Ref: 02/2017 

A delegation from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) held a number of meetings in Ramallah and Jaffa Cities as part of PCHR’s efforts to promote the right to health in the Gaza Strip in addition to the health services for the patients in Gaza. The delegation included lawyer Eyad ‘Alami, PCHR’s Deputy Director for Legal Affairs, Mohammed Bseiso and Mohammed ‘Alami, lawyers at PCHR’s Legal Unit. The delegation held a series of meetings with a number of ministries and private bodies in order to improve the services offered to Gaza Strip residents and enhance the mututal collaboration between PCHR and these bodies.

On 19 January 2017, the delegation held a meeting with Amira al-Hindi, General-Director of the Treatment Abroad Department in the Health Ministry, in her office in the Ministry in Ramallah. They discussed a issues related to offering the medical treatment to Gaza patients, including: referrals of patients to hospitals in the West Bank, Israel and abroad, consequences of decreasing the number of patients refferred to to the Israeli hospitals and ways to promote mutual cooperation between the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, Treatment Abroad Department in Gaza and PCHR to ensure that residents of Gaza enjoy their right to receive medical care.

PCHR’s delegation also met with the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) in PHR’s head office in Jaffa City.  The meeting addressed the ways of joint corporation to serve the Gaza Strip patients referred for medical treatment abroad. In a second meeting with Ichilov Hospital, PCHR’s delegation tackled the obstacles of receiving patients and following their treatment in hospitals. The meeting also talked about how to overcome the obstacles to patients and facilitate their treatment journey.

PCHR’s delegation also held a series of meetings with a number of ministries and private bodies to improve the services offered to the Gaza Strip residents and enhance the mutual cooperation between PCHR and those ministries.  The meetings included Huda Salamah, Director of the Gaza Passports Department in the Ramallah Ministry of Interior; Dr. ‘Abdulla al-Najjar, Assistant Director of the Southern Governorates in the Presidential Office; Sha’awan Jabarin, Director of al-Haq and Dr. ‘Emad Dweik, Director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR). The meeting with Dweik was held in presence of lawyer Salamah Bseiso, Member of ICHR’s Board of Commissioners and Hussein Shabanah, President of the Palestinian Bar Association.

It should be mentioned that offering legal aid to the Gaza Strip patients is part of PCHR’s agenda. To make it easier for patients, whose treatment is not available in Gaza Hospitals, PCHR contacts with the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah; Treatment Department Abroad in Gaza and Israeli side to guarantee quick referral of patients and enable them to arrive at hospitals on time.