العربية
HE
العربية
HE
On June 5, 2024, three human rights organizations – PHR-Israel, HaMoked and Gisha – filed an urgent petition to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to compel the State to swiftly establish and implement a mechanism for evacuating injured and sick Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Israel and the West Bank, where they could receive treatment unobtainable in Gaza. The petition noted that according to estimates, there were some 14,000 people in Gaza who require speedy evacuation, and the numbers were growing daily.
The petitioners stressed that at stake were the lives of many Palestinians in Gaza who took no part in the hostilities and were in life-threatening situations due to illnesses and injuries which can only be treated outside of Gaza. Therefore, the organizations asked that an urgent hearing of the petition be scheduled.
The organizations noted that in the framework of the war which began on October 7, 2023, with the Hamas attack on southern Israel, including the abduction of some 250 people to the Gaza Strip – the civilian infrastructure of Gaza collapsed, including the health system, which is now in a dire humanitarian condition. As of May 7, 2024, Israel effectively controls most of the Gaza Strip, including all access points into and out of Gaza, and since that date has all but prevented the exit of sick and wounded Gazans in need of medical care unavailable in the Gaza Strip.
In the petition, UN data was presented, whereby from the start of the war until the end of May 2024, over 36,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza and over 82,000 wounded, many of them women and children, and that in all likelihood there were thousands more wounded or dead who were buried under the rubble. Some 1.7 million people have been uprooted from their homes to live in temporary, poor and highly unhygienic conditions. WHO data published in late May 2024 show hundreds of thousands of cases of acute respiratory infections and gastrointestinal infections, including in some 100,000 children; thousands of chickenpox cases; and some 77,000 cases of acute jaundice. Under the circumstances, such conditions quickly deteriorate and could become fatal. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of Gazans with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular diseases and cancer – many of whom, before the war, would receive permits to exit Gaza for medical treatment in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel, Egypt and elsewhere.
The organizations clarified that even during war there is a basic humanitarian obligation to protect the health and lives of Gazans who are not involved in the hostilities, and that Israel must abide by the principles of international law and the case law of the HCJ, including regarding the obligation to save lives.
* A hearing in the petition was held on July 1, 2024, during which the State updated about its ongoing refusal to allow sick and wounded Gazans to enter Israel or East Jerusalem or travel via Israel to the West Bank. However, the State added – mostly in camera – about attempts to establish a mechanism to transfer sick and wounded Gazans via its territory to third countries. At the end of the hearing, the State promised to submit an additional update regarding the expected mechanism but it has been delaying since.
To HaMoked’s knowledge, some 150 patients have been evacuated to a third country via this mechanism. However, this is just a fraction of the humanitarian need.
