April 9, 2008

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli siege on Gaza has killed since the early hours of Wednesday morning five Palestinian patients and the death toll is likely to rise in light of the Israeli restrictions imposed on the entry of medicines and medical supplies to Gaza, and also on patients who are routinely denied permits to leave Gaza for life-saving treatment.

With these new deaths, the number of the siege victims rose to 130 Palestinians, where Palestinian medical sources told the popular committee against the siege that a female patient called Nabila Zaqqout, 32, died of a heart disease in a hospital inside the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948.

In a press statement received by the PIC, Rami Abdo, the spokesman for the committee explained that the IOA delayed Zaqqout's travel permit and approved her travel for treatment inside the 1948 lands after her health deteriorated badly.

The committee also announced on the same day the death of a cancer patient called Ahmed Mohamed, 58, because of lack of chemical doses for cancer treatment in Gaza.

An hour earlier, a 65-year-old woman called Khadija Abu Ahmed died of cancer as well after the IOA turned down her travel request for urgent medical treatment outside Gaza.

16-year-old child called Mahmoud was also among the five siege victims who died today after doctors failed to procure chemical medicines for his cancer disease.

For the same previous reason, Izhaq Awaida, 32, a father of five children, died in the morning after his stomach cancer spread all over of his body.

Awaida's cousin told the committee that his family made every effort to get a travel permit but to no avail and every time, the IOA tells them that the medical testament is available in Gaza, adding that Awaida did not receive a single dose of chemical treatment because there are no cancer medicines in Gaza at all.