Injured Palestinian teen in Gaza denied exit permit for medical treatment – Ma’an News Agency (press release)

(AFP/Abbas Momani, File)

Dozens of young protesters had taken to the border to protest in solidarity with a mass Palestinian prisoner hunger strike, and clashed with Israeli forces that fired live ammunition at the crowd.

According to DCIP, when the teen was hospitalized, a doctor recommended that the family apply for an urgent exit permit and an escort to travel through the Israeli-controlled Erez border crossing to Jerusalem for specialized care.

Khalid underwent surgery to remove his right kidney and repair damage to his aorta. Heavy blood loss carried the possibility of damage to other organs, including his brain, and caused a nine-day coma, medical sources at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah told DCIP.

While Khalid was still in a coma, on May 27, his family applied for an exit permit so he could be treated in an Israeli hospital, but the Israeli Civil Affairs office denied the application.

After Khalid recovered from the coma on May 31 and began daily courses of dialysis to remove toxins in his left kidney, the family filed a second permit request, for which they are still awaiting a response, DCIP said.

We are waiting to transfer him to the hospital in Jerusalem, but we dont know why Israel is refusing to let him in through Erez crossing, Khalids father told the organization. He has the right to be treated and return home to his family and his school.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 42 percent of Palestinian requests for medical travel out of Gaza were denied or delayed by Israeli authorities in April 2017. Of this number, three children were denied and 178 children were delayed care.

WHO also reported that three Palestinians, including a five-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, died in Gaza in April while waiting for permission to leave for external treatment.

According to the group, 52-year-old Talat Mahmoud Sulaiman al-Shawi, a resident of Rafah in southern Gaza, was diagnosed with a kidney tumor. Due to the delay in receiving the urgently needed medical treatment, the cancer metastasized to his spine, causing paralysis of the lower half of his body, al-Mezan wrote at the time.

The group further said it deeply regrets the enduring harm inflicted on Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip, and deplores Israeli practices that cause further deterioration of patients health conditions. Al Mezan asserts that such practices amount to grave and systematic violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.

The rights groups said that had documented a a stark increase of Israeli violations, in recent months, as half of the patients who submitted requests for travel permits have been denied access to hospitals.

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Injured Palestinian teen in Gaza denied exit permit for medical treatment - Ma'an News Agency (press release)