‘Israeli’ court denies urgent cancer treatment for Palestinian child

• An ‘Israeli’ court rejected a petition to allow a 5-year-old boy from Gaza, currently living in the West Bank, to enter ‘Israel’ for urgent, life-saving leukemia treatment, citing a blanket policy that bars all Gaza-registered residents from entry regardless of their actual location.
• Despite physician warnings that the child is too fragile to travel abroad and needs immediate immunotherapy unavailable in Ramallah, the judge ruled his residency in the West Bank irrelevant, maintaining a strict post-2023 security policy.

The Jerusalem District Court has denied a petition to permit a five-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammad Ahmad Abu Asad, to enter ‘Israel’ for urgent cancer treatment, citing his registered address in Gaza as the basis for the decision.

The judgment, issued on Monday, upholds ‘Israel's’ stringent policy prohibiting Gaza residents from accessing medical care, even if they reside elsewhere.

Mohammad, originally from Gaza, has been living in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank since 2022, where his family relocated to seek medical care unavailable in the Gaza Strip.

Diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia, he has undergone treatments that have since proven ineffective.

His physicians have emphasized the need for immediate antibody immunotherapy followed by a bone marrow transplant, procedures not available in the West Bank or Gaza.

Tragically, Mohammad's father succumbed to the same illness three years prior, adding to the family's hardship.

The petition was filed by Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, an ‘Israeli’ human rights organization, seeking approval for Mohammad's transfer to Tel Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv, where specialists had agreed to provide the necessary care.

Medical experts, including an ‘Israeli’ physician, submitted opinions recommending local treatment due to the risks associated with transferring the child abroad, such as to Jordan, which could endanger his life given his fragile state.

Judge Ram Winograd dismissed the petition, determining that Mohammad's current residence in Ramallah was irrelevant under the government's blanket policy.

The court noted that petitioners failed to sufficiently prove that alternatives, such as treatment in a third country, were unfeasible, and refrained from intervening pending a broader High Court challenge to the policy.

This decision stems from ‘Israel's’ post-2023 policy barring all individuals registered in Gaza from entering ‘Israel’ for any purpose, including medical emergencies, regardless of their actual location or lack of security allegations against them.

Mohammad's mother described the decision as a "death sentence" for her son, expressing that she had lost her final hope amid his inability to walk and ongoing pain.