It doesn’t seem so long since we saw a plethora of news coverage describing a humanitarian crisis as Gaza’s medical supplies dwindled. Israeli media reports now make us wonder how serious the crisis really is. YNet News writes:
Livni told Welch that Israel sought to transfer to the Palestinian Authority medications worth NIS 50 million (about USD 11 million), but the Palestinians asked that the sum be delivered in cash from their tax money.
Israeli defense officials said that “the Palestinians’ stance reveals that there is no real health crisis in the PA and that they are trying to use the money for other needs.”The affair was exposed by Channel 10. According to the report, the World Health Organization (WHO) failed to convince the Palestinians to receive the medications from Israel….
WHO representatives recently got back to Israel, saying that the Palestinians were not interested in receiving the medications. According to the representatives, the Palestinians are interested in cash for their own needs.
Considering that Health Minister Dr. Basem Naim recently slammed WHO for failing to denounce “Israeli practices in the Palestinian territories,” we have to wonder: Is Hamas risking the health of the Palestinians for political gain, or is the medical situation perhaps not as dire we’ve been lead to believe?
