{"id":2379,"date":"2026-08-06T10:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2379"},"modified":"2026-08-06T10:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:08:14","slug":"rights-group-warns-israels-policies-are-pushing-the-west-bank-healthcare-system-to-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2379","title":{"rendered":"Rights group warns Israel\u2019s policies are pushing the West Bank healthcare system to collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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IKTABA, West Bank (AP) \u2014 For six months, 70-year-old Bassam Musleh searched desperately for a pharmacy or clinic that could fill his prescription for blood pressure and other heart medications. Public dispensaries were out of stock, he said, and he couldn\u2019t afford the private ones.<\/p>\n

Read more Ukraine strikes more oil facilities deep inside Russia, Zelenskyy says<\/a><\/p>\n

But when he arrived Tuesday at a mobile clinic in the West Bank<\/span> village of Iktaba, pulling the tattered prescription from his pocket, a local aid group finally gave him the medication he needs. <\/p>\n

Musleh, who has a pacemaker, is one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians struggling to get healthcare in the West Bank<\/span>, where a report released Thursday by Physicians for Human Rights Israel warns that Israeli policies have pushed the territory\u2019s health system to the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n

Since the war between Israel and Hamas<\/span> in Gaza began nearly three years ago, Israel has withheld billions of dollars of tax and customs revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, the government body that administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Without those funds, the PA has struggled to pay health workers, buy medications and support public hospitals, pharmacies and clinics, 75% of which have reduced operations and are functioning just once or twice a week.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Israeli military raids<\/span> and a surge in new checkpoints<\/span> are also impeding the ability of Palestinians to get adequate medical care, with life-threatening consequences. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf this continues, it is patients \u2014 not institutions \u2014 who will pay the price,\u201d said Milena Ansari, PHRI\u2019s director of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Department, who wrote the report. <\/p>\n

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Israel has withheld at least $2.5 billion in revenues from the West Bank<\/h2>\n

Because Palestinians don\u2019t control their own borders, the PA relies on Israel to collect taxes on goods that enter the West Bank through Israeli ports. But rights groups for decades have accused Israel of weaponizing the funds as a means of political pressure.<\/p>\n

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stopped sending monthly clearance revenues to the PA last year and, as of June, Israel had cumulatively withheld at least $2.5 billion from the PA since 2023, according to the International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n

Smotrich\u2019s office and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press. <\/p>\n

In an interview with the AP, Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan said that unpaid staff aren\u2019t showing up to work, creating a backlog of cases and delaying routine surgeries. Earlier this year, Palestinian doctors went on strike and some primary healthcare centers closed. <\/p>\n

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Some of the most impacted are those with cancer, kidney and heart problems, older people and those who have been displaced, health officials said. <\/p>\n

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At PHRI\u2019s mobile clinic in Iktaba, hundreds of people streamed in seeking treatment. <\/p>\n

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