Gaza's cancer patients suffer due to siege, division
The political division between Gaza and Ramallah, in addition to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade, is leaving cancer patients in the Gaza Strip without adequate medical care.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Nasser al-Sadek was standing, about four months ago, in his electric appliances store in the town of Jabaliya in the north of the Gaza Strip, when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He visited a doctor at the hospital who gave him medication for inflammation, but the pain persisted. He returned to the doctor, who conducted tests to reveal the presence of tumors inside his lungs, which, analysis proved, were cancerous.
Doctors at the Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip decided to transfer Sadek, 44, to an Israeli hospital to complete the required tests and receive chemotherapy, because Shifa lacked the facilities to diagnose and treat the disease. After receiving an appointment from the Israeli hospital, as per the relevant procedures, he submitted an application to the Civil Affairs Committee for permission to enter Israel.
Israeli security authorities refused, on multiple occasions, to issue Sadek a permit. He waited 23 days before he was allowed to cross the border and go to the hospital, where he learned that the cancerous tumors had spread to his brain. He remained in an Israeli hospital for a month, during which his medical condition was diagnosed and he was given initial treatment, subsequently returning to the Gaza Strip.
Sadek’s doctors again determined that he needed radiation therapy, which is unavailable in Gaza hospitals. His wife set about to obtain the necessary paperwork and schedule an appointment for him at a Palestinian hospital in Jerusalem, or even an Israeli one. Another 23 days passed until the appointment was scheduled, by which time the cancer had spread to parts of his liver.
