Just the Facts: Medical Rights

  • In Palestine 1.9 million people have very limited access to healthcare, including 1.3 million refugees.
  • Life expectancy in Palestine is 73.1 years (compared to 82.4 in France).
  • Palestine ranks 114th out of 188 in the Human Development Index.
  • In 2018, 39% of permits seeking medical aid outside of Gaza were denied or delayed by Israel.
  • 54 patients died in Gaza waiting for a permit in 2017.
  • In Gaza, over 50% of essential medicines are unavailable.
  • Gaza also lacks ambulances and properly equipped health and emergency centres.
  • The number of exit permits granted to patients requiring urgent treatment outside Gaza has kept decreasing, falling from 76.6% in 2015 to 44% in 2017.
  • 84% of the 1,462 recorded journeys by ambulances requiring entry to Jerusalem from other parts of the West Bank each year had to transfer patients to another ambulance at checkpoints, diverting health resources and delaying transit.
  • Out of over 7,000 live ammunition gunshot wounds sustained during the Great Return March, 88% were devastating, disabling limb injuries.
  • For patients injured during the GRM the approval rate for permits to seek medical treatment outside Gaza was shockingly low, at 18%.

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