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Gaza's health system is close to collapse: Please urge the Government to act
I am writing to express my serious concern about the impending humanitarian collapse in Gaza. Amid Gaza’s chronic shortages and with fuel supplies for back-up generators dwindling, three hospitals and 16 clinics were forced to reduce to basic and emergency services in February, risking the lives and wellbeing of patients. UN OCHA has warned that Gaza is “on the verge of disaster” with emergency fuel for essential health, water and sanitation services set to run out in weeks. They have estimated that US$6.5 million is needed to provide 7.7 million litres of emergency fuel to prevent critical services from collapsing. Though the UAE and Qatar have pledged funds for fuel, this will only be a temporary stopgap for a chronic problem. Meanwhile, 40% of essential medicines have entirely run out, and patients face unprecedented barriers to exiting Gaza for treatment in the West Bank, including hospitals in East Jerusalem, or abroad. Israel approved just 54% of patient exit permits in 2017, the lowest rate since records began, and far below the 92% approval rate in 2012. 54 people died while awaiting permits last year, many of them cancer patients. Health services are further threatened by the US’ cut to its funding for UNRWA, which provides primary healthcare to the two-thirds of Gaza’s residents who are refugees. Israel’s decade-long closure of Gaza has been termed “a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law” by the International Committee of the Red Cross. It is time for the UK to play its part to finally bring it to an end. The UK Government must play its part in reversing Gaza’s entirely man-made collapse. I ask you to contact Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and DfID Secretary Penny Mordaunt to urge their departments to take the following action to save lives in Gaza: 1) Respond to UN OCHA’s urgent call for international funding for fuel to maintain critical health, water and sanitation services; 2) Join other countries in increasing support for UNRWA in light of serious threats to its health and education programmes in Gaza and across the region; 3) Use all diplomatic measures to urge Israel to reverse increasing restrictions on the freedom of movement of patients in Gaza to healthcare elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory or abroad; and 4) Use all bilateral and multilateral avenues to help bring Israel’s illegal closure and blockade of Gaza to an end, independently of any wider regional peace initiative. I also urge you to pursue this issue in Parliament. I hope you will move forward on this matter swiftly and I look forward to hearing back from you.
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