After Majdal Shams Incident, Netanyahu Obstructs Gaza Children’s Trip to the Emirates

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation’s Makan website reported that the sick children were supposed to leave today, Monday, via the Ramon base to the Emirates, but Netanyahu ordered the flight to be postponed after 12 children were killed and about 40 others were injured on Saturday when a rocket fell on a football field in the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and other human rights organizations had filed a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court last June, demanding that patients and wounded people facing life-threatening conditions be allowed to leave the Strip in order to receive the necessary treatment.

Israel initially agreed to facilitate the medical evacuation of hundreds of sick and wounded children from Gaza for treatment in the UAE.

Netanyahu’s office said that “the prime minister gave a general directive as early as July 22 to transfer sick children from Gaza to a third country. As stated in the state’s response to the High Court, the Defense Ministry is in charge of the departure dates, the number of sick children leaving, and the countries to which the children from Gaza will be sent.”

Physicians for Human Rights described Netanyahu’s latest decision as “a cruel game by the Israeli government with the lives of children.”

Physicians for Human Rights pointed out that Israel had previously delayed or cancelled the implementation of commitments of this type in previous experiments, while informed sources spoke of the possibility of a plane carrying 250 patients and wounded people taking off from the Strip to the Emirates during the current week.

The Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir Al-Barsh, confirmed that those who need treatment are at least 100 times this number, noting that there are 25,000 referrals required to travel abroad. He added that the number of patients and wounded who have left the Strip since the beginning of the war has reached only 5,000.

Source: Israeli and Palestinian media