Hani Abu Taha, laborer

My family and I live in the Rafah refugee camp. In the middle of August, my brother, Mahmoud, 21, began to feel severe stomach and intestinal pains. We immediately took him to Nasser Hospital , in Khan Yunis. The doctors said he had a cancerous growth in the small intestine, which caused a blockage. They decided to operate immediately. The surgeons removed 75 centimeters of his small intestine in the section where it was blocked. After the operation, he was given medication. The surgery did not succeed and he was transferred to the European Hospital , in Gaza , for further treatment and to undergo chemotherapy.

His condition rapidly deteriorated. The cancer spread in his intestines. He lost a lot of weight, falling to 55 kilograms. He had weighed 85 kilograms before he got sick. We were afraid he was going to die. His condition continued to deteriorate also while he was in the European Hospital .

He couldn't eat, and they fed him a vitamin solution, at first 4-6 doses a day, but that later dropped to two doses a day. Now he only receives one, because the hospital has a shortage of the solution. After examining him, the specialists decided not to start chemotherapy but to transfer him to Tel Hashomer Hospital , in Israel , to have the intestinal blockage opened as soon as possible.

Mahmoud Abu Taha at the European Hospital in Gaza. Photo: Muhammad Sabah, B'Tselem

My brother's severe condition changed everything for us. Our whole family is collapsing under the tension and sadness. You can't put off treatment in a case like my brother's, not even for a minute. Mahmoud is melting away in front of our eyes like a candle.

Our father, who is fifty-six, requested a permit to enter Israel . On 18 October, at 2:30, Muhammad Abu Riza, the Health Coordinator, told us that we had received permission to enter. We felt really good having gotten approval so quickly. We had felt that Mahmoud would slip through our fingers if he didn't get to Tel Hashomer. The approval would enable him to get the treatment he needed.

When my father got verbal notice of approval by telephone, he and Mahmoud went in an ambulance of the European Hospital to Erez Crossing. Half an hour after they got there, my father was called to go to the gate. We were in contact with my father when he entered the crossing. In the meantime, Mahmoud and the ambulance driver waited. My brother was lying on a stretcher inside the ambulance and was connected to an intravenous solution and oxygen.

After they waited there for two hours, somebody called out by loudspeaker to the ambulance driver that entry to Tel Hashomer had not been approved, and that he had to return to Gaza . He drove Mahmoud back to the European Hospital . Since then, my brother's suffering has continued and his condition has gotten worse.

When the ambulance returned to the hospital, somebody who identified himself as a Shabak [ Israel 's security services] agent called me. He said that my father, Kamal Abu Taha, was being held by them. Then he hung up. Now we had to worry about both my brother and my father, who was being held by Israeli occupation forces. We are confused and perplexed.

That evening, we again tried to get a permit for Mahmoud to cross. We have not yet received a response. We worry that Mahmoud's condition will further deteriorate.

We are in broken by this whole matter. We are slowly losing Mahmoud, and we don't know what to do with the Israelis' refusal to let him go to the hospital. The only way to save him is to allow him to enter Israel and receive treatment there.

Hani Kamal Abu Taha, 34, married with three children, is a laborer and a resident of Rafah Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip. His testimony was given to Muhammad Sabah at the European Hospital, in Gaza, on 22 October 2007.