We met a man from the West Bank who had been in prison for 27 years. The terms of his release were that he could not go back to the West Bank and he was sent to Gaza where he has no family or relatives. He said that he learned three languages while in prison.
A released woman prisoner said she was one month pregnant when she was imprisoned. She was forced to give birth with both her hands and feet shackled to the bed. She said the only post-birth pain killer she was given was an aspirin. She told of one type of torture of being tied in a leaning chair for hours at a time.
Families of many persons still imprisoned said they are not allowed to visit their loved ones nor send warm clothing to them for the winter in the cold prisons.
Four members of our Parliamentary delegation had been political prisoners in their home countries
Political Prisoners, now leaders in their Countries--Pakistani Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel Khan, Irish delegate Gerry MacLochlainn, Irish Parliamentarian Jennifer McCann and Malaysian Parliamentarian Khalid Bin Abd Samad
Hospitals
Our delegation visited al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Hospital staff told us that the lack of electricity and erratic generators causing sudden interruptions can be fatal for liver dialysis patients who need recurrent blood transfusions.
Lack of medication is also fatal for cancer patients that are denied the proper treatment because of Israeli security concerns about having 'radioactive' material in Gaza to be used in cancer treatment.
Despite the Israeli siege, one country in particular has been very active in assisting with the reconstruction of Gaza. Hospital staff told us that the Qatar Red Crescent within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Program for the Reconstruction of Gaza has been actively rebuilding Al-Shifa's Special Surgery building with the Islamic Development Bank. The new al-Shifa Special Surgery building should be finished in 2012.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Dr. Muneer al-Bursh, Director General of Pharmacy in the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, has stated that health facilities and warehouses in Gaza have completely run out of 120 essential medicines and 140 medical goods. Dr. al Bursh said that the Ministry of Health in Ramallah had failed to supple the relevant goods, only supplying 20% of the Gaza Strip's actual medicinal needs in 2011 and that stopping the supply of medicine and medical goods, such as Blood Line which is used in dialyses, threatens the lives of 400 patients in the Gaza Strip. He further stated that medicine for cancer and anesthesia, drugs used to inhibit the immune system of patients who received kidney transplants at hospitals abroad, and medicines used for hemophilia have all run out from hospitals and warehouses in the Gaza Strip.
Israelis Shooting Gaza Fishermen and Stealing Fishing Boats
The Israeli naval blockade of Gaza has had a deadly impact on the fishing industry of the country. Fewer than half the numbers of fishermen are still attempting to fish in the three-mile Israeli imposed fishing area off Gaza.
Since the beginning of 2011, Israel has imprisoned 40 fishermen from Gaza, injured five others and seized nine fishing boats.
Statistics from the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights show an increase in Israeli violations against fishermen, highlighted by an incident in early December, 2011 in which nine fishermen were forced by Israeli commandos to take off their clothes, jump off their boats and swim to the Israeli gunboats where they were forced handcuffed, including the fisherman whom the Israelis shot in the arm and taken to the port of Ashdod, Israel.
One of the fishermen who was kidnapped to Israel and later released told human rights investigators, "We fishermen never do anything bad. We don't send rockets from our boats, we don't touch any of them, but they kill fishermen, arrest fishermen; they took so many boats."
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