PHR-Israel on Al-Jazeera: Holding Health to Ransom

PHR-Israel on Al-Jazeera (English):

"A report in Al Jazeera about PHR-Israel's new report published on August 4, 2008: 'Holding Health to Ransom: GSS Interrogation and Extortion of Palestinian Patients at Erez Crossing'. Testimonies in the report reveal: GSS (Shabac) demands cooperation as a precondition for exiting Gaza for medical care In defiance of the UN Convention Against Torture, the GSS is attempting to systematically use sick patients as informers.
For more information see:
http://www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp..."



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Ministry of Health warns of the increasing number of deaths among patients due to the siege.
Monday August 11, 2008. By Saed Bannoura
Source: IMEMC

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip warned on Sunday of the increasing number of mortalities among the patients in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing Israeli siege and Israel’s rejection to allow the patients to receive medical treatment in Israel and abroad.

The ministry stated that the health stores of the ministry ran out of medications and supplies, and called on the international community to intervene and save the patients of the Gaza Strip.

In a press release issued on Sunday, the ministry said that twelve patients, including six women and one child, died since the beginning of August.

The death of the twelve patients rises the number of patients who died since the beginning of the siege to 243, 42 of them died since the beginning of the recent truce between Israel and resistance factions in Gaza. The truce started on June 19, 2008.

The ministry called on the World Health Organization (WHO), the Red Cross, and all human rights groups in addition to the International Community to intervene and oblige Israel to lift its illegal siege.

It added that the practices of the Israeli occupation constitute War Crimes and should be added to the “international terrorism list”. The ministry also called for prosecuting Israel for war crimes against all Palestinians.

The siege entered its fourteenth month leaving 234 patients dead and hundreds more will face the same fate if the siege is not lifted.