Israel Arrests Gaza Patients From Hospital In East Jerusalem
Israel occupation force started arresting Palestinian patients from hospitals in East Jerusalem. Either the patients or their chaperons were arrested by the Israeli occupation force claiming them to be staying “illegally” at the hospital. Around 12 Palestinians were detained by the Israeli police.
Those detained were either a patient or medical chaperones for the patients in the Makassed hospital in the occupied East Jerusalem. According to statement by the Israeli police, “in a joint operation by the Jerusalem District Police and Jerusalem security guard soldiers, 12 female and male suspects residing illegally in Israel were identified and arrested”.
The Israeli police claimed that 11 of the detained were suspected of remaining in the hospital over few weeks by violating the law and the other one person was “residing in Israel illegally”.
Al Jazeera sited a 14 year old Saeb Ali al-Tanani has a tumour in his leg. Saeb was accompanied by his grandmother Suhaila. Their other family members are in Gaza. When asked about them, Saeb told Al Jazeera that “We are scared of our family. I want to go back to my home”.
On Thursday, Israeli force arrested Suhaila, claiming her to be staying in the hospital illegally. One of the attendant at Al Makassed hospital, Samira Aweina described one of the Israeli police and soldiers raids to Al Jazeera. She said “they all in came in at once, and immediately sealed off the other entrances. They arrested a group of elderly women from the emergency room with the young children they were with.
The head of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission for the Palestinian Authority, Qaddoura Fares told Al Jazeera that they are not have any information on the ones who got arrested. He said “the occupation authorities did not provide us or the Red Cross any details about the detainee from Gaza”.
The occupation authorities would usually provide the names of detained Palestinians to the Red Cross and the Red Cross would provide the information to PA.
According to the administration of Al Makassed hospital, there were 53 patients, who were from the Gaza Strip. Each of the patients were with one of their family member as their chaperon. The hospital told Al Jazeera that they were not authorised to speak to media about the incident on Thursday and refused to reveal how many Gaza patients remain in the hospital.
There are total of six Palestinian hospital in the occupied East Jerusalem. 50 percent of the patients admitted in these hospitals are from the occupied territories, as per report from Medical Aid for Palestinians.
