Gaza - "Jerusalem" dot com - Dr. Abd Khalayleh, director of the organ transplantation unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, and Dr. Samer Diab, a vascular surgeon from Rambam Hospital, both members of the Physicians for Human Rights Association, performed two transplants last weekend. Kidneys of Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip .

Each of Dr. Concubine Dr. Diab came to the Gaza Strip as part of a delegation from the Society of Physicians for Human Rights, which visited the Strip at the end of last week for the purpose of carrying out a medical activity.

The delegation consisted of 25 doctors and members of the medical staff, who performed surgeries, brought in medicines and medical equipment, provided medical care to patients, and held rehabilitation courses in the field of mental health.

The two kidney transplant operations were performed at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The first operation was performed on a 27-year-old girl from Gaza City, who received a donation from her father. The second operation was performed on a 25-year-old girl from Nusseirat refugee camp. She received a kidney donation from her sister.

The operations were carried out after preparatory work that lasted for a few weeks, led by Physicians for Human Rights and in coordination with Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. The preparations included meetings via Zoom program between the surgeons and the medical staff of Al-Shifa Hospital, in addition to taking blood samples from patients and sending them to Hadassah Hospital at a cost. It amounted to tens of thousands of shekels in order to ensure the suitability of the organs for transplantation and to buy injections and special medicines for them.

It is noteworthy that a few kidney transplant operations were performed in the Gaza Strip, irregularly, by two doctors, one from England and the other from Jordan, but Israel stopped allowing the Jordanian doctor to enter the Strip, which caused a reduction in the number of such operations inside the Strip.

The two operations that took place in Al-Shifa Hospital are in addition to 16 other surgeries that were performed by the doctors of the Physicians for Human Rights delegation, including: nine orthopedic operations in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, under the supervision of Dr. Mustafa Yassin and Dr. Mahmoud Khatib, two high-ranking orthopedic doctors from Hasharon Hospital, and 7 eye surgeries under the supervision of Dr. Ahed Mtairat, an ophthalmologist from Soroka Hospital, and a blood vessel operation under the supervision of Dr. Jamal Hijazi, a vascular surgeon at Shaare Zedek Hospital, at the European Hospital in the city.

The members of the medical delegation also held, in parallel, medical days in the fields of family medicine and gynecology, two of which were held in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where more than 330 patients were examined, while the psychologists among the delegation members continued their approach in holding vocational rehabilitation courses In the field of mental health for Palestinian mental health teams from the Gaza Center for Mental Health, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and the Medical Center for Trauma Victims in Gaza City.

The visit also included the delivery of medical equipment and medicines worth more than 300,000 shekels.

Salah Haj Yahya, delegate director of the Physicians for Human Rights Association, stated: “The Gaza Strip has been suffering all the time, 365 days a year, for more than 15 years, as a result of the Israeli blockade that suffocates the civilian population and prevents them from any possibility of obtaining conditions.” In addition to the medical objectives, the delegation's visit constitutes solidarity with the suffering and hardship of the residents of the Strip, and it represents a clear message that the illegal Israeli policy of blockade must be stopped.