The World Health Organization today deplored the barriers to Palestinian access to medical care, particularly criticizing Israeli-imposed restrictions and “attacks” on health facilities, health personnel or patients.

In a report examining the health situation in the Palestinian Territories from 2019 to 2021, the WHO describes “significant barriers to the right to health”, the “maintenance” of which requires the implementation of UN resolutions.

“Palestinian health is affected by structural factors of health inequalities, such as the continued occupation (by Israel), political divisions, territorial fragmentation, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, physical barriers to movement and the implementation of a permit regime” , the WHO emphasizes

The West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. Gaza has been under Israeli blockade since the Islamist movement Hamas took control of the territory in 2007.

The WHO counted 563 attacks on the Palestinian health system between 2019 and 2021, as a result of artillery fire or the use of violence during protests. According to his report, 297 health professionals were injured in Gaza and 166 in the West Bank, while another was killed near Bethlehem in March 2019.

The UN organization also underlines that the meager Palestinian budget allocated to health services is explained by a limited economic development in the Palestinian Territories, itself linked to the “lack of control over natural resources, a high rate of unemployment and the withholding of a part of customs duties that Israel owes to the Palestinian Authority”.

The WHO is finally calling for the entry of medicines and medical supplies into Gaza to be facilitated.

Israel has drawn up a comprehensive list of products that cannot be imported into Palestinian territory due to fears that they may be used for military purposes by armed groups there, causing shortages of certain equipment in hospitals.

About 2.3 million Palestinians live in Gaza and nearly three million in the West Bank.