The number of cancer patients in the besieged Gaza Strip is on the rise, as Israel uses weapons containing carcinogenic agents against Palestinians, medical sources have reported.
(Press TV/Al Ray) On Tuesday, Gazan patients and doctors marked the World Cancer Day by staging a protest inside Gaza’s Shifa hospital. An average of 1,000 cancer cases has been recorded annually among Gazans, for the past two years.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said that the Israeli occupation’s use of internationally-banned weapons has sharply increased the number of cancer cases.
“Thousands of tons of unconventional weapons containing carcinogenic agents were fired on Gaza in the last 14 years. Many of the weapons used by the Israeli forces are internationally banned and contain illegal substances that not only affect people but they also have long-term effects on the environment,” said Health Ministry Spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.
“The Israeli forces used all sorts of weapons against us. They are testing their weapons on us and on our children,” said a Gazan cancer patient.
Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
Over 160 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed and about 1,200 others injured in Israel’s eight-day offensive on the coastal enclave, which ended on November 21, 2012.
The apartheid occupation denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.
