The Palestinian Authority denied hundreds of Gazans permission to receive critical medical treatments over the past two months, Haaretz reported Sunday.

In addition to reducing Gaza’s power supply, the PA delayed or refused to sign vouchers allowing sick Gazans to receive medical attention in Israel, the West Bank, or Jordan.

More than 90% of the 1,600 vouchers that were submitted for patients with heart disease and cancer, and children with illnesses that can’t be treated in Gaza, have been not been authorized. Of the roughly 120 permits submitted daily to the PA, only about ten get approved, Haaretz reported.

Last year, the PA’s health ministry approved over 2,000 requests monthly. In April, the number of approvals dropped below 2,000 and in May it was reduced to just a few dozen.

These accounts were backed up with data received by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I).

One activist said, “In the media everyone’s focused on the electricity but the story with the approvals for medical treatment is undoubtedly of concern to many people, and the problem is that no one is providing answers.”

Aisha Majdalawi, a 14-year-old resident of Gaza, has been undergoing treatments at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv for 10 years for a vascular condition that blocks the blood flow to her spleen and kidneys. While the PA previously covered her treatment, she missed a session last month when the PA refused to issue a payment.

Aisha’s treatment was rescheduled for July 31, but she has not yet received the voucher.

“My daughter’s condition is deteriorating to a life-threatening state,” Aisha’s father said. “I go every day to the Health Ministry in Gaza in an effort to get the referral; I’ve tried pulling strings in Ramallah and I don’t know what else to do to get my daughter to her treatment in Israel.”

Five volunteer physicians with PHR-I were recently in Gaza to help with surgeries and bring almost $85,000 worth of medical supplies to the Hamas-ruled enclave. The doctors reported that Gaza is facing a shortage of anesthetic drug Fentanyl because the PA refuses to transfer it. The shortage could put a stop to all planned surgeries in Gaza.

In 2015, the Associated Press reported that thousands of Gazans are treated in Israeli hospitals annually.

In 2014, the 13-year-old daughter of current Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital following complications from an earlier procedure. Previously, Haniyeh’s mother-in-law was treated for cancer in an Israeli hospital. In 2013, a critically-ill granddaughter of Haniyeh was admitted to an Israeli hospital, but doctors were unable to save her.

Israeli doctors have also treated Yahya Sinwar, the newly-selected leader of Hamas in Gaza. Sinwar was imprisoned in Israel over multiple murder convictions when he experienced severe head pain. He was taken to an Israeli hospital, where he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given emergency surgery. A prison guard said Sinwar expressed gratitude at the time for the quick and professional medical care he received. After assuming his senior position in Hamas, Sinwar vowed to fight “for the liberation of all of Palestine.”

[Photo: Rambam HCC / YouTube ]