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Israeli Doctors Treat Gaza Patients as War Rages

July 14, 2014

“But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.  If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”  (Matthew 5:39)

Despite the current war between the Gaza Strip and Israel, Israel is continuing to welcome sick Palestinians for treatment.

Although Rambam Hospital treats hundreds of Palestinians year round, including as many as 650 children and teens, Yazid Falah, who serves as coordinator for the Palestinian patients, said that the fighting has caused some of the patients to “fear that they wouldn’t be well received.”

“We calmed them down and explained to them that there was no danger for them to be at an Israeli hospital.  Here [at Rambam] we see humans; we don’t see sides.  At the end of the day, everyone is in the same boat,” said Falah.  (i24news)

Rambam Hospital is situated in Haifa, a city that Hamas is targeting with long-range rockets.

Rambam_health_care_campus_main_building

Despite incessant missile fire from the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Rambam Hospital in Haifa continues to treat Palestinian patients.

Many of the 20 current Palestinian patients, including 8 children from Gaza, are being treated for diseases such as cancer and kidney ailments.  They are in Israel because they are not able to get adequate care where they live.  Some have been hospitalized for some time.  (JPost)
 
Falah reports that some Palestinian patients are ashamed of what the terrorists have been doing and are even afraid to return to Gaza knowing that they can receive punishment for being treated at an Israeli hospital.

Falah said the Palestinian patients face a real dilemma.

“On the one hand, they find themselves in Israel and see the consequences of Hamas’ activities, and how people are being hurt on this side of the border as well.  On the other hand, their families are in Gaza, and they fear for the lives of their loved ones,” he said.

He added that they prefer to stay in Israel and fear going back to Gaza where they may find their homes and cities in ruins.

Wallah-Gaza toddler-Rambam

Wallah Omar, a Gaza toddler who underwent emergency surgery at Israel’s Rambam Hospital for a massive tumor that was pressing on her brain, sits on her father’s lap as she talks to her Israeli doctor.  (YouTube capture)

Evacuating sick Palestinians is not the only way Israel is revealing remarkable humanity toward Palestinians.

While Hamas continues to fire hundreds of rockets daily into Israel, targeting the capital, Jerusalem, and all of its major cities, including Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel continues to allow regular shipments of goods and services to the Strip.

Hundreds of trucks are being allowed to pass daily through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.  What other country would continue to supply its enemy with food, medicine, and other basic products including fuel, during a time of war?

Tragically, while Israeli doctors are volunteering their time and talents to save the lives of Palestinian children, their leaders are deliberately putting them in harm’s way.

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas boasts that local citizens willingly offer themselves, and parents are presenting their children as shahidin (religious martyrs).

Even so, Israel is making a concerted effort to remove Palestinians from the line of fire by sending them automated phone messages and by releasing flyers that warn of an imminent attack on a terrorist target inside Gaza.

Yet, Hamas sees every life of its citizens as a useful martyr and is deliberately sending them as “human shields” into the very places Israel has warned it will attack.  (freebeacon)

In fact, on the Hamas interior ministry website is an Arabic announcement telling Gaza residents to ignore any warning messages from Israel—who they say is trying to create confusion, terrorize Gazans, and spread fear—and not to leave their homes. 

“To all the sons of our people who evacuated their homes:  Go back immediately and don’t leave your homes.  Be sure to follow instructions from the Interior Ministry,” he stated.  (YNet)

“All who hate me love death.”  (Proverbs 8:36)

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