Decades of violence and recent border closures in the Palestinian territories have resulted in major health problems, including malnutrition, stunted growth in children and high infant mortality rates, international experts said.
The research, published yesterday in a special issue of the medical journal The Lancet, was accompanied by an editorial calling for a Middle East peace agreement as a means to improve the health of the Palestinians.
“The health situation in the occupied Palestinian territory shows the urgency of finding a political solution,” former US president Jimmy Carter wrote in the editorial.
PHOTO: AP
In an introduction, Lancet editor Richard Horton said “health offers a new way into a new dialogue for peace and justice.”
Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli government, called the Lancet report one-sided.
“This is propaganda in the guise of a medical report,” he said.
Experts said malnutrition was on the rise in the Gaza Strip, leading to an increase in the rate of stunted growth in children from about 8 percent in 1996 to 13 percent in 2006. In some parts of Gaza, malnutrition is so severe that nearly 30 percent of children have stunted growth.
In the five papers, researchers found serious disparities between the health of Palestinians and other people in the Middle East.
In Gaza, experts estimated there were about 27 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2006.
In contrast, there were about four deaths per 1,000 live births in Israel, a figure comparable to most Western countries.
The research also showed that after decades of improvement, infant mortality rates in Gaza and the West Bank began to plateau in the 1990s. Between 1990 and 2005, the territories had the smallest reduction in death rates in children under 5, a 2 percent drop.
By comparison, death rates in children under 5 in Egypt dropped by 70 percent, and by nearly 50 percent in Iraq.
Regev, the Israeli government spokesman, said the death rates in Gaza were not because of Israel.
“How much of this is because of Hamas’ regime?” he asked, referring to the area’s Islamic militant rulers. “Instead of investing in public health, they’ve invested in violence and conflict.”
Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007 from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who now governs the West Bank.
Israel closed Gaza’s borders after the Hamas takeover, letting in limited amounts of aid and other goods.
Regev said Israel’s influence in the West Bank and Gaza had been beneficial, and that many Palestinians have been treated in Israeli hospitals.
He said that the report also noted the rise of chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer typically seen in more affluent populations. That, Regev said, showed the health of Palestinians was improving.
Experts working in the region said they were not surprised by The Lancet’s findings.
Cecile Barbou of Medecins Sans Frontieres, medical coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said the three-week Israeli offensive against Hamas that ended on Jan. 18 worsened stress levels in Palestinians. She cited data showing that 1,000 more women than usual delivered babies in January and attributed that to women being stressed by the fighting and delivering prematurely.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
RSS