The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) sends an urgent appeal to the international community and United Nations specialized agencies, particularly the World Health Organization (WHO), to exert pressure on the Israeli occupying authorities to allow in blood units for Thalassemia patients in besieged northern Gaza Strip
This appeal comes after several pleas from patients not being able to receive blood transfusions as the northern Gaza Strip residents can no longer donate blood due to acute levels of malnutrition resulting from the Israeli violations and practices calculated to bring about destruction to the people of the Gaza Strip, in whole or in part, during the ongoing Israeli genocidal campaign.
PCHR expresses grave concern for the lives of 61 Thalassemia patients, including 35 females, in Gaza and northern Gaza Hospitals. These patients face urgent challenges of meeting the blood transfusion requirements for their condition given the catastrophic famine spread among the residents that is classified in Phase 5 of the integrated food security phase classification.1
PCHR endorses these patients’ appeals to bring in the necessary fresh blood units obtained from volunteer donors abroad as up to this moment, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) have not allowed them in, leaving the Gaza and northern Gaza Patients vulnerable to life-threatening health complications alongside the collapse of the healthcare system and its inability to meet the needs of adequate healthcare for all patients.
Ibrahim ‘Abdullah, Coordinator of the Friends of Thalassemia Patients Association in Gaza and Northern Gaza, said to PCHR’s researcher,2 “we, as patients, have sent appeals to all international health organizations and medical relief agencies to work on entry of blood units and Thalassemia medicines in addition to the filters used to ensure safe blood transfusions across the besieged Gaza City and Northern Gaza. However, all these appeals have gone in vain.”
According to Dr. Hani ‘Ayyash, Hematologist,3 Thalassemia patients’ conditions are at brink of a dangerous abyss as they totally depend on blood transfusions and chronic medications to survive. Therefore, with inoperative blood banks across the besieged northern Gaza Strip, limited resources and shortage of blood units, the lives of thousands of patients and wounded are at imminent risk. Dr. Ayyash added that most Thalassemia patients have families whose members suffer from the same disease so they cannot donate blood. Moreover, the only available source of blood now is from doners within the besieged northern Gaza Strip; however, they suffer from hunger and acute levels of malnutrition and are physically weak, making them unable to donate blood units for those in need, particularly Thalassemia patients who need special criteria and blood filters to spare them many health complications.
Previously, some health and medical relief organizations managed to transfer only a limited number of blood units from donors outside the Gaza Strip into Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. However, none of these organizations could meet the needs of blood units for the patients in Gaza City and northern Gaza due to Israel’s restrictions and tightened siege on these areas.4
Thirty-three-old patient Nidaa Mohammed Marzouk Salman, from Jabalia Refugee Camp, said that she endured a harrowing ordeal during the collapse and shutdown of all hospitals in Gaza City and its north at the end of December 2023. She almost died since she could not obtain blood units after her hemoglobin level dropped to 5. She stated to PCHR’s researcher that:5
“I suffered a lot for not taking my medicine and not being able to receive blood units for a long while, alongside dozens of other Thalassemia patients remaining in northern Gaza. We, thalassemia patients, require blood units every two or three weeks, depending on the condition of each patient. However, during the current war and siege, which have pushed all Gaza residents into high levels of famine, we could no longer obtain blood units due to the unsuitable blood donations from individuals suffering anemia and malnutrition. This situation often forces us to beg for blood units, sometimes after receiving units from the blood bank in extreme emergencies, with the condition that we must replace them by bringing donors, which is often impossible. The requests from hospital’s blood banks are justified due to the need for blood for other patients and the wounded in emergency departments, given the limited number of donors and blood units during these dire circumstances. Therefore, it is necessary to provide blood units from outside Gaza Strip as all patients, especially those suffering from genetic blood disorders, are in dire need of them.”
Throughout the Israeli genocidal campaign against Gaza Strip, the suffering of the 294 thalassemia patients, including 100 children, has significantly worsened, particularly for those remaining in the besieged areas of northern Gaza, facing a grim reality where hunger and illness converge.
In previous reports and press releases,6 PCHR documented the loss of 26 thalassemia patients during the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since 07 October 2023. Among them, 20 patients lost their lives due to the deterioration of their health because of the Israeli strangulating siege on Gaza City and its north, while 6 were killed when their homes were bombed. Approximately 40 thalassemia patients are currently awaiting urgent travel for treatment outside Gaza, yet the Rafah crossing remains closed following the Israeli control on 7 May 2024.
In light of the above, IOF continue to weaponize starvation and blocking the entry of medicines and medical supplies, disregarding the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s rulings. They persistently implement a collective punishment policy against 2.3 million Palestinians and violate international and humanitarian laws by banning the entry of adequate quantities of medicines and food supplies, in clear violation of Articles (55) and (56 ) of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
PCHR believes that Israel’s practices amount to crimes under Article (3) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Gaza population, including patients, face an escalating danger affecting all aspects of their lives and human dignity due to the tightening siege, the complete destruction of the healthcare infrastructure, the closure of the only crossing for individual movement, and the coercive measures preventing essential medical aid from reaching the besieged population under inhumane conditions, which can plausibly be measures intended to destroy in part a specific group and thereby fall under the crime of genocide.
Therefore, PCHR:
especially those with genetic and blood disorders, by integrating their drugs within lists of the essential drugs allowed entry into the Gaza Strip, especially healthcare centers in Gaza City and northern Gaza
Trial Version
