Ailing kids wait months for Israeli permission to leave Gaza for treatment

Ailing kids wait months for Israeli permission to leave Gaza for treatment
A wounded child lies on the floor and receives medical treatment at the Nasser hospital following the Israeli military targeting of a southeastern district of Khan Younis on July 25, 2024. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 07 December 2024
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Ailing kids wait months for Israeli permission to leave Gaza for treatment

Ailing kids wait months for Israeli permission to leave Gaza for treatment
  • Much of Gaza Strip’s health care system has been destroyed by Israel’s 15-month military campaign

DEIR AL-BALAH: The 12-year-old Palestinian boy was lying in a hospital bed in central Gaza, wracked with leukemia, malnourished, and whimpering in pain despite the morphine doctors were giving him, when Rosalia Bollen, a UNICEF official, said she saw him in late October.
Islam Al-Rayahen’s family had asked Israeli authorities six times over the past months for permission to evacuate him from Gaza for a desperately needed stem cell transplant, Bollen said.
She said the request was refused six times for unexplained security reasons.
Islam died three days after she saw him, Bollen said.
Thousands of patients in Gaza are waiting for Israeli permission for urgently needed medical evacuation from Gaza for treatment of war wounds or chronic diseases they cannot get after the destruction of much of the territory’s health care system by Israel’s 15-month military campaign.

HIGHLIGHTS

• WHO says 14,000 patients of all ages need medical evacuation from Gaza.

• The territory’s Health Ministry puts the number higher, at 22,000, including 7,000 patients in extreme need who could die soon without treatment.

Among them are at least 2,500 children who UNICEF says must be transported immediately.
“They cannot afford to wait. These children will die. They are dying in waiting, and I find it striking that the world is letting that happen,” Bollen said.
The Israeli military often takes months to respond to medical evacuation requests, and the number of evacuations has plunged in recent months. In some cases, the military rejects either the patient or, in the case of children, the caregivers accompanying them on vague security grounds or with no explanation.
The Israeli decisions appear to be “arbitrary and are not made on criteria nor logic,” said Moeen Mahmood, the Jordan country director for Doctors Without Borders.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of humanitarian affairs for Palestinians, said in a statement that it “makes every effort to approve the departure of children and their families for medical treatments, subject to a security check.”
It did not respond when asked for details about Islam’s case.
A military official said Israel’s internal intelligence service reviews whether the patient or their escort has what he called “a connection to terrorism.”
If one is found, they are refused.
Osaid Shaheen, who is nearly 2, now faces having his eyes removed after Israel rejected his evacuation for treatment of cancer in his retinas.
The toddler was diagnosed with cancer in April after his mother, Sondos Abu Libda, noticed his left eyelid was droopy.
The World Health Organization requested his evacuation through the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza, but the crossing was shut down in May when Israeli troops took it over in an offensive, Abu Libda said.
WHO applied again, this time for Osaid to leave through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel, now the only route for evacuees to travel.  During the long wait, the cancer spread to the child’s other eye and reached stage 4.
Abu Libda was told Osaid was rejected on security grounds in November, and there was no further explanation.
She was stunned, she said. “I did not expect that a child could get a security rejection.”
Doctors have given the boy three doses of chemotherapy. But with supplies short in Gaza, they’re struggling to get more. If they can’t, they will have to remove Osaid’s eyes, or cancer will spread to other parts of his body, Abu Libda said.
“He’s just a child. How will he live his life without seeing? How will he play? How will he see his future, and how will his life turn out?” Abu Libda asked, standing outside the house where her family is sheltering in the Beni Suheil district of southern Gaza.
Nearby, little Osaid — who so far still has his sight — toddled around in the rubble of a building destroyed by Israeli forces, smiling as he played with chunks of debris.
When asked about his case, COGAT did not reply.
WHO says 14,000 patients of all ages need medical evacuation from Gaza.
The territory’s Health Ministry puts the number higher, at 22,000, including 7,000 patients in extreme need who could die soon without treatment, according to Mohammed Abu Salmeya, a ministry official in charge of evacuation referrals.
Since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, 5,230 patients have been evacuated, said Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson.
Since May, when the Rafah crossing shut down, the rate has slowed, with only 342 patients evacuated, she said, an average of less than two a day. Before the war, when Israeli permission was also necessary, around 100 patients a day were transferred out of Gaza, according to WHO.
More than 44,500 Palestinians have been killed and more than 105,000 wounded by Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives, launched in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
The casualty toll, by Gaza’s Health Ministry, does not distinguish combatants from civilians — but more than half are women and children.
Gaza’s health system has been decimated, with only 17 of the territory’s original 36 hospitals functioning — and those only partially.
They struggle with the waves of war wounded on top of patients with other conditions.
Carrying out specialized surgeries or treatments in Gaza is difficult or impossible, with equipment destroyed, some specialist doctors killed or arrested, and medical supplies limited.
Gaza’s only dedicated cancer hospital was seized by Israeli troops early in the war, heavily damaged, and has been shut down.
Doctors without Borders said in August it sought to evacuate 32 children along with their caregivers, but only six were allowed to leave. In November, it applied for eight others, including a 2-year-old with leg amputations, but Israeli authorities blocked evacuation, it said
The military official said five of the eight requests in November were approved, but the caregivers trying to travel with the children were rejected on security grounds.
The official said Doctors Without Borders would have to resubmit the requests with alternate escorts.
The official didn’t say why the other three children weren’t approved.
The rejected caregivers were the children’s mothers and grandmothers, said Mahmoud, the Doctor’s Without Borders official, who said no explanation was given for the security concern.
Children long waiting for permission face dire consequences if they don’t get treatment.
Nima Al-Askari said doctors told her that 4-year-old Qusay could become paralyzed if her son doesn’t get surgery in the next two or three months for a heart defect that constricts his aorta.
“Should I wait until my son becomes paralyzed?” Al-Askari said.
“Everyone is telling me to wait until he gets evacuated. ... This is my only son. I can’t see him in a wheelchair.”
Asma Saed said she has been waiting for three months to hear whether her 2-year-old son, Al-Hassan, can travel for treatment for kidney failure. In the meantime, they are living in a squalid tent camp in Khan Younis, with little clean water or food.
She said her son doesn’t sleep, screaming all night.
“I wish I could see him like any child in the world who can move, walk, and play,” she said.
“He’s a child. He can’t express his pain.”


$80bn and 40 years to rebuild Gaza Strip Devastating legacy of Israel’s war

$80bn and 40 years to rebuild Gaza Strip Devastating legacy of Israel’s war
Updated 7 sec ago
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$80bn and 40 years to rebuild Gaza Strip Devastating legacy of Israel’s war

$80bn and 40 years to rebuild Gaza Strip Devastating legacy of Israel’s war

Rebuilding homes and infrastructure after Israel’s 15-month war on Gaza could take 40 years and cost more than $80 billion, aid agencies said on Friday.

The war has transformed the enclave into a rubble-strewn wasteland with blackened shells of buildings and mounds of debris. Major roads have been plowed up. Critical water and electricity infrastructure is in ruins. Most hospitals no longer function.
The full extent of the damage will be known only when the fighting ends on Sunday and inspectors have full access. The most heavily destroyed part of Gaza, in the north, has been sealed off and largely depopulated by Israeli forces in an operation that began last October.
Using satellite data, the UN estimates that 70 percent of structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including over 245,000 homes.

Before anything can be rebuilt, the rubble must be removed — a staggering task in itself.
The war has littered Gaza with over 50 million tonnes of rubble, about 12 times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. With over 100 trucks working full time, it would take 15 years to clear.

“I can’t think of any parallel, in terms of the severity of damage, for an enclave or a country or a people,” said Corey Scher of the Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The first target for aid is the health sector, with more than 80 percent of Gaza’s health facilities damaged or destroyed.

The World Health Organization said on Friday it would start by bringing prefabricated hospitals into the enclave and medically evacuating over 12,000 patients, a third of them children.


South Sudan declares nighttime curfew after looting in capital

A puncture repair artisan prepares to receive customers in Juba. (Reuters)
A puncture repair artisan prepares to receive customers in Juba. (Reuters)
Updated 14 min 49 sec ago
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South Sudan declares nighttime curfew after looting in capital

A puncture repair artisan prepares to receive customers in Juba. (Reuters)
  • The riots followed the alleged killing of South Sudanese people by members of Sudan’s military and allied groups in the city of Wad Madani in Sudan’s Al-Jazira region

JUBA: South Sudan’s police imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Friday after a night of deadly rioting in the capital over the alleged killing of South Sudanese people by the army and allied groups in Sudan.
In a broadcast on state television, police chief Abraham Peter Manyuat said the curfew would continue until further notice from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily to try to restore security and prevent the destruction of property.
“The police will not tolerate any violations,” he said.
The police said in a statement that at least three people had been killed and seven wounded on Thursday night in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, some by bullets and machetes, when youths in several suburbs looted and vandalized shops of Sudanese people.

BACKGROUND

Police said at least three people had been killed and seven wounded on Thursday night in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, some by bullets and machetes, when youths in several suburbs looted and vandalized shops.

In Aweil, near the border with Sudan, three houses belonging to Sudanese people were burned, the police added.
On Friday, shops in many Juba suburbs were closed as police and other security forces tried to relocate Sudanese people to safer areas due to fears rioters could attack them.
The riots followed the alleged killing of South Sudanese people by members of Sudan’s military and allied groups in the city of Wad Madani in Sudan’s Al-Jazira region.
On Tuesday, the Sudanese army condemned what it called “individual violations” in Al-Jazira after human rights groups blamed it and its allies for ethnically targeted attacks against civilians accused of supporting the Rapid Support Forces.
South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Sudan’s ambassador over the alleged killings earlier this week, and President Salva Kiir Mayardit called for calm.
“We mustn’t allow anger to cloud our judgment or turn against Sudanese traders and refugees currently residing in our country,” his office said in a statement.

 


Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas

Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas
Updated 37 min 12 sec ago
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Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas

Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas
  • “Our fellow citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are on the list of 33 hostages to be freed,” Macron said
  • The French president is set to meet with the families of the two Franco-Israeli hostages “very soon“

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said that French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages due to be freed by Hamas following a ceasefire with Israel.
Macron’s announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday.
“Our fellow citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are on the list of 33 hostages to be freed in the first phase of the Gaza accord,” Macron said in a social media post.
“We remain mobilized without pause to ensure their return to their families,” he wrote.
The French president is set to meet with the families of the two Franco-Israeli hostages “very soon,” according to his entourage.
Yahalomi, who turned 50 in captivity, was kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz kibbutz.
His 12-year-old son, abducted separately, was released in November 2023 during the first truce.
Kalderon, 54, was kidnapped along with his son and daughter from Nir Oz kibbutz. The two children were released in the November 2023 truce.


UN says Sudan war turning ‘more dangerous’ for civilians after Al-Jazira attacks

UN says Sudan war turning ‘more dangerous’ for civilians after Al-Jazira attacks
Updated 17 January 2025
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UN says Sudan war turning ‘more dangerous’ for civilians after Al-Jazira attacks

UN says Sudan war turning ‘more dangerous’ for civilians after Al-Jazira attacks
  • The “Sudan conflict (is) taking more dangerous turn for civilians,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said
  • On Thursday, the US treasury department announced sanctions against army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan

PORT SUDAN: The United Nations human rights chief warned Friday that the war in Sudan is becoming “more dangerous” for civilians, following reports from rights groups of army-allied militias carrying out ethnic-based attacks on minorities in Al-Jazira state.
The “Sudan conflict (is) taking more dangerous turn for civilians,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said on social media platform X, adding that “there is evidence of... war crimes and other atrocity crimes.”


The Sudanese army, at war with rival paramilitaries since April 2023, led an offensive this week on Al-Jazira state, recapturing its capital Wad Madani from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Rights groups said on Monday that at least 13 people including two children were killed in ethnically-targeted attacks against minority communities in the agricultural state.
Though the RSF has become notorious for alleged ethnic-based violence, reports have also emerged of civilians being targeted on the basis of ethnicity in army-controlled areas.
On Thursday, the US treasury department announced sanctions against army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.
It came a week after the US also slapped sanctions on RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, accusing his group of committing genocide.
Responding to recent reports from US officials of the Sudanese army using chemical weapons in Sudan, spokesperson of the UN human rights chief Ravina Shamdasani said Friday that due to limited access, the UN “has not specifically documented” such practices during the war.
At a briefing on Friday, Shamdasani described the reports as “very worrying,” adding that “they do require further investigation.”
She said what the UN has documented is “the use of extremely heavy weaponry in populated areas,” including air strikes on marketplaces.
Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas, with the RSF specifically accused of ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and laying siege to entire towns.
The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million and pushed the country to the brink of famine, creating what the United Nations describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
In its latest reports, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that over 120,000 people have fled the ongoing violence in the southern Sudanese states of Blue Nile, White Nile and Sennar to South Sudan since early December 2024.


Israel publishes list of 95 Palestinian prisoners eligible for release starting Sunday

Israel publishes list of 95 Palestinian prisoners eligible for release starting Sunday
Updated 17 January 2025
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Israel publishes list of 95 Palestinian prisoners eligible for release starting Sunday

Israel publishes list of 95 Palestinian prisoners eligible for release starting Sunday
  • “The release of prisoners is... subject to government approval of the (ceasefire) plan and will not take place before Sunday,” the ministry said
  • Among those on the list is also Khalida Jarar, a leftist Palestinian lawmaker whom Israel arrested and imprisoned on several occasions

JERUSALEM: The Israeli justice ministry published a list of 95 Palestinian prisoners, the majority women, who are to be freed starting Sunday as part of the first exchange for Israeli captives under a Gaza ceasefire deal.
“The release of prisoners is... subject to government approval of the (ceasefire) plan and will not take place before Sunday 16:00 (1400 GMT),” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Israel’s security cabinet approved the deal, while the full cabinet will convene to vote on it later on Friday.
The list includes 69 women, 16 men and 10 minors.
According to the ministry, the youngest inmate on the list is 16.
The list includes only seven prisoners who were arrested before the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Among those on the list is also Khalida Jarar, a leftist Palestinian lawmaker whom Israel arrested and imprisoned on several occasions.
Jarar is a prominent member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group designated a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
Detained in late December in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, the 60-year-old has been held since then without charge.
In September 2021, she was released after serving a two-year sentence in an Israeli prison for participating in PFLP activities.
According to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the release of hostages as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is expected to begin Sunday.
Two sources close to Hamas told AFP that the first group of hostages to be released consists of three Israeli women soldiers.
However, since the Palestinian Islamist movement considers any Israeli of military age who has completed mandatory service a soldier, the reference could also apply to civilians abducted during the attack that triggered the war.
The first three names on a list obtained by AFP of the 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase are women under 30 who were not in military service on the day of the Hamas attack.
Justice ministry spokeswoman Noga Katz said the final number of prisoners to be released in the first swap would depend on the number of live hostages released by Hamas.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called on political allies to vote against the Gaza deal, stating it would see the release of several Palestinian militants “serving life sentences” for killing Israelis.