|
| By: Associated Press |
| Published: January 19, 2005 |
| |
The Palestinian Authority is blocking dozens of seriously ill Palestinians from going from Gaza to Egypt for medical treatment, a human rights group said Wednesday.
The Tel Aviv-based Physicians for Human Rights said the Palestinians were exploiting the sick for propaganda purposes. A Palestinian health official denied the charge.
Israel shut the Gaza-Egypt border after the Israeli-controlled side of the crossing was destroyed in a bombing by the militant Hamas group on Dec. 13. Five soldiers were killed.
The rights group petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of six ill Palestinians, and an agreement was reached to allow the Palestinians to leave by an alternative route, said Shabtai Gold, a spokesman for PHR.
The same route was used recently to bus out thousands of Palestinians going on the Hajj Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
But the Palestinian Authority refused to let them leave, Gold said.
The group was "surprised and dismayed to discover that the Palestinian Authority is barring these patients from leaving the Gaza Strip for political reasons," PHR said in a statement.
A Palestinian health official, speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed Israel for closing the checkpoints and said that six patients approved by Israel for treatment abroad would be allowed to leave.
Among those the group petitioned for are a cancer patient, a man who needs a liver transplant and two people suffering gunshot wounds, Gold said.
However, there are dozens more sick Palestinians who also need to leave for treatment, Gold said.
"While Physicians for Human Rights is committed to attaining full freedom of movement for the Palestinians, the struggle to end (Israeli) occupation must be handled in a way that does not harm civilians, and especially the ill," Gold said.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
