European medical team warns of health catastrophe in Gaza

European medical team warns of health catastrophe in Gaza

GAZA, (PIC)– A European medical team visiting the besieged Gaza Strip has warned that health conditions in the tiny Strip were steadily worsening amidst Israeli insistence on maintaining the economic blockade that it had imposed on it six months ago.


Head of the anti-siege popular committee MP Jamal Al-Khudari received the delegation at his office in Gaza Saturday, and briefed them on the nightmarish health condition that engulf the Palestinian people, especially the sick people, in the Strip.


According to Khudari, the Israeli occupation authorities denied exit permits to more than 900 Palestinian patients seeking medical treatment abroad that put their lives at risk.


“The Israeli occupation had denied more than 900 Palestinian patients their right for medical treatment outside of the besieged Gaza Strip, thus, sentencing those sick people to slow death”, Khudari underlined as he briefed the European team.


In this regard, Khudari urged the foreign team to convey the true picture of the miserable conditions in Gaza Strip to their peoples and governments, and to expose the Israeli practices against the 1.5 million individuals living in it.


He also called on the international community and the European Union to immediately break their silence and act against the Israeli crimes against the unarmed Palestinian people, explaining that the siege had affected most aspects of life in Gaza Strip.


The European team, for its part, declared full solidarity and support for the Palestinian people, especially those in the Gaza Strip, affirming that it was “unfair” on the part of Israel to punish the entire Palestinian people, and to confine them in a Ghetto-like jail.


Moreover, the team that comprised Spanish, Swiss, and German nationals was impressed by the degree of the Palestinian people”s tolerance and withstanding amidst the suffocating Israeli measures against them, urging the Israeli occupation government to pull out of the occupied Palestinian territories.


“Indeed, no one could imagine what is happening here [against the Palestinian civilians] unless he personally comes here and sees for himself [what is going on]”, said a member of the medical team.


On Saturday, Palestinian citizen Zuhair Badr Hussein, 49, died after Israel denied him a permit for treatment abroad.


The death of Hussein raised number of Palestinian patients who died due to the siege to 30 within one month only, which should sound loud alarm bells for the international community to act immediately and to break the US-Israeli imposed blockade on the populated Strip.


The numbers of Palestinian patients who die as a result of the siege is likely to increase if the siege persisted and the international community remained idle towards this unforgivable oppression.