GAZA CITY
Israel on Wednesday barred dozens of medical patients from leaving the Gaza Strip for treatment in Israeli hospitals because their papers bore a logo that referred to the "State of Palestine," Palestinian officials said.
Patients waited for hours on the Palestinian side of the Erez border crossing between the coastal enclave and Israel before liaison officers from the Palestinian Authority (PA) informed them of the ban.
Only three patients in critical condition were allowed to leave the strip.
Omar al-Nasser, spokesman for the West Bank-based Health Ministry, told Anadolu Agency that Israel had said that the patients had been denied entry because their medical referral documents had borne the "State of Palestine" logo.
Following the UN's approval of Palestine as a non-member observer state in November 2012, the new logo replaced the usual PA logo on official Palestinian documents.
At the time, Israel and the US had voted against upgrading Palestine's UN status.
But al-Nasser insisted that his ministry had been using the new logo for more than one year, adding that Israel had earlier allowed Gaza patients – with papers stamped with the "State of Palestine" logo – into its territory.
He believes the latest Israeli restrictions are aimed at ratcheting up pressure on the Palestinian leadership.
Months of US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the PA have failed to yield any tangible breakthroughs.
-Collective punishment -
Al-Nasser says his ministry usually refers more than 16,000 Gazan medical patients every year to hospitals outside the strip.
These generally go to hospitals in the West Bank, Israel and Egypt.
Al-Nasser said that contacts between the Palestinian leadership and Israel, aimed at lifting the ban on medical patients, were already underway.
Khalil Shahin of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights described the Israeli decision to deny patients access to its hospitals as "collective punishment."
"These are just more of the restrictions that the Israeli occupation uses from time to time against the Palestinian people," he told AA.
Hospitals in the Gaza Strip, home to nearly 2 million Palestinians, continue to suffer from a chronic lack of medicine and medical supplies due to Israel's years-long siege on the coastal enclave.
By Fares Akram
englishnews@aa.com.tr
