Two infants from the Gaza Strip are reported dead after the Palestinian Authority refused to grant their parents’ permission to seek medical treatment in Israel, Israeli mediahas reported.
Dr. Allam Abu Hamda of Shifa Hospital called the deaths -which are the result of an ongoing feud between the Ramallah-based PA and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip- “a crime according to all the parameters” and said that “the international community and human rights organizations must intervene immediately to stop this behavior.”
The PA, which coordinates with Israel in arranging medical care in Israeli hospitals for sick Palestinians, has not answered up to 90 percent of such requests over the last two months, according to Physicians for Human Rights.
The lack of movement on medical requests comes as PA President Mahmoud Abbas steps up pressure on his Islamist rivals in Gaza in an escalating feud. Abbas recently announced that he would not continue paying Israel for Gaza’s electricity and asked that Jerusalem cut the amount of power it supplies to the coastal enclave. Israel acceded to this request. Residents of Gaza currently only have several hours of electricity a day.
And while Abbas has in general refused to stop paying salaries to imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, he has cut off the spigot when it comes to members of Hamas.
Hamas is heavily dependent on Qatar for financial support but its patron is currently engaged in a tense standoff with a coalition of Arab states lead by Saudi Arabia, making the future for the terrorist group unclear.