Gaza medics launch ambulance parade to protest 'Israel' cruel blockade

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Jan 2023 20:23
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"Israel" has been blocking the entry of crucial medical equipment, particularly X-ray machines.

Gaza medics launch ambulance parade to protest "Israel" cruel blockade

Gazan medics launched an ambulance parade on Monday to protest the blockade enforced by the Israeli occupying forces which restrict the imports of crucial medical equipment and is putting the lives of several Palestinian patients at risk.

For the past sixteen years, "Israel" has imposed a cruel blockade on Gaza to choke its residents and its resistance movement. It does so by prohibiting the circulation of goods and essential commodities crucial to sustaining the livelihoods of the Palestinian people.

"Preventing the entry of medical devices means the slow death of Gaza patients," read a banner spread across one of around 25 ambulances used in the border rally.

Another poster, in Arabic, Hebrew and English, warned: "medical equipment is crumbling".

Medics hold an ambulance parade in Gaza in protest of Israel's refusal to allow the entry of badly needed X-ray machines for medical care into the besieged enclave, today. pic.twitter.com/lnOq8vZujT
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 9, 2023

According to Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the health ministry, the rally followed the Israeli occupation preventing the entry of four mobile X-ray machines and other crucial medical equipment into Gazan territory.

Qudra said that the blockade is "exposing patients of oncology, heart, strokes, complex fractures and intensive care to health risks," noting that the zionist entity has also prohibited the entry of spare parts for medical machines and devices.

As baffling as it may sound, COGAT, the occupation's ministerial body that decides which items are allowed in and out of Gaza, said that X-ray machines were on its list of items that could be used for military purposes.

COGAT said that over the past year, "Israel" has "approved dozens of requests for X-ray machines shipments into the Gaza Strip, including both new machines and spare parts for existing ones."

But the realities of the blockade and the fact that medics are rallying particularly due to the prohibition of X-ray machines entering Gazan territory conclusively show that COGAT's statement is false.