10-year-old Miral Abu Amsha is suffering from leukemia. Due to the hermetic Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, the little girl was not allowed to be joined by her parents when she left Gaza seeking treatment at Najah University Hospital in Nablus, in the West Bank.
Because of the Israeli occupation, Palestinian kid fights Cancer alone at the #WestBank Hospital
Miral Abu Amsha, a 10-year-old suffering from leukemia, is undergoing chemotherapy in a Nablus hospital by herself as Israeli occupation authorities refused her parents to join her. pic.twitter.com/XEP6LZuYGQ
— In Palestine Today (@InPalToday) December 23, 2019
Miral’s story, one of the numerous similar tragic stories, was highlighted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on December 21.
Fact: in 2017 the @WHO documented 54 deaths of Palestinian patients denied permits by the occupier to leave Gaza for medical treatment. Most were cancer patients. https://t.co/sblkgt1z2A
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) November 10, 2019
The hospital’s prognosis is that Miral requires an additional four months of aggressive chemotherapy treatment in order for cancer to go into remission. However, the girl’s parents are unlikely to be with her at the hospital as their permit to leave Gaza has been rejected repeatedly by the Israeli military.
Health officials: No medical treatment for cancer patients at Al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/aft95zdXqJ
— Muhammad Smiry ?? (@MuhammadSmiry) August 12, 2018
Aisha al-Lulu, a 5-year-old from the Strip, has gone to a similar experience to Miral. In January, Aisha died alone in a Jerusalem hospital, following a brain surgery that failed to save her life.
La niña Aisha Lulu (5 años) murió hoy sola llorando en un hospital en Jerusalen
Aisha Lulu, de 5 años de edad, de Gaza, ella sufrió de un tumor cerebral. Los hospitales de Gaza carecen de los equipos adecuado para tratar a los pacientes de cáncer debido al bloqueo israelí, (1) pic.twitter.com/phbvHQ9tNs— UJPV Palestina (@UJPV1) May 17, 2019
Hundreds of Gaza patients have died because they were denied permits to leave Gaza in the search of badly needed medical attention. Many of those who are allowed access to West Bank hospitals, usually children, were granted permits but denied the company of their families.
Five-year-old #Palestinian girl from #Gaza, #AishaAlLulu, has died in a hospital in #Jerusalem on 18 May after her family was denied from accompanying her by #Israeli government. pic.twitter.com/9SWdoVZmTo
— Mohammad Sabaaneh (@Sabaaneh) May 18, 2019
According to the World’s Health Organization (WHO), “in June (2019), 1,242 patient companion applications (52% of the total) were approved, 416 applications (17%) were denied and the remaining 733 (31%) were delayed, receiving no definitive response by the time of the patient’s appointment”.
Miral Abu Amsha, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl suffering from leukemia, is undergoing chemotherapy in a Nablus hospital. Alone. Her parents are in Gaza, and Israel refuses to let them accompany her https://t.co/tAeRNxLp6u pic.twitter.com/rhy38HJIZJ
— IMEU (@theIMEU) December 20, 2019
Gaza has been under a hermetic siege since 2006 when Hamas won the democratic legislative elections held in that same year. Since then, Israel has launched several wars, killing thousands and wounding tens of thousands of Gazans.
"It is a nightmare."
Gaza halts treatment for cancer patients as siege worsens https://t.co/sXgejGjd3l pic.twitter.com/mxn6jhjHc4
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 15, 2018
The siege and war have also devastated Gaza’s already struggling infrastructures, leaving hospitals with limited medical supplies, and, at times, no electricity. According to a United Nations report, Gaza will be deemed uninhabitable by 2020.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
