Ismail Al-Thawabta:

▪ We warn of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe facing the health sector as a result of the occupation’s prevention of the entry of medicines and medical supplies, especially treatments for chronic diseases and dialysis consumables.

▪ More than 350,000 patients with chronic diseases face the risk of serious complications or death due to the continued deprivation of their regular medicines and the continuation of the medicine blockade.

▪ Hundreds of kidney failure patients are threatened with direct death due to the severe shortage of filters and dialysis supplies and the decline in hospitals’ ability to provide sufficient sessions.

▪ About 10,000 cancer patients are suffering under harsh conditions and a total lack of specialized medicines and the suspension of life-saving treatment protocols.

▪ The occupation’s deliberate prevention of the entry of life-saving medicines is considered a measure that may amount to a slow and systematic execution of patients, and goes beyond military measures to become a main tool of genocide.

▪ The medicine blockade constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee the protection of patients and the provision of medical care to them.

▪ The medicine blockade comes as part of a calculated plan to take what remains of the health system out of service and make Gaza an uninhabitable environment.

▪ We call on the international community, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization to intervene immediately and apply real pressure to open the crossings and bring in medical convoys and specialized medicines urgently and sustainably.

▪ We also call for facilitating the urgent medical evacuation of critical cases, especially cancer and kidney patients, to receive treatment abroad before it is too late.

▪ We call on international human rights institutions to document the crime of the medicine blockade and hold the occupation’s leaders accountable before the International Criminal Court for their ongoing crimes against patients and the health system.