A humanitarian crisis is engulﬁngGaza – not the result of a naturaldisaster but entirely man-madeand avoidable. The tightening ofthe Israeli blockade since June2007 has left the population,1.5 million Palestinians, trappedand with few resources. They aresurviving, but only just. Some 80per cent depend on the trickle ofinternational aid that the Israeligovernment allows in. Even patientsin dire need of medical treatmentnot available in Gaza are oftenprevented from leaving; more than50 of these have died.

PATIENTS PUNISHED

Medical facilities in Gaza lack thespecialized staff and equipmentto treat a range of conditions, such ascancer and cardiovascular disease.Hospitals are facing severe shortagesof equipment, spare parts and othersupplies as a result of the blockade.During April 2008, for example,1,077 patients applied for permits

GAZABLOCKADE –COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT

“

Every item necessary for a normal healthy life is absent or inshort supply in Gaza… Some 450,000 Gazans – 30 per centof the population – are unable to access clean water.

”

KAREN ABUZAYD, COMMISSIONER-GENERAL OF THE UN RELIEF AND WORK AGENCY FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES IN THE NEAR EAST (UNRWA), 6 MAY 2008

A Palestinian boy dumps garbage in a residential street in Gaza City, April 2008. Fuel shortagescaused by the Israeli blockade of Gaza have paralysed transport and other services, includinggarbage collection.

cont. p3

ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Gaza blockade - collective punishment

Amnesty International July 2008

Index: MDE 15/021/2008

Mahmoud Abu Taha, aged 21, had cancerof the small intestine. He died on 29October 2007 after many unsuccessfulattempts to leave Gaza to receivespecialist treatment. He had lost athird of his body weight. Five daysbefore he died his family told AmnestyInternational that he could not eat andthe vitamin solution he needed had beencut to just one feed a day because theproduct was in short supply. At firstMahmoud Abu Taha was given a permitby the Israeli army to leave Gaza, buton 18 October, after a long wait at theErez crossing (between Gaza and Israel),the Israeli army refused to let him pass.He was eventually allowed to crossinto Israel on 28 October but died thefollowing day.

MAHMOUD ABU TAHA

Mahmoud Abu Taha, days before hisdeath, October 2007.

©M uh a mm a d S a b a h / B ’ T s e l e m

“The denial and delay of permitsreleased by the Israeli authoritiesfor patients who have to leaveGaza for health reasons increasedduring 2007 causing furtherproblems, in addition to the usualaccess difficulties that have beenaffecting the Palestinian population,particularly during the last eightyears. In fact the right to health –availability, accessibility and qualityof health facilities, services andgoods – appears to be optionalfor the Palestinian population.”

World Health Organization (WHO), April 2008

BACKGROUND

This briefing highlights one aspect of the human rights situation in Israel and theOccupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), where Palestinian and Israeli civilians continueto pay the price of the ongoing confrontations between the Israeli army and Palestinianarmed groups. In the first five months of 2008 some

380 Palestinians

, more than athird of them unarmed civilians and including more than

60 children

, were killed bythe Israeli army, almost all of them in the Gaza Strip. In the same period

25 Israelis

,16 of them civilians, were killed by Palestinian armed groups. This was a sharp rise inthe number of victims on both sides as compared to 2007.A ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups came into force on19 June and at the time of writing it looked uncertain. Israeli officials however,insisted that Gaza’s border remains sealed so long as Hamas does not release theIsraeli soldier they are holding.Some 8,500 Palestinians are detained in Israeli jails. Of these, 900 are from theGaza Strip, all of whom have been denied visits by their families since June 2007.Palestinian armed groups in Gaza continue to hold an Israeli soldier, who wascaptured in June 2006, and to deny him access to the International Committee ofthe Red Cross.

to leave Gaza through the Israelicheckpoint at Erez for treatmentin specialized medical facilitiesin the West Bank (including EastJerusalem), Israel, Egypt and Jordan.Of these, 709 were granted permitsby Israeli authorities, 54 wererefused passage and 314 receivedno response that month.

KARIMA ABU DALAL

Karima Abu Dalal, a 34-year-old motherof five who suffers from Hodgkin’slymphoma, a form of cancer, was deniedthe medical treatment she desperatelyneeded for several months because theIsraeli authorities repeatedly refusedher permission to leave Gaza. Shehad previously received a bone marrowtransplant and had undergonechemotherapy and radiotherapy inEgypt and in the West Bank. Thetreatment was successful, but sheneeds more specialist care if she isto have any chance of survival.In November 2007 the Israeli militaryauthorities refused her permissionto leave Gaza for more chemotherapyfor unspecified “security reasons”.In January 2008 the Israeli HighCourt of Justice stated that it saw“no grounds to intervene” to lift thetravel ban. Karima Abu Dalal waseventually able to leave Gaza inmid-May 2008 when some patientswere exceptionally allowed passageout of Gaza via the border with Egypt.The damage to her health caused bythe delay is not yet known.

As the occupying power, Israel hasa duty under international humanrights and humanitarian lawto ensure the right to health of the population of Gaza withoutdiscrimination; to ensure protectionand respect for people who areill and infirm, and for expectantmothers; and to ensure provision,to the fullest extent of the meansavailable to it, of medical suppliesto the population of Gaza.In June 2007 the Israeli governmenttold the High Court that the risk of losing a limb is an issue of “qualityof life” for patients but not a dangerto their life, and as such it does notnecessarily warrant a permit forpatients to leave Gaza for medicaltreatment elsewhere. The Israeli HighCourt accepted the government’sposition and rejected the appeal bythe Israeli organization Physiciansfor Human Rights for patients to begranted passage out of Gaza.The Israeli authorities justify theirrefusal to allow patients to leave Gazaon security grounds, citing cases of Palestinians who in previous yearsplanned or attempted to carry outattacks against Israelis by pretendingto be patients. However, they haveprovided no evidence that thehundreds of patients who have beendenied passage out of Gaza in thepast year alone were involved in suchactions – only general allegationsthat the patients are considereda “security risk”. Denying passageto patients in desperate need of medical care serves no legitimatesecurity purpose. Patients, as withall those leaving Gaza, undergostrict security checks at the crossing,including with metal detectors andX-ray screeners.

ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Gaza blockade - collective punishment

Index: MDE 15/021/2008

Amnesty International July 2008

Alaa’ Odeh, aged 25, sustained seriousorthopaedic and vascular injuries inboth legs in June 2007. The Israeliarmy refused him a permit to leaveGaza for specialized medical treatmentand doctors were forced to amputate hisright leg. Shortly after this photographwas taken his left leg deteriorated, buthe was again denied a permit to leaveGaza and his leg had to be amputated. June 2007.