Death of two infants in Gaza due to Israeli siege raises concerns

Gaza (QNN)- Two infants have died due to the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip while they were waiting for Israeli permits to get medical treatment in the occupied territories.

Medial permits for Gaza’s patients were suspended on May 19 when the PA announced stopping all forms of coordination with ‘Israel’. It was a protest movement against Israel’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank in July.

The first child died last week, nine-month-old Omar Yaghi, who awaited permission to exit Gaza for surgery for a cardiac abnormality last week. Anwar Harb died nine days after his birth, also from a cardiac disease on last Monday.

The United Nations Special Envoy to the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov said that on Wednesday “Both ‘Israel’ and the Palestinian Authority PA were responsible for the death of the child Omar Yaghi”.

Jehad Yaghi, Omar’s grandfather said “He would have survived if he had his remaining two surgeries which were supposed to be on May 21 at Sheba hospital in Israel”.

He added that “Omar would have been in his family’s arms by now if he had undergone surgery when it was scheduled. The doctors confirmed as much, however, he passed. An angel who had a charming smile, he passed away only because he was sick in Gaza”.

Omer was born with congenital malformations in his heart. Two hours after his birth he was moved to the intensive care unit at the Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi Hospital for children in Gaza. After it became clear that no hospital in Gaza was capable of performing the surgery he needed due to the lack of medical supplements that resulted from the Israeli siege, his family got permits for four different surgeries in ‘Israel’.

Some Palestinians reached out to the Red Cross and Physicians for Human Rights imploring the aid agencies to urgently file permit requests. A few were successful in getting permits to get treatment in Israeli hospitals but it is still unclear if most Palestinians patients who need surgeries or chemotherapy scheduled in ‘Israel’ were successful.

According to the WHO before the pandemic began over 1,750 patients from Gaza sent permit applications each month for treatment in Israeli and West Bank hospitals each month. The huge numbers raise concerns about the deteriorating medical and living conditions in the besieged enclave and if the world is serious about taking any measures to end the Israeli siege.