Israel’s Netanyahu delays evacuation of 150 sick, wounded children from Gaza to UAE
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied helpless around 150 sick and injured Palestinian children to be evacuated to the UAE for immediate medical help due to the current aggressiveness of the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli media revealed Sunday evening.
According to the report’s findings, Netanyahu’s advice does not allow the children to fly to the UAE using the Ramon Air Base of the Israeli army located in the Naqab region. This travel was supposed to occur the following day or/the next day.
In this regard, Physicians for Human Rights stated that Israel has a record of fully or partially negating humanitarian commitments of this nature. Based on this, informed sources pointed to the probability of a plane transporting 250 sick and injured Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the UAE within the current week. However, the raw number is considerably higher than those who would require medical attention.
Information received from Gaza has it that no less than 25,000 patients need cross-border evacuations for treatment. However, in the face of such a need, the UN’s statistics indicate that about 5,000 sick and wounded residents have only been evacuated from the Strip following the launch of the aggression.
Physicians for Human Rights and other human rights organizations sought the intervention of the Israeli Supreme Court last June with the main request that patients and wounded people in life-threatening conditions should be allowed to access medical help outside the Gaza Strip. The argument with supporting facts and references discussed in the petition is that the situation is now more critical, and more lives are at risk for them to be saved.
This decision raised huge concerns among humanitarian organizations and international observers and was a grave hindrance to medical emergencies for vulnerable groups. Unfortunately, the banning of medical evacuation has worsened the health situation in Gaza, in which facilities, equipment, and everything is scarce due to the ongoing war.
Civil society organizations are also warning that the crisis makes it harder for critically ill children to receive medical attention; violations of international human rights law have been recorded. The blockade on Gaza has deteriorated the health care systems in the area, and for most of the people, accessing treatment within the Strip is near-impossible.
Global society has joined the call and demanded the international community act to maintain humanitarian corridors for medical evacuations. Thus, different organizations insist on the need for a speedy one to enable the sick and injured to get the medical attention they require.
, Netanyahu’s decision has invoked a negative response from Israeli citizens, with some of them calling for a more compassionate approach towards Palestinians. Some of them insist that no politics and military should be invaded in the provision of medical care to children, and Israelis have the moral responsibility to allow such assistance.
In Gaza, conditions remain grim, and the blockade makes the humanitarian situation even worse. The reaction of the global society and the pressure on the Israeli authorities will define whether such children and other patients in need will be able to get the medical help they need.
The obvious signs of civil conflict negatively impact the health and futures of thousands of people. It is, therefore, a daunting task to see how this dispute will be resolved since it will be a test for the world to prove whether the principles of humanity will be observed and the protection of the vulnerable in the event of conflict will be enhanced.
