening eligibility to only cancer patients and emergency cases.OCHA explained that in January and February the monthly average for medical exit permits was 1,777. That dropped to 1,279 in March. In April there were only 159 applications of which 1134 were approved, and in May there were 160 applications of which 112 were approved, OCHA said.PHRI said that the process had to be streamlined and sped up, noting that even those permits that were granted were not always done in real time, so that patients received permits only after the appointment date had passed, thereby forcing them to reapply.Even once permits are granted, the patients can be delayed at the Erez Crossing into Israel, and in some cases sent back, PHRI said.Two infants – Omar Yaghi who was eight months old and Anwar Harb who was nine days old – as well as a 22-year-old man, died while waiting for their permits to receive life-saving treatment, PHRI said.Applications are often granted at the last minute, sometimes on the morning of the appointment, thereby not giving patients enough time to prepare for the journey.To help streamline the process, COGAT created an online form for emergency medical permits, PHRI said. Gaza residents can also apply directly to COGAT at the Erez crossing, it added, but these short cuts have not been well publicized.The computer process is also not transparent, so that it is impossible to check the application status, it said.“Israeli authorities must rescind the stringent criteria it has imposed and also allow patients in non-emergency situations to leave Gaza for treatment,” PHRI said.It must also “ensure that responses to applications are provided in a timely manner that is compatible with the urgency of the medical condition.”COGAT said in response, that is was "working voluntarily, together with the relevant parties – despite the suspension of coordination on the part of the Civil Committee of the Palestinian Authority, and despite the coronavirus outbreak – to enable residents of the Gaza Strip to enter Israel for life-saving medical treatment even at these times."It added, "We emphasize that every request received is examined individually, thoroughly, and in depth, on its own merits, by the professional staff. Travel through the Erez Crossing has been limited exclusively to exceptional medical and humanitarian cases in order to reduce, to the extent possible, the spread of the coronavirus in the region."
