The Gaza Strip- My name is Saleem

I was only 16 when I found out I had cancer, so you could say I grew up in the hospital. The doctors here know me better than my parents. Some of them treat me like family.

I’m 32, and if you see my body today, you wouldn’t believe there’s a person living inside it. Every day, I apply five different kinds of eye drops, four types of skin ointments, and injections. I’ve gone through a failed spinal transplant. I have burns on my skin, but my biggest problem is the pain – in the abdomen, the joints, all over. Sometimes, I’m in so much pain, and I don’t know what to do.
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I live in the Gaza Strip and have been treated at Tel Hashomer for 15 years now. The treatments I need aren’t available in the Gaza Strip, so the Palestinian Authority covers my treatment in Israel. But, to exit Gaza to go to Tel Hashomer, I need to ask for an exit permit all over again every time, and it’s indescribable torture.

The process takes about a month and includes four to five trips inside Gaza, forms, phone calls, coordination with the hospital, the Palestinian Authority and the doctors. There were long periods of time when I would be told to wait for a Shin Bet interrogation at the border crossing every time. I’d stand for hours at Erez Crossing with pain all over my body, feeling I wasn’t a human being anymore.
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Why isn’t there a simpler protocol? I want a long-term permit, so I don’t have to go through this bureaucratic hell every single time.
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Yesterday I had an appointment at the eye clinic. The next treatment is in two weeks. I’d like to be with my wife and children during this time. They give me strength to stay alive, but if I go back to Gaza now, I won’t be able to get a new permit in time, and I’ll miss my appointment. So, I am staying here, at the hospital, away from my family.
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* Update: While preparing this post, we were informed that Salim had received the permit he had been waiting for. *

Saleem is one of hundreds of patients from the Gaza Strip who are barred access to essential medical treatment due to Israel’s convoluted permit policy.