A Border Crossing Shuttered for Months Traps the Sick and Wounded in Gaza

[Pelican Press 0]

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A Border Crossing Shuttered for Months Traps the ***** and Wounded in Gaza

According to W.H.O. figures, Gaza officials have submitted at least 12,760 requests for people to leave for medical care since the war started. About 46 percent were approved, many after delays of weeks or months.

Both ******** and Egyptian security agencies vet the lists of those who can leave, according to Dr. Barkley. They rarely approve requests to transfer ***** or wounded men aged 19 to 60, according to the W.H.O.

“The medical need is enormous because the health system has been decimated,” Dr. Barkley said.

Mr. Ghanem, a former officer in the ************ Authority security forces, said he ******* his wife in June without a proper ******** because there was an ******** offensive in central Gaza. She, too, was a victim of the war, he said.

For one Gaza boy, even an unusual opportunity to circumvent the border closure came too late.

Nabil Kuheil, 5, was diagnosed with acute leukemia in mid-April, with the war in full swing, as his once well-to-do family was living in a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah.

“We were living in tents, flies descending in the daytime and mosquitoes at night,” said his mother, Aya Kuheil, 28. “Suddenly, he was covered in bruises that turned first red, then purple. His stomach swelled; they told me there was growth in his spleen and liver.”

On May 6, Nabil’s name appeared on a list of evacuees who could leave the following day alongside a note indicating that his case was urgent. But by the next morning, ******* had launched its offensive in Rafah and seized the crossing.

For weeks, the family waited.

In late May, Ms. Kuheil received surprising news: ******* had approved Nabil for treatment at Augusta Victoria, a ************-run hospital in East Jerusalem — a rare occurrence during this war.

Nabil Kuheil, 5, at Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem on May 30. He was found to have acute leukemia in mid-April.

The next morning, feverish and quaking, he was taken in an ambulance to the Kerem Shalom crossing, said his mother, who accompanied him.

******* never publicized his evacuation, possibly fearing backlash at home. Some ******* Israelis, including members of the governing coalition, have voiced opposition to

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for Gazans.

Nabil “was in severe pain, with a high fever, ****** and covered in blue discolorations,” said Dr. Khadra Salami, the pediatric oncologist who treated him in Jerusalem.

“It was clear that the leukemia had infiltrated all his organs,” she said.

Two days later, Nabil ***** from a *****-resistant infection he had picked up in Gaza. Dr. Salami said the three-week wait after the closure of Rafah probably cost him his life.

“Every day of the delay mattered,” she said.

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#Border #Crossing #Shuttered #Months #Traps #***** #Wounded #Gaza

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