Israel… even its judges: Sick children in Gaza pose a threat to our security

Khadra Salameh is a pediatric oncologist at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem. In recent weeks, she and her colleagues have been forced to witness the struggle for life of children who could have been saved, but whom Israel prevents from accessing treatment.

Since the start of the war, Israel has not allowed patients with serious illnesses to leave Gaza for treatment in hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Israeli army has destroyed the health system in the Gaza Strip. Two cancer hospitals—the European Hospital and the Turkish Hospital—are out of service.

As a result, children and adults with cancer are unable to receive treatment and are left to die.

In an article published here on Friday, Dr. Salameh recounted the stories of six-year-old Ghazal, diagnosed with acute leukemia; Haya, who suffered from kidney cancer; and 12-year-old Youssef, who had lymphoma in his chest.

All three died in agony, despite a hospital just a few dozen kilometers away that was ready to receive and save them. “The three cases could have been completely cured. These are illnesses we can treat under normal circumstances. But delaying treatment for these three children condemned them to death,” wrote Dr. Salama.

Ghazal, Haya, and Youssef are three of more than 16,000 people—cancer patients, those with other serious illnesses, and the wounded—who urgently need medical evacuation from Gaza.

Israel allows a small number of patients to leave for treatment in third countries, and even then, the evacuation process is slow, the cost is high, the waiting time is long, and the bureaucracy of integration in European or Arab countries is extremely complex. The fastest and most effective way to save the lives of thousands of these people is to allow their transfer to Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

They are an hour’s drive from Gaza, have always been part of the medical system that has provided services to the residents of the Strip, and funding is available to them. But since the beginning of the war, Israel has refused to allow patients to cross into Jerusalem and the West Bank.