Health ministry: Two children die due to the siege and the politicized strike

The health ministry in Gaza stated Sunday that the ongoing Israeli siege and the PA politicized strikes claimed the lives of two Palestinian children, calling on the international community to urgently intervene to pressure Israel to open the crossings and allow patients to get medical treatment abroad.

In a press statement received by the PIC, the ministry said that the number of siege victims rose to 242 Palestinians after the death of a five-month-old child called Mohamed Al-Serhi who was barred by the IOA from receiving treatment for his heart defect in hospitals outside Gaza.

The ministry added that earlier this morning, an infant called Mohamed Abu Fatayer died inside an incubator as a result of the strike in the health sector incited by the PA in Ramallah, where there was no one to follow his health status. 

The Fatah faction and the PA had called for a strike in the sectors of health and education, and many doctors and teachers complied with the calls lest their salaries be cut by the unconstitutional government in Ramallah.

Palestinian medical sources in the Nasr hospital for children reported that shortly after the preterm birth of Fatayer, given the seriousness of his condition, he was taken to an incubator, but he died because the shift doctor, who was supposed to follow such cases, was absent due to his commitment to the strike.

The medical sources held the PA, Fatah and the striking doctors fully responsible for the death of this infant and called on the concerned authorities in Gaza to prosecute the doctor.

In the same context, Dr. Yehya Moussa, a member of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, highlighted Sunday that the strike of health staff in Gaza comes in the framework of passing conspiracies against the Palestinian people until they reach a state of despair and frustration.

“They want to make our people get to this state in order to accept any solution offered to them even if it was at the expense of their blood,” Dr. Moussa added in an exclusive statement to the PIC.

The lawmaker underscored that the criminal gang in Ramallah, who are leading the strikes, have nothing to do with Palestine because “they are moving like cheap tools used by Israel to subjugate the Palestinian people and drag them into the unknown and destruction”.

He also held the striking doctors fully responsible for the lives of Gaza patients, saying that their strike is a “crime” and everyone involved in it must be severely punished by law.