The Jewish German philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote that “the very substance of violent action is ruled by the question of means and ends, whose chief characteristic, if applied to human affairs, has always been that the end is in danger of being overwhelmed by the means, which it both justifies and needs.”

Concerning the Gaza strip situation, there are a lot of means which overwhelms ends. One of these is the quasi total closure of Gaza, since June 2007 by the Israeli authorities for security reasons. The closure is causing physical, psychological and economic isolation of Gaza citizens. “An affront to the dignity of the people” as it was recently defined by the UN Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. In this publication we would like to focus public attention on the deterioration of access for health patients who need to be referred outside of the Gaza Strip to receive the appropriate medical treatment.

The publication contains the description of five stories of people who recently died while waiting for a permit to allow them to have access to a hospital outside of Gaza. These are only five of many more cases of common people that during the last months have had the misfortune of becoming severely ill in the Gaza strip.

The denial and delay of permits released by the Israeli authorities for patients who have to leave Gaza for health reasons increased during 20073 causing further problems, in addition to the usual access difficulties that have been affecting the Palestinian population, particularly during the last eight years. In fact the right to health — availability, accessibility and quality of health facilities, services and goods — appears to be optional for the Palestinian population:

To download the full report please click below: