Three seriously ill babies in the Gaza Strip have died this week after permits to grant the children treatment in Israel were denied by the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas has claimed.
More patients, including infants, were in danger of the same fate if referrals for treatment outside the coastal enclave were not expedited, Gaza’s Deputy Health Minister Yusuf Abu Rish said on Tuesday, adding that a recent spike in referral delays is part of the Fatah-run PA’s long term efforts to destabilise the militant organisation.
Bara Ghaben, Ibrahim Tbeil and Mus'ab Araeer were all under the age of one and suffered from congenital heart conditions which could not be adequately treated in Gazan hospitals, where the health care system is on the brink of collapse.
All medical referrals - including travel permits and payment - for Palestinians to receive medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip are handled by the West Bank’s PA. Hamas officials have claimed there has been a decrease in the number of applications passed on to Israel by the PA in recent months, leaving patients in critical need of care.
Hanan Ghaben, who lost her five-day-old baby Bara, told Al Jazeera she and her husband applied three times for a permit without hearing back from the PA before their son died.
The health ministry said this week that 11 Gazans, including five children, have died after not being granted medical referral permits quickly enough, although spokesperson Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra has been quoted in several news outlets as saying there have been nine preventable deaths.
More than 1,600 Gazans are currently waiting for medical referrals to Israel, charity Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) said in a statement.
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