JERUSALEM (AFP) — The World Health Organisation voiced alarm on Monday about the health consequences of the "intolerable" isolation of the Gaza Strip, sealed off by Israel after Hamas seized control six months ago.
The WHO, which organised a Jerusalem symposium to highlight its concern, voiced particular alarm about Israeli fuel cuts, which it said affected Gaza hospitals, and limited access to outside treatment for those seriously ill.
"There is a situation of physical and mental isolation that has become intolerable," Dr Ambrogio Manenti, head of the WHO for the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, told AFP on the sidelines of the conference.
"We as health professionals have to denounce this situation and the international community cannot tolerate it any longer," he added.
Israel closed the Gaza Strip to all but essential humanitarian supplies after radical Islamist movement Hamas -- which does not recognise the right of the Jewish state to exist -- seized armed control in mid-June.
"The situation is under control, there is no outbreak of diseases but because of the social determinants we expect problems very soon," said Manenti, who stressed there was no shortage of medication, imported without problem.
The WHO and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees urged "all parties involved to ensure that in the future all health facilities in Gaza are supplied with the appropriate amount of electricity and fuel."
Israeli aid workers and the WHO charge that Israeli restrictions on patients being allowed to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment have endangered lives since Israel declared the Hamas-run territory a "hostile entity."
The WHO says that 23 percent of requests in October for treatment in Israel were refused, compared with 17 percent in September and 10 percent in June.
"A number of people died in this process," said WHO official Mahmud Daher.
But statistics on deaths blamed on the closure vary. The Palestinian health ministry says 23 people have died in recent months, while Physicians for Human Rights-Israel puts the number at 17.
Israel's military rejects such statistics, saying only a small minority of requests are denied and that these apply only to people who pose a "security risk."
But Manenti likened the system of granting permits to a Franz "Kafka novel," with an increasing number of hoops to jump through to get a green light.
"They control how humanitarian cases are defined and entirely block the system," said Hadas Ziv, director of Physicians for Human Rights.
In September, she said cancer patient Nael al-Kurdi was considered a security risk while he was "stuck in his bed and couldn't move." He died on November 17.
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