Israel delays cancer treatment for

Gaza children

White phosphorous munitions are destroyed in the southern Gaza

Strip during a controlled demolition in March 2010. There are
concerns that such Israeli weaponry has contributed to a spike in
cancer rates in the territory.Yousef DeebAPA images

Sarah Algherbawi-28 March

2017
Jihad is a boy with ambitions. I want to grow until I become an
astronaut and an engineer, the 9-year-old said. At the same
time.
Before he could achieve those goals, Jihad would have to recover
from a major illness. About a year ago, he was diagnosed with
cancer of the colon.

The diagnosis was made after he had been taken to hospital with
food poisoning.

For his family, the news was the latest in a series of tragedies.
Jihads twin brother was born with severe disabilities and died
after just two months.

I was so happy when the doctor told me I was pregnant with twin
boys, Jihads mother, Majda Ali, said. I started to dream about
how I would be mother to a doctor and an engineer. The dream
has been destroyed.

Majda does not know the cause of Jihads cancer. She fears,
however, that it may have something to do with how she was
exposed to a considerable amount of dust from buildings bombed
by Israel during Operation Cast Lead, the attack on Gaza in late
2008 and early 2009.

What she does know is that Jihad requires urgent treatment. He

has been referred to specialists working in Jerusalem. It is not
clear when or even if Israel will allow him to travel.

Rates of cancer are rising in Gaza. Health ministry officials

have estimated that there were 105 cases of cancer for every
100,000 residents in Gaza for 1998-2008. For 2009-2014, that had
increased to 141 cases per 100,000 residents, 41 percent more
than in the previous period.
Cancer rates are increasing worldwide, particularly in developing
countries, due to an increase in risk factors like smoking, adoption
of Western diets and sedentary lifestyles, as well as
environmental pressures.

But in Gaza, there are particular concerns that Israeli weaponry

may be a contributing factor.
Obstruction
Israel is known to have experimented with a number of weapons
during the 2008 offensive. They included a US-supplied bunker
buster missile called GBU-39 and white phosphorous, a weapon
that causes severe burns.

Suspicions have been raised that some of the missiles used by

Israel were coated with depleted uranium, a radioactive
substance.

Khaled Thabet, head of the oncology department at al-Shifa

hospital in Gaza City, has said that Israels use of depleted
uranium may be linked to increased levels of cancer.

It has been reported, too, that Israel has been spraying pesticides
on farms in Gaza for a number of years. The use of toxic
pesticides and fertilizers by farmers may also be contributing to
the rise in cancer rates. Colon cancer may be caused by the
presence of pollutants in food, according to Thabet.

Many services necessary for cancer patients are lacking in

Gazas health system, Thabet told The Electronic Intifada.
Surgical facilities are one of them.
More than 15 percent of all cancer patients requiring surgery are
recommended to travel outside Gaza, according to Thabet.
Referrals are made to hospitals in Israel, the occupied West
Bank, Egypt and, in some cases, to Jordan and Turkey.

Israel frequently obstructs efforts to ensure that cancer patients

receive the treatment they require. In some urgent cases, Israel
has blocked patients from traveling for periods of three or four
months, Thabet added.

Ahmad al-Tannani is ambitious, too. He wants to be a football star.

When I am better, Ill play football and train hard, the 8-year-old
said.

Ahmad, a resident of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, has

lymphoma.

Having undergone an operation, he now requires a form of

radiation treatment which is not available in Gaza. He could be
treated in an Israeli hospital but has not yet been allowed to
travel by the Israeli authorities.
Blackmail
Recently published data indicate that Israel has tightened its
restrictions on travel from Gaza.

Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, has reported that there was
a 44 percent drop in the number of people who exited Gaza, via
the Erez military checkpoint, in January 2017, when compared to
the same month last year. Erez separates Gaza from Israel.

Medical patients and people accompanying them were among the

categories of travelers affected by the decrease, according to
Gisha.

The World Health Organization has also reported that Israel is

allowing fewer Palestinians to travel for medical treatment.

In January last year, Israel approved 78 percent of all requests to

travel for treatment made on behalf of people in Gaza. By
December, that proportion had fallen to less than 42 percent.

That was the lowest rate of approvals recorded since April 2009.

More than 1,400 patients were delayed from reaching healthcare

appointments in December last year. According to the World
Health Organization, that was the highest number of such delays
ever recorded.
Among those affected were 323 children.

Maram Aqil is an 11-year-with lung cancer. She has been receiving

chemotherapy in an Israeli hospital. Her parents hope that they
are not hampered from traveling through Erez.

Delaying the next dose of chemotherapy will kill Maram, said

her mother Najah. Thats what the doctor told us.
A resident of Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, Maram is an only
child. When Maram arrived, we thought we owned the whole
universe, Najah said. But I think cancer will take away the
delight we felt.

One major obstacle encountered by patients with serious

conditions and people accompanying them is that they have
subjected them to interrogations to Israeli troops at
Erez. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has stated Israel is
unethically and immorally exploiting the medical needs of
Palestinian patients, making their transit for medical treatment
conditional on [Israeli intelligence] questioning, in order to
squeeze them for intel.

In January this year, Nidal Elian brought his son, Muhammad, to

the Erez crossing. Aged 6, Muhammad has lung cancer and
requires urgent treatment.

The troops staffing the checkpoint tried to blackmail Nidal. They

told him that they would allow him through Erez if he became an
informer to the Israeli military. Nidal refused.

I know that this refusal will cost me the life of my child, said
Nidal. They will never allow me to pass now and they will not let
my child complete his treatment. But I cannot sell my country to
my enemy.

*Sarah Algherbawi is a freelance writer and translator from Gaza.

Posted by Thavam