A 25-year-old Atia Shenran from the Gaza Strip is requesting to be granted a permit to travel to the Palestinian Authority in order to finally meet his three-year-old son Medhat and help his wife Malak—a cancer patient, but he is being refused by the Israeli Authorities time and time again.

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The Palestinian resident used to live in the city of A-Ram near Ramallah, but he violated his permit and was consequently deported back to the strip in 2015 before the birth of his son. Atia claims to have only seen his child in videos.

Atia Shenran's son

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Atia and Malak Shenran married in May 2014 and lived together in A-Ram. To earn a living he used to work without a permit in the Triangle area, but in April 2015, while his wife was pregnant, he was arrested and deported to Gaza.

Atia Shenran

Atia told about his anguish of not being able to reunite with the loved ones in a Ynet interview.

"I want to hug my son and they won’t let me. Every day my son asks me, 'Dad, when will you come home? I want to kiss you and play with you.' When I hear that I start to cry. I worked in Israel without a permit, but it was only to support the family. I never hurt anyone. I am an honest man,” Atia vented.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said in response that Atia does not meet the required criteria in order to receive the needed permit.

"As a resident of the Gaza Strip, his request does not meet the existing criteria and policy. In addition, this resident has previously violated the permits granted to him and was arrested for a prolonged illegal stay in Israel. The entry of Palestinian from the Gaza Strip into Israel is not a vested right and is only permitted in accordance with the policy and consequent security checks,"

Atia Shenran's son

Atia’s wife Malak said that coping with such a serious illness without her husband has been extremely hard.

"Every day we’re waiting for some good news, but the days go by and the suffering continues. Recently I found out that I have a life-threatening illness. I want my husband to come back and give us a hug before anything happens to me. I do not want to die before seeing my son on his father’s lap," she exclaimed.

MK Yousef Jabareen, who is trying to help the family, labeled the Shenran’s family situation as a humanitarian crisis.

"This is a first-class humanitarian issue. It’s completely insensitive to deny his request. You need to be emotionally apathetic in order not to take into account the difficult family situation and continue to prevent a father from seeing his family. This is another example of the continued Israeli control over the lives of the Palestinian people. Israel has never actually left Gaza," Jabareen claimed.