Palestinians dying as Israeli health lockdown hits the West Bank
Thousands of Palestinians are being subjected to what has been described by aid groups as a form of health apartheid. While the destruction of Gaza’s health facilities is well known, the West Bank has suffered a more insidious deprivation of basic healthcare.
The victims include cancer patients who are unable to access essential drugs and people with chronic conditions being prevented from travelling freely to their appointments. In one confirmed case, a mother has been separated from her newborn children.
Yet just 20 minutes drive away – past the vast concrete barriers, military checkpoints and barbed wire fences that separate the occupied Palestinian territories from Israel, there are no such shortages.
The issue, say critics, is systemic. By withholding tax revenues and preventing the free movement of people within the West Bank via a system of permits and checkpoints, the Palestinian health system – essential for maintaining a stable society – is being gradually undermined by Israel.
Under a longstanding arrangement, Israel collects tax on goods that pass through Israel into the West Bank on behalf of the Palestinian Authority – which administers some of the territory under Israeli military rule – and it normally transfers this revenue to Ramallah.
However, since the Hamas-led terrorist attack, Bezalel Smotrich, the hardline Israeli finance minister, has withheld hundreds of millions in funding and threatened to allow a waiver shielding Israeli banks that deal with Palestinian ones to expire.
Go to the published article: Palestinians dying as Israeli health “lockdown” hits medical care across the West Bank
Kidney patient Yenan Musallam is facing drug shortages and reduced treatment. The 24-year-old’s time allocation for dialysis has been cut by 25 per cent and the machine he is assigned to now only has filters suitable for children rather than adults.
A sign outside Bani Na’im on the West Bank.
A lack of of medication leaves Ahmed Nemer Assi at the mercy of his pancreatic cancer. Capecitabine, a tablet that slows or stops the growth of cancer cells – and one of three main drugs on his treatment regime – is currently unavailable in the ailing Palestinian health system.
Drug scarcity could mean life or death for Maryam. Following a kidney transplant she relies on anti-rejection medication which is increasingly hard to find.
Maryam Tarauar’s recovery from a kidney transplant has been impacted by drug shortages.
Diabetes patient Sara Abed, 70, from Beit Jala.
Stomach cancer survivor Sara Khalil Ali pulls the privacy curtains around her daughter-in-law.
Medics from the Palestinian Medical Relief Society treat patients during a mobile clinic, Beit Jala.
Hypertension patient Daoud Assad makes his home from to the mobile health clinic, Beit Jala.
A man with hypertension awaits medical attention from the mobile clinic.
A mobile health clinic at a mosque in Beit Jala.
Um Mohammed attends a mobile health clinic with her two children Ahmad, 7, and Noor, 3.
Mary Hussary had risky surgery to remove an ovarian tumour.
