Nei primi mesi del 2017, la donna ha preso appuntamento per la terapia. In seguito, ha fatto richiesta dei permssi di uscita da Gaza ma la risposta che le viene data è sempre la stessa, ovvero che la sua pratica è in fase di istruttoria. Alcune richieste sono state anche rigettate. Tutto quello che possono fare i medici di Gaza è somministrarle dei medicinali palliativi. Lo scorso dicembre la sua richiesta di permesso ha ricevuto un ennesimo diniego. Come accade spesso, la vita di Maha e di tanti altri pazienti oncologici di Gaza è nelle mani degli ufficiali della sicurezza israeliana per i quali non vale la pena salvare vite umane.

Maha Barbakh is a 30-year-old mother of six from Gaza. Some 15 months ago, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and her gland was removed in a hospital in Gaza. An essential element in the post-surgery treatment is radioactive iodine therapy. Since it is unavailable anywhere in the Gaza Strip, her physicians referred her to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

In early 2017, Barbakh made her scheduled appointments. Ever since then, however, every application she made for a travel permit received the standard reply: “Your application is under review”. Eventually, some of the applications were even completely denied. Back in Gaza, all her physicians could do was relieve her suffering with complementary medicines and vitamins, to enable her to function somehow in her daily life. Last December, her application was rejected again. She is now waiting for a new hospital appointment with which to apply once again for a permit to travel to the Tel Aviv hospital. Again, as always, the power to deny her the treatment she urgently needs is in the hands of the Israeli security officials. For them, Barbakh’s life, and that of so many other women cancer patients in Gaza, is a life not worth saving.

Medici per i Diritti Umani (MEDU) e Physicians for Human Rights – Israele, organizzazioni partner, fanno parte dell’International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations (IFHHRO) e collaborano dal 2009 in progetti sanitari nei Territori occupati palestinesi insieme all’organizzazione palestinese Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS).