163 patients die due to the 11 months Israeli siege on Gaza

Monday May 26, 2008 15:41 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Palestinian sources reported on Monday that a Palestinian patient died in the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening due to Israeli siege imposed on the Palestinian coastal region.

file - 2007

Hind Al Ashkar, from Al Nuserat refugee camp located in central Gaza, had kidney failure, doctors said that she applied several times for the Israeli army to grant her permission to leave Gaza for life saving medical care but the army refused.

With the death of Al Ashkar, the number of Palestinian patients who died due to the 11 month Israeli siege on Gaza now stands at 163.

Since June 2007, Israel has closed the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, only passage for Palestinians in or out of the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops do not operate on the terminal since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in September 2005. Instead, European observors are positioned there as a condition to keep the terminal opened.

The terminal has been opened few times during the past 11 months of siege allowing very small numbers of people to pass through the terminal.

gaza strip | human rights | news report ghassanb at imemc dot org