Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

News

Aid withdrawal is bringing health service in Gaza to brink of collapse

BMJ 2006; 332 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7551.1171 (Published 18 May 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;332:1171

Rapid Response:

Thanks for this clarification

Many thanks to Chris McGreal for writing this letter from Gaza to put
some light on a rapidly-growing health crisis in the Palestinian
territories. Clearly the Palestinian health service, like all other
services, is fragile because of the Israeli occupation nature and its
ability to control every thing in the Palestinians’ life without any
actual pressure from the world against that. I know many of the medical
staff nowadays can not go to their work because they do not have any money
to pay for their own transportation following the non-payment of their
salaries for three consecutive months. Needless to talk about the
significant increase in poverty rate, unemployment….etc. following this
unfair siege, another example of the effect of this siege on education
that education ministry considered to delay the examinations because of
the lack of sheets. One of my friends who works in a Palestinian
university told me that they count and give them the exact number of the
required sheets for examinations.

I would like to emphasise that this health crisis and others are
partially because of the withdrawal of foreign aid and the Israeli
closure. Additionally, it is getting worse because of the
support for Israel and the strong siege on transferring money from Arabic
countries to the Palestinians, and also because of the Israeli suspension
of the own Palestinian’s tax money. Finally, as president Abbas said this
is the first time in the history that the world impose siege on the
occupied people for the benefits and support of the occupier. Without a
real and fair support from the whole world, the entire situation in the
Palestinian territories is most likely to deteriorate.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

24 May 2006
Eyad Elkord
Postdoctoral Fellow
Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, University of manchester