‘West Bank authorities block medical supply to Gaza Strip’

Muneir al-Bursh, director general of the pharmaceuticals department of the health ministry, said on Saturday the Ramallah government “refuses to transfer the badly needed medicine to Gaza.”

“All shipments of medicine from donor countries, including Gaza’s share of medicine, go directly to the central storage facilities in Ramallah, but Ramallah does not allow it to reach Gaza for political reasons,” Bursh added.

The essential drugs required by hospitals in Gaza include medicine for patients suffering from diseases such as blood cancer, epilepsy and renal failure.

“We are calling on all the free people in the world to help us. We are in a bad need for our medicine… to keep us alive. Without the medicine we are dying a slow death. Renal patients are at high risk because we need to clean our blood every two days,” said a renal patient.

The health ministry in Gaza is also short of medicine required for illnesses related to children.

Mohammad al Habil, a pharmacist at Rantisi Pediatric Hospital in Gaza, said that “more than fifty medicines that are needed in this hospital are nowhere to be found.”

The report on health crisis in Gaza comes as eighteen Palestinians, including a 12-year-old child, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on the besieged Palestinian territory since Friday.

In addition to the health issue, people of Gaza also suffer from an Israeli blockade as the Tel Aviv regime remains in full control of the airspace, territorial waters and border crossings of the Palestinian land.