Today, Monday, a human rights report warned of the serious repercussions for patients in the Gaza Strip as a result of the lack of medical equipment and basic medicines.

In its report, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights dealt with the deteriorating health conditions in the Gaza Strip, highlighting the suffering of patients in the Gaza Strip as a result of the weak health system and its inability to provide medicines and medical devices to government health facilities.

The report touched on the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on the entry of medical equipment and devices, the most important of which are diagnostic medical devices used in the diagnosis and treatment of oncology patients, such as interventional radiology devices, ultrasounds, and oxygen stations. According to the report, the occupation authorities ban the entry of some spare parts needed to repair broken medical devices, which has serious repercussions on the lives of thousands of patients from the Gaza Strip.

The report also dealt with the impact of the continued Palestinian political division on the work of the health system, through the failure to allocate budgets and operational expenses necessary for the work of health facilities in the Gaza Strip, and the absence of plans aimed at correcting and developing the health system in Palestine, including the adoption of a drug policy that guarantees the availability of treatment for all citizens, and the purchase of Medical devices, equipment and spare parts to repair broken devices in Gaza Strip hospitals.

The report reviewed testimonies showing the suffering of patients in the Gaza Strip as a result of the lack of medical devices and medicines in emergency, operations and intensive care departments, orthopedics, primary health care, cancer and blood diseases, mental health and nerves, immunity, epidemics and genetic diseases, maternal and child health, kidneys and hemodialysis, eyes, Cardiac catheterization and open heart.

The report stresses the responsibility of Israel, as the occupying power, to provide the population of the Gaza Strip with medical supplies, and to import food, medical supplies, and others if the resources of the occupied territory are insufficient.

The report also stresses the legal responsibility of the Palestinian government agencies in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which requires allocating sufficient financial resources to purchase medical devices and medicines necessary for the operation of government health facilities, and to preserve the health rights of citizens.

The report recommended that the international community should put pressure on Israel in order to force it to carry out its duties as an occupying power under international humanitarian law, as it has the primary responsibility for providing medical supplies to the population of the Gaza Strip, according to Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

The report called on the two departments of the Ministry of Health in Ramallah and Gaza to coordinate between them in order to provide all types of medicines and basic medical supplies, and work to double efforts and increase the financial expenditures allocated to the health sector, in order to purchase medicines and all medical equipment and devices necessary to localize health services in the hospitals of the Gaza Strip.