By Leila Nezirevic
LONDON (AA) - Doctors Without Borders Denmark urged the Danish government to reconsider its position when it comes to the Nordic country’s refusal to accept sick and injured patients from Gaza, local media reported Wednesday.
Although Denmark evacuating and treating patients from Ukraine, the authorities have rejected to treat Palestinian patients from Gaza.
For patients who cannot get necessary treatment inside Gaza, “this is a matter of life and death,” said Gitte Ronde, the president of Doctors Without Borders Denmark,
“Denmark must take responsibility and help those in urgent need of evacuation from Gaza for specialized treatment,” she was quoted as saying by newswire Ritzau.
On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Denmark “should help critically ill Palestinians.”
Gaza’s health care system has nearly collapsed, as “only 17 out of 36 hospitals still partially functioning with severe deficit of medicines and fuel, and 500 health workers killed,” said Belkis Wille, associate director of the Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division at HRW.
“Despite the Israeli military’s allegations that Hamas bases itself in hospitals, no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law,” she said in a press release.
The rights group estimates that as of Sept. 30, out of 15,600 patients for whom medical evacuation has been requested since Oct. 2023, Israel has only approved and allowed Egypt to carry out the evacuation of 6,075, with only 229 patients allowed to leave Gaza by Israeli authorities since it closed Rafah Crossing on May 7, 2024.
In recent months, Brussels has called on EU countries to accept patients evacuated from Gaza leading to some member states like Norway, Spain and Italy agreeing to treat the wounded.
The EU call came after the World Health Organization formally requested assistance under the bloc’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
Since Israel launched war on Gaza on Oct. 7, nearly 43,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 102,300 others injured, according to local health authorities.
More than a year into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide against Palestinians at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).