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 The boys, aged nine months and six and seven years, all of whom
suffer from cystic fibrosis, are getting weaker because Gaza is
running out of the drugs needed to treat the inherited lung disease
and because of cuts to power for oxygen pumps and ventilators.
"I blame all sides," said Jalees, a mother of six, as she held her
youngest at Al-Rantissi Hospital for Children in Gaza City. "Are
these children at fault?"
Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007 after Hamas
forces seized control of the territory following a brief civil war
with security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Western-backed
Palestinian president based in the West Bank. Egypt, at odds with
Hamas, also maintains a blockade.
Although the Israeli blockage has eased somewhat in recent years, a
new stage in the struggle between Abbas and the Islamist Hamas is
turning the screws on the enclave afresh.
In what is seen as the latest step in an effort to force Hamas to
relinquish its control of Gaza, Abbas in June reduced the payments
the PA makes to Israel for electricity it supplies to the territory.
The resulting cuts mean that Gaza's two million people now have only
3 to 4 hours of power a day, forcing hospitals and other medical
facilities to rely chiefly on generators and expensive fuel, while
many private homes just go without.
Hamas says that Abbas restricted transfers of medicine to Gaza in
March, accusing Hamas of failing to reimburse the PA for its
purchases, and cut the salaries of its officials in May.
The spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, Ashraf Al-Qidra,
said PA shipments of medicine, especially drugs to treat cancer and
cystic fibrosis, have dropped 35 percent since late March.
"We believe the actions of the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli
occupation together are undermining the entire health service system
in Gaza," Qidra told Reuters.
Hamas also accuses the PA of delaying the transfer of hundreds of
seriously ill patients to Israel or the Israeli-occupied West Bank,
actions which it says has resulted in 13 deaths since April.
The PA denies the allegations and accuses Israel of holding back
permits. Israel denies the allegations.
Whoever is at fault, a U.N. report released last week said power
shortages are deepening a humanitarian crisis, with hospitals in a
precarious condition, water shortages increasing and raw sewage
being dumped into the Mediterranean because treatment plants aren't
functioning.
"The two million residents of Gaza are suffering through a
humanitarian crisis that is entirely human-made," the report said.
"It represents a complete failure of all parties to uphold their
fundamental human rights obligations, including the inalienable
right to life."
POLITICALLY MOTIVATED
Omar Al-Naser, director of media and public relations at the West
Bank-based ministry of health, said Hamas' complaints were
politically motivated. Hospitals in the West Bank were also
suffering from drug shortages, he said.
"Shortages in Gaza may happen, just like there are shortages in the
north counties (West Bank), because there are debts the health
ministry is trying to pay," he added.
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The Israeli government body that supervises civil activities in the
Palestinian territories, the Coordination and Liaison Administration
(CLA), said any holdup in patient transfers from Gaza was an
internal Palestinian affair.
"We would like to emphasize that in cases in which the Palestinian
Authority sends requests, especially those defined as urgent, the
Gaza CLA coordinates the crossing of patients immediately during
every hour of the day in order to save lives," it said in a written
response to Reuters.
It said nearly 16,000 patients and escorts have been allowed to
leave for hospitals in Israel and the West Bank so far in 2017,
including 6,400 in the past three months.
It also said it reduced power supplies to Gaza on a request from the
Palestinian Authority.
Cystic fibrosis causes the lungs and digestive system to become
clogged with thick, sticky mucus. Over many years, the lungs and
pancreas may eventually stop functioning.
Gaza health officials say 320 people in the enclave have the
disorder. Although it can be managed for years with regular visits
to hospital, some sufferers in Gaza are now being admitted to
hospital because of their worsening condition and because drugs
there are cheaper and in some cases, free.
Police officer Ashraf Shanty and his wife Jihan, who have two
children with cystic fibrosis, started a charity in 2008 to help
patients get medication and medical checks.
Dozens of bags of medicines sit on a table next to breathing
equipment in a room that Jihan Shanty, a medical laboratory
technician, has turned into a mini-clinic in their home.
One of the medicines in short supply is Creon. Made by the U.S.
drugmaker AbbVie, it is used to treat a common condition in cystic
fibrosis in which the sticky mucus prevents enzymes getting from the
pancreas to the small intestine, where they would normally help
break down food.
"I have two sons suffering from the disease but I see myself as the
father of 320 cystic fibrosis patients, whom I must help," Ashraf
Shanty said.
"Without Creon, the enzyme of life, they may die," he said.
(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; Editing by Jeffrey
Heller in Jerusalem and Sonya Hepinstall)
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