They won't be the first Palestinians to cross into Israel proper for medical treatment. About one month ago Amina Abbas, the wife of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, underwent minor foot surgery at a small hospital near Tel Aviv.
Add to the list Hamas leader Fathi Hamad, who sent his three-year-old daughter to Jordan for medical treatment. He was granted authorization to transport her through Israel via the Erez Checkpoint. From there she received initial medical treatment at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. Barzilai needed to earmark NIS 150 million to fortify its emergency ward and other facilities against Gaza missiles.
On the day Operation Protective Edge began, seven Palestinian children arrived at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon for treatment.
"It does not matter what side of the political map you are on," said Dr. Akiva Tamir, head of pediatric cardiology at Wolfson. "The parents of these children want them to live – just like parents [in Israel]."
During the week of July 7, an NGO in Israel called Save a Child's Heart was treating 34 children with heart defects, including 22 from eastern Africa, 4 from Iraq, 3 from Syria and 5 from the Palestinian Authority.
According to a July 11 article in Hamodia, Palestinian patients from Gaza have mixed feelings. “On the one hand, they are in Israel and see the consequences of the actions of Hamas and how people get hurt on this side of the border," says Yazid Falah, the coordinator for Palestinian patients at the Rambam Health Care Campus. "On the other hand, their families in Gaza are under attack by the IDF and they fear for the lives of their loved ones."
“There are those who tell me they are ashamed of what Gaza is doing, and others say they are afraid of how people will talk and look at them here in the hospital," said Falah. "Other say they are afraid to return to Gaza.”
A 14-year-old Gazan underwent a very difficult kidney translant at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, where he spent eight months recovering.
In Oct. 2014, Prof. Richard Horton, editor of the prestigious medical journal Lancet, had a change of heart regarding his criticism of Israeli treatment of Arab patients after first-hand observation at Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
He expressed “deep regret for the unnecessary polarization” caused by the publication of a letter that included accusations of war crimes.
The IDF also runs a field hospital near the Syrian border, providing urgent medical care to victims of the ongoing conflict in Syria.
Post written by B. Slobodkin, who sells tallit and tzitzit to customers worldwide.
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