An Israeli court has rejected an appeal to allow a five-year-old Palestinian boy suffering from an aggressive form of cancer to enter Israel for life-saving treatment, citing a government policy that bars registered residents of Gaza from crossing the border, even if they no longer live there.
In a ruling on Sunday, the Jerusalem District Court rejected a petition seeking permission to transfer the child from Ramallah to Tel Hashomer Hospital, near Tel Aviv, for a bone marrow transplant - a procedure that is not available in Gaza or the occupied West Bank. The boy has been in the West Bank since 2022, where he has been receiving medical care that is not available in the Gaza Strip. His doctors have determined that he urgently needs antibody immunotherapy, the Guardian reports.
The decision reflects Israel's comprehensive ban on entry for people living in Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, including cancer patients, who were routinely granted access to life-saving treatment in Jerusalem before the war.
"I have lost all hope," the boy's mother told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, describing the verdict as a death sentence for her son. She said the boy's father died of cancer three years ago.
In his ruling, Israeli judge Ram Vinograd said the petition could be seen as an indirect challenge to the restrictions imposed by the security apparatus after October 7, which have prevented Gazans from entering Israel for medical treatment. While acknowledging that thousands of children in Gaza are in urgent need of medical care, the judge said there was no fundamental difference between the boy's case and other patients who have been denied entry by the policy.
“The petitioners have failed to demonstrate a real and relevant distinction,” Vinograd wrote, adding that the boy’s presence in Ramallah, in his opinion, does not justify an exemption from the general ban.
“This case illustrates once again the devastating consequences of a blanket policy that denies Palestinians access to life-saving treatment solely on the basis of their registered address in Gaza, even when they do not live there and have no security charges against them,” said the Israeli human rights organization Gisha. “The significance of this ruling is that the court upholds an unlawful policy that effectively sentences children to death, even when life-saving treatment is within their reach.”
Some 11.000 Palestinian cancer patients remain trapped in Gaza, despite the reopening of the Rafah crossing last week. Doctors say the number of cancer-related deaths in the territory has tripled since the start of the war, while Israel continues to prevent patients from leaving Gaza and restrict the entry of chemotherapy drugs. While some patients have been able to leave, their number is far smaller than the number of those who urgently need treatment and have been unable to do so.
According to health authorities in Gaza, about 4.000 people have official instructions for treatment in third countries but are unable to cross the border. The World Health Organization says that 900 people, including children and cancer patients, have already died while waiting for evacuation.
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