Israel To Stop Treating Injured Syrians

Health ministers Litzman sent a letter to Prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu today, informing him that Israel will stop treating injured Syrians. Many injured Syrians, from the ongoing civil war, make their way to the Israeli-Syrian border on a daily basis; and are then transported to an Israeli hospital where they receive medical treatment free of charge. An average of 40 Syrians cross into Israel daily for medical treatment. From the start of the Syrian civil war, thousands of injured Syrians have been treated in Israeli hospitals.

In a letter to Netanyahu, Litzman stressed that hospitals in northern Israeli have accumulated great debt due to the medical services which they provide the injured Syrians with, and are collapsing under the financial stress. “The government was supposed to allocate additional funding to the health department so that the hospitals can treat the injured Syrians, but it has failed to do so, therefore the hospitals will refrain from treating any more injured Syrians unless the injury is life threating” wrote Litzman.

Hospitals in northern Israel have long complained that they are not managing the additional influx of patients, and if proper measured aren’t taken they will be forced to close down.

Aside from the financial burden the injured Syrians put on the hospitals, many Israelis in northern Israel in need of medical assistance have been forced to travel further south to other hospitals due to the congestion taking place in the northern hospitals.

Although Syria is Israels sworn enemy and has never officially made peace with Israel, Israel has not refrained from treating injured Syrians throughout the Syrian civil war, and had burdened the cost on its own without any assistance from foreign agencies; including the U.N.

Instead of continuously condemning Israel for human rights abuse, the U.N. can be more resourceful by setting up a field hospital on the Syrian border to treat injured Syrians, or to idlest fund those that are doing their best to treat the injured, but are not managing.

By Eli B.

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