Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel's secret police pressuring ill Palestinians to spy
A human rights group accused Israeli security agents on Monday of refusing entry to dozens of Palestinians from Gaza seeking medical treatment unless they agreed to act as informants.
- Reuters
- Published: 09:12 August 4, 2008
- A Palestinian dialysis patient undergoes treatment at a hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Monday. Israeli security agents have made entry for dozens of Palestinians from Gaza seeking medical treatment contingent on their agreement to act as informants, a human rights report said.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Occupied Jerusalem: A human rights group accused Israeli security agents on Monday of refusing entry to dozens of Palestinians from Gaza seeking medical treatment unless they agreed to act as informants.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel documented cases of 32 Palestinians, some with terminal illnesses, who said they were denied entry into Israel after refusing demands by agents at the border to inform on the activities of Gaza fighters.
"They are using psychological and physical torture in order to win over patients and get information," said Salah Al Haj Yehya, a co-founder of the human rights group.
"It is forbidden to interrogate sick people for military purposes," he added, citing the Geneva Conventions.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, which was founded in 1988, comprises more than 1,000 Israelis, half of them healthcare workers. It seeks to promote human rights particularly with regard to health care.
Israel denied the allegations. "There is no conditioning whatsoever between receiving an entry permit to Israel for humanitarian purposes and the willingness of that individual to provide information of any sort, aside from about his medical condition," an Israeli security source said.
'Blackmail'
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza denounced what it called Israeli "blackmail" and urged the Red Cross to intervene.
The report said the number of Gazans seeking care in Israel more than doubled after Hamas seized power in Gaza last year.
But applicants for treatment in Israel were being turned away in proportionately greater numbers by security agents at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel, the report said.
It said Israel had permitted about 65 per cent of Palestinians seeking medical care to cross this year, compared with 90 per cent of those who sought treatment in January 2007.
An Israeli-led boycott of the coastal enclave since Hamas took over in June 2007 has led to a deterioration in health services. The main crossing with Egypt has been largely closed.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said some Gazans seeking treatment in Israel were questioned by security agents for hours and missed critical medical appointments.
The report said "interrogators propose to patients directly and openly to collaborate and/or provide them with information on an ongoing basis".
Once an agent "has established control over a patient, permitting medical treatment is explicitly or implicitly made contingent upon collaboration," said the report.
Ehab Al Gsain, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip, accused Israel of "exploiting" Palestinians in need of urgent care. "We warn citizens not to succumb to these temptations and to report to the authorities."
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