Three Palestinian toddlers were pronounced dead in Gaza in no more than 24 hours after the Palestinian Authority (PA) chaired by Mahmoud Abbas denied them urgent treatment.
The Palestinian Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said nine-month-old Ibrahim Samir Tbeil breathed his last at the intensive care unit in al-Rentisi Hospital.
Al-Qudra warned that 3000 to 4000 babies in Gaza are in need of urgent treatment outside the besieged coastal enclave.
A few hours earlier a toddler with cardiovascular disorders was pronounced dead at al-Shifa Medical Center in Gaza after he was prevented by the PA from receiving treatment outside Gaza. The baby was identified as Baraa Ghaban.
Sometime earlier al-Qudra warned that the toddler was on the verge of death due to a severe heart disease. He was pronounced dead three hours later.
On Monday afternoon a third baby—Mus’ab Bilal al-Areir— died in the coastal enclave.
Al-Qudra and human rights activists held the PA and the Israeli occupation accountable for the death of the three Gazan toddlers warning that more deaths might be recorded in the next few hours if urgent steps are not taken.
Head of the nursery department at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza Abu Hamda appealed to all human rights organizations and medical institutions to take urgent action and work on saving Gaza’s newborns before it is too late.
Abu Hamda said other babies have been diagnosed with deadly symptoms and risk to die at any possible moment if they do not receive urgent treatment somewhere outside of Gaza’s underequipped hospitals.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry the reluctance maintained by the PA claimed the lives of nine patients among whom three babies since the start of 2017.
