| `The prediction of unliveability in Gaza has come true` | | Megan O`Toole - Middle East Eye - In 2012, a United Nations report
painted a bleak picture of the Gaza Strip and the conditions facing
its Palestinian inhabitants. Its economy was sluggish, its
healthcare system beleaguered and its natural resources dwindling.
But darker days were to come, the UN predicted. By 2020, Gaza’s
population would surpass two million. Peak demand for electricity
would soar by more than 50 percent, the report projected, and the
territory`s coastal aquifer could be damaged beyond repair. The UN
called for a massive injection of resources, including thousands
more doctors and nurses, a doubling of electricity capacity and at
least 440 new schools. It is now almost 2020. The UN`s projections
about Gaza`s ballooning demands have proven largely accurate - but
the delivery of essential services has failed to catch up. Michael
Lynk, the UN`s special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian
territories, told MEE: "The prediction of unliveability has already
arrived." [ak] | 10/12/2019 |
| In order to get medical treatment, Gazan children need to be separated from parents | | Physicians for Human Rights - Parental presence during a child’s
medical treatment is important for the child’s recovery. But Gazan
children who need medical attention of a kind which is not available
in the Strip are often denied this parental presence. In the past
few years, we have handled dozens of requests from parents whose
applications to accompany children for medical treatment were
denied. These cases included a four-year-old boy with cancer who
needed chemotherapy; a three-year-old girl who had swallowed acid
and was referred for treatment in a-Najah Hospital in Nablus and a
four-year-old girl who was born with a spinal hernia and was
referred for treatment at al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem.
Applications for a parental accompaniment permit undergo a long
processing time, and are in many cases denied altogether.
Consequently, parents often have to send their children with other
relatives or with strangers. Separating children from their parents
in such critical moments, when some of these children are literally
struggling for their lives, is not just cruel and immoral, but it is
also extremely detrimental to their mental health and to their
chances of recovery. [ak] | 3/12/2019 |
