Posted on 05/16/2006 6:51:00 PM PDT by blam
US restores aid to Palestinian hospitals
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
(Filed: 17/05/2006)
America has reversed its ban on delivering medical supplies to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, which has caused severe shortages in public hospitals.
The State Department was forced into a policy U-turn after weeks of adverse publicity, with Palestinian hospitals forced to cut back on dialysis due to shortages of equipment and supplies.
The Daily Telegraph was the first to report that America had suspended its multi-million-pound supply programme to Palestinian public hospitals three months ago. Four kidney dialysis patients were reported to have died in Gaza because of a shortage of medical supplies.
The first US consignment of medical supplies will be shown off at a media event today in the West Bank. Dialysis equipment, such as intravenous tubing and blood solutions, make up the bulk of a £146,000 emergency shipment.
It will be the first consignment since the last week of January, after Hamas won the Palestinian elections but before it took control of the Palestinian Authority.
But the aid programme has been only partly restored and Liz Sime, a director of Care International, the group that delivers supplies, called for a full return of the programme.
"This shipment is being described at this time as exceptional but we have hopes the programme will be fully restored soon,'' she said.
"A one-off shipment is hugely inefficient. We need to re-establish a steady flow to avoid unnecessary duplications and suffering.''
America had argued that because it regarded Hamas as a terrorist organisation any US official caught helping a Palestinian government department would be committing a terrorist offence.
Washington's authorisation of contacts with health officials for today's shipment could pave the way for links with other officials, perhaps in the education ministry.
So much for a war on terrorism..
How is this money getting to the hospital? Is it being routed through the Palestinian Authority? If so, from what I have read it could wind up anywhere.
As far as I know, that's how it's distributed. I doubt any such funds will be used for medical care.
We gotta keep those terrorists healthy...
It's pitiful tho...A few more weeks and the Palis may have run Hamas right out of power...
Priorities, priorities
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