Twenty-day-old Palestinian newborn Ali al-Batran, whose twin brother reportedly died due to hypothermia, lies inside an infant incubator at the intensive care unit of the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. AFP
They left the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis early Tuesday and travelled through the Karm Abu Salem Crossing into Israel. They will receive treatment in the United Arab Emirates.
The patients are accompanied by over 100 of their relatives, according to the hospital.
Among them was a 10-year-old boy, Abdullah Abu Yousef, suffering from kidney failure. The child was accompanied by his sister after the Israeli authorities rejected his mother’s application to join him.
“The boy is sick,” said his mother, Abeer Abu Yousef. “He requires hemodialysis three to four days a week.”
The Health Ministry says several thousand Palestinians in Gaza need medical treatment abroad.
Israel has controlled all entry and exit points since capturing the southern city of Rafah and the crossing border with Egpt in May.
Israel’s has gutted the territory’s health care system and forced most of its hospitals to close. Those that remain open are only partially functioning.
Short link: