Gaza: Sick and injured people dying due to Israeli blockade, restrictions on entry of medical supplies
Ishaq Nael Mushtaha, 29, from the Gaza Strip, died on 3 August 2024, after suffering from Crohn’s disease and malnutrition
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports on 5 August 2024:
Following 10 months of its systematic and widespread destruction of the health sector, and imposing arbitrary blockade, Israel continues to deliberately prevent the entry of medical supplies, including medical devices and essential medicines, into the Gaza Strip, resulting in a high death toll there.
Now more than ever, immediate action is needed to lift Israel’s blockade on the Strip, bring in medical supplies to save the lives of sick and injured persons, guarantee the right to travel for those in need of critical treatment, and bring in the supplies required to immediately rebuild the health system and ensure its safety from Israeli targeting.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor receives dozens of daily complaints from Palestinians seeking to travel for life-saving treatment outside of the Gaza Strip due to the lack of adequate treatment, medicines, and medical devices, as the majority of hospitals are out of service due to the ongoing Israeli blockade and direct targeting.
Since the redeployment of its military forces and the destruction of large parts of it last May, Israel has closed the Rafah land crossing with Egypt—the only route for travel in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians there. The closure has prevented thousands of sick and injured people from traveling for treatment, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of them thus far.
The latest statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza indicate that more than 12,000 injured people and 14,000 sick patients are in urgent need of traveling for treatment, stressing that these are part of the tens of thousands who are in dire need of travel to complete treatment or receive essential therapy and rehabilitation services that are not available anymore in the Gaza Strip.
Dozens of patient deaths, including of elderly people, are reported on a daily basis, the majority of which are a result of inadequate medical care, medication, or treatment. Euro-Med Monitor emphasises that these individuals are not formally included in the official list of those killed by Israel’s ongoing genocide.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that the death rate in the Gaza Strip has significantly increased in the past few months when compared to the same period in the last two years. A correlation has also been noted between the increasing deaths, hospitals that are no longer operational, and the breakdown of the health system because of systematic Israeli targeting and blockade.
Twenty-nine-year-old Palestinian Ishaq Nael Mushtaha died on Saturday 3 August as a result of malnutrition and being unable to travel for treatment. The deceased patient’s brother, Mohammed Nael Mushtaha, had previously requested in a statement obtained by the Euro-Med Monitor team that his brother be permitted to travel for treatment, stating that Ishaq had been suffering from Crohn’s diseases and experiencing symptoms like adult colic and stomach pain before the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. The illness worsened at the start of the genocide. On 2 May, Ishaq had an intestinal operation that resulted in the removal of 30 centimetres of his intestines and a loss of weight from 75 to 39 kilogrammes. Mushtaha’s requests to travel for medical treatment were denied, due to the Rafah crossing’s closure, up until his recent death.