Gaza parents struggle to join kids for treatment in Israel
Posted Jun 12, 2019 02:07:53 AM.
JERUSALEM — The death of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl has drawn attention to Israel’s vastly complex system for issuing travel permits to Gaza medical patients and their families.
The system has Israeli and Palestinian authorities blaming each other for its shortfalls, while inflicting a heavy toll on Gaza’s sick children and their parents.
When Aisha a-Lulu came out of brain surgery in a strange Jerusalem hospital room, she called out for her mother and father. She repeated the cry over and over, but her parents never came.
Instead of a family member, Israeli authorities had approved a stranger to escort Aisha from the blockaded Gaza Strip to the east Jerusalem hospital. As her condition deteriorated, the child was returned to Gaza unconscious. One week later, she was dead.
Isabel Debre And Fares Akram, The Associated Press
