‘My father is missing’: Israel arrests Gaza patients in Jerusalem hospital
Saeb Ali al-Tanani, 14, has a tumour in his leg. Last Wednesday, Suhaila, his grandmother, was with him as he wheeled himself down the corridor at Makassed Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem.
“He has to do genetic and blood tests, so he will be here a while,” Suhaila said, while remembering their family in Gaza. “Our hearts break for what our family are going through in Gaza.”
A day later, fear would come to haunt the hospital itself.
On Thursday, Israeli forces arrested Suhaila. She is one of 12 Palestinians in detention who were either receiving treatment at Makassed Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem, or were acting as medical chaperones for patients.
According to a statement by the Israeli police, the Palestinians were staying “illegally” at the hospital, after their medical permits, issued by the Israeli military, expired.
“In a joint operation by the Jerusalem District Police and Jerusalem security guard soldiers, 12 female and male suspects residing illegally in Israel were identified and arrested,” the police said in a statement, adding that the deputy director of the hospital was also summoned for interrogation.
“Of these, 11 residents of the Gaza Strip are suspected of remaining in the hospital over the past few weeks in violation of the law, and the other suspect is a Palestinian who [is] residing in Israel illegally.”
Four men and seven women from Gaza were arrested, the statement said.
‘I want Mama and Baba’
Other patients and their accompanying relatives said they are stuck in limbo, unable to go home, and forced to stay at the hospital.
Imm Taha al-Farra is with her nine-year-old granddaughter Hala, who underwent a spinal operation on October 7.
“We were supposed to go back after a few days,” Imm Taha said. “We can’t go back now. We don’t know anything. How are we supposed to go back?”
Hala, who said she wants to be a doctor so that she can treat children, has been asking to go home for weeks.
“I want Mama and Baba,” she said. “I miss my brothers Omar and Ali.”
Their family live in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Imm Taha said the families of her nieces and nephews, all 16 members, were killed in an Israeli air raid on their home.
