Dr Mustafa Barghouthi, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, has sent a warning about the danger the occupation authorities pose in preventing patients from the Gaza Strip from reaching Jerusalem and the West Bank to receive vital medical treatment that is unavailable in the Gaza Strip due to the unjust siege on it.
Barghouthi said that reports from Gaza indicate that more than 8,300 cancer patients need treatment outside of the Gaza Strip, and they are prevented from accessing it, threatening their lives, in addition to thousands of patients suffering from other chronic or acute diseases.
Barghouthi referred to the case of the child Anwar Muhammad Harb who died on Monday, nine days after birth, after suffering from cardiac problems which required a medical transfer to Jerusalem, that never came through.
This news comes after another baby, eight-month-old Omar Yaghi died in Gaza three days before he was due to undergo heart surgery in Israel last week.
Barghouthi added that the lives of many residents of the Gaza Strip are at risk today because of the lack of treatments, including radiotherapy, and the lack of medical and diagnostic devices.
Barghouthi has called on all governments and humanitarian institutions to put immediate pressure on the occupation authorities to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip and remove restrictions on the movement of patients in need of treatment.