Despite the current “relative quiet” in the Palestinian territories, Palestinian civilians continue to die as a result of the Israeli occupation and closure.
Aaisha Ali Hasan, 21 years old, died yesterday when Israeli troops prevented her from going to Ramallah to undergo dialysis. Aaisha who required kidney dialysis three times a week, and her father set out from Qibiya, to the northwest of Ramallah, yesterday morning. At Deir Ibsiya Israeli soldiers forbade her from passing through the military roadblock. Her brother, 28 year old Ayman said “they went to the checkpoint and tried to talk to the soldiers, but they would not let Aaisha and my father get close to them. They opened fire on them, with live ammunition shooting above their heads. The soldiers could see she was in a wheelchair – she was too sick to walk. But they couldn’t cross. After that they came back home – but Aaisha’s condition deteriorated. So my father, who is an old man, tried to take her again in the evening. They were refused permission for a second time. We asked a local doctor what to do, and he gave her some medication, we had already tried to get an ambulance here – but even ambulances cannot move, and so that was also useless. Then she died.”
60-year-old Aaref Hannanie is another Palestinian who lost his life due to the draconian Israeli closure. Returning to his village of Beit Furiq near Nablus, Ali suffered a heart attack. A passing car attempted to transfer him to a hospital in Nablus but soldiers at the checkpoint refused him permission to pass. Ali died shortly after at the local medical center that was woefully unequipped to deal with Ali’s heart attack.
The deaths of these two Palestinians bring to 44 the number of people who have lost their lives as a result of the denial of medical treatment* in the past 19 months. Furthermore this suffocating siege and closure has paralyzed Palestinian health and education sectors, destroyed the economy and led to more than 60% of the population living below the poverty line of $US2 a day.
