Human rights organizations follow up with utmost concern the deteriorating health conditions in the Gaza Strip, including the catastrophic impacts resulting from the cleaning workers’ strike in all governmental hospitals and healthcare facilities. The organizations call upon all parties supervising these services to stop pushing them into politics, as it resulted in disastrous impacts on the level of medical services in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, human rights organizations call upon the Ministry of Health in Ramallah and the Ministry’s officials in Gaza to prioritize the interest of people, including their right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
Healthcare facilities in the Gaza Strip witness continuing deterioration of health services, including first, secondary and third levels of healthcare, due to the Israeli authorities’ policies represented by the large-scale destruction of the medical services’ infrastructure in the Gaza Strip during the latest Israeli offensive. Moreover, the Israeli-imposed closure on the Gaza Strip hinders the continuing entry of medical needs, including medical consignments and supplies, and obstructs the movement of patients from the Gaza Strip to hospitals in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, or in Israel. The Palestinian political split has serious impacts on medical services in the Gaza Strip, including the strike of local cleaning companies contracting with the Ministry of Health starting on Thursday morning, 04 December 2014, which will cause an environmental disaster inside healthcare facilities.
According to observations of human rights organizations, the Ministry of Health in Gaza received an official notice from cleaning companies that provide services to hospitals and healthcare facilities. The notice stated that those companies intended to completely stop their services starting on Wednesday, 03 December 2014, until further notice because they had not received their financial dues for six months. As a result, the Ministry decided to close outpatient clinics on Thursday, 04 December 2014, and delay 180 non-urgent operations as garbage piles are growing. Garbage is piling up in 13 governmental hospitals, in which about 750 cleaning workers recruited by private cleaning companies contracting with the Ministry for years work, because of the decision taken by those companies to stop their services at hospitals and healthcare centers. Cleaning workers at Nasser and the European Gaza hospitals started their labor strike yesterday, 03 December 2014, because they have not received their financial dues. As a result, garbage has piled up throughout the two hospitals and their facilities before the Ministry of Health in Gaza declared stopping services of outpatient clinics. According to available information, 65 workers at Nasser Hospital and 70 others at the European Gaza Hospital, who are recruited by private cleaning companies, work under “private contracts” and they have not received their salaries since the establishment of the national unity government in June 2014.
During their visit to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, directors of human rights organizations have seen how medical wastes were piled up in vital sections in the hospital. They have also noticed contamination in all sections, including operation rooms and intensive care units where health services have been minimized. The directors have been deeply shocked by the deteriorating conditions and health services. They have also stressed that Palestinians deserve better services and that all parties are responsible for this grave, unprecedented and inhumane deterioration.
Human rights organizations are appalled by the deteriorating economic and social conditions in the Gaza Strip while the international community remains silent, and the international silence towards the collective punishment policy seems to have been turned into a consensus over the institutionalization of the Israeli-imposed closure, which constitutes a war crime that has been ongoing since June 2007. The human rights organizations stress that continuity of internal political split and obstruction of reconciliation add to the disastrous impacts of the economic, social and humanitarian conditions and the already deteriorated human rights situation in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, they hold all parties responsible for the ongoing deterioration of the situation and call upon them to take all the necessary and practical steps to put an end to the split, which has doubled the suffering of civilians.
The undersigned human rights organizations believe that all parties responsible for the deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip, which deserves a better situation. Therefore, they call upon all parties to take immediate and practical measures to settle all outstanding issues of the political split that has aggravated the civilians’ suffering. They also urge all segments of the society to abandon their disputes, pay attention to the supreme national interest and put the interests and rights of civilians first because if the situation continues as such, a serious humanitarian will be imminent.
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Al Dhameer Association for Human Rights
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
