Shin Bet bars Jews in Physicians for Human Rights from entering Gaza

Only Arab personnel allowed in delegation that plans to carry out operations, examinations and consultations.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Gaza hospital 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Gaza hospital 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
A six-member delegation of doctors and other professionals from the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel voluntary organization will spend two days in Gaza, starting Wednesday, to perform operations and examinations and to consult with patients. Only Arab personnel were given permission by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to enter the Gaza Strip, and Jewish members of the group were barred, the organization said. The group includes a senior surgeon, orthopedist and oncologist, as well as psychologist and social worker. PHR-Israel said that in addition to surgery, examinations and consultations at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, they would lecture to doctors there. This is the organization's sixth and largest delegation to Gaza this year. It claims to be the only Israeli organization going into Gaza since June 2007, when Hamas seized power there. Salah Haj Yihye, head of PHR-Israel's clinics, said the organization learned from previous visits that they could not supply many medial services to Gaza because additional equipment was required, and local doctors needed more training. "The closure of Gaza disrupts the functioning of the hospitals and serves as collective punishment to 1.5 million residents," he said. Ron Yaron, head of the Occupied Territory Department in PHR-Israel, said the delegation's "aim is to help patients barred for 'security reasons' from entrance for treatment into Israel by the Shin Bet." The fact that Jewish personnel were not allowed in constituted "discrimination," Yaron said.