Original article: “He perdido mi última esperanza”: Israel niega tratamiento a niño palestino con cáncer por estar registrado en Gaza
A five-year-old boy in critical condition urgently needs a series of treatments, including cancer immunotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, which are available in Israel. Despite residing in the West Bank, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that this is irrelevant, as Netanyahu’s government prohibits all Palestinians registered in Gaza from receiving medical care in Israel.
The Jerusalem District Court dismissed a petition filed by human rights organizations to allow a five-year-old Palestinian boy suffering from aggressive cancer to receive medical treatment in Israel. Although he currently resides in Ramallah, he is officially registered in the Gaza Strip, a bureaucratic detail that, according to Israeli law, keeps him from the Israeli healthcare system.
The ruling, announced by the Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, marks a concerning extension of Israel’s policies regarding the entry of Gazans into its territory. Since the attacks on October 7, 2023, the Israeli regime has broadly prohibited entry for anyone registered in Gaza, including those requiring urgent medical care.
«I have lost my last hope,» lamented the boy’s mother in remarks to Haaretz after hearing the court’s decision, which bars access to Tel Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv, whose specialists had already expressed willingness to treat her son.
The presiding judge, Ram Winograd, determined that the fact the child lives in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the occupied West Bank, does not constitute a relevant factor for altering government policy. In his ruling, the judge stated that the petition represents an attempt to challenge the Israeli defense system’s decision that has prevented Gaza residents from entering Israel for medical treatment since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
The court’s position aligns with the directive issued by the Ministry of Defense, which, according to Gisha, «rejected the child’s entry, arguing that residents of Gaza are prohibited from entering the State of Israel ‘for any purpose,'» as reported by The Jerusalem Post.
The boy and his family moved from Gaza to the West Bank in 2022 to seek medical care not available in the Strip. Once it became clear that his treatment was ineffective, his doctors recommended a series of treatments unavailable in the West Bank, including cancer immunotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, which can be accessed in Israel.
Tel Hashomer Hospital, one of the country’s leading medical centers, had expressed readiness to admit the child. However, entry permissions were denied in administrative instances and later confirmed by the court.
“Despite the imminent danger to his life, the court opted not to intervene in the state’s decision,” condemned the Israeli human rights NGO. “It effectively established a precedent that prohibits patients from Gaza from entering Israel since the war began, a practice that did not exist until 2023.”
One central aspect of the court ruling was the possibility of the child receiving treatment in a third country, particularly in Amman, Jordan. While the boy’s doctors warned of the risks associated with transferring him abroad, given his critical health state and the likelihood he might not survive the journey, as well as uncertainty about whether hospitals would have the necessary resources for adequate treatment, Judge Winograd dismissed these arguments as insufficiently substantiated.
In his written statement, the judge noted, «His doctors claimed he could not go to another country, but they did not assert that the principle of equal justice applies to a ground ambulance transfer lasting a few hours to a hospital in Amman.»
The judicial decision holds that «it has not been sufficiently proven that traveling to Amman would severely harm the child’s condition» and adds that «it seems that… children with cancer are prioritized» in medical evacuation programs to Jordan.
However, the child’s parents claimed to have exhausted all avenues to find an alternative. According to the petition documents, the World Health Organization only assists Gaza residents currently residing in the Strip, not those living in the West Bank, leaving the child in an administrative and humanitarian limbo.
Israel «Condemns Sick Children to Death»
The organization Gisha, which has represented the child since November 2025, issued a strong statement following the ruling. The statement emphasized that the resolution «once again illustrates the devastating consequences of a widespread policy that denies Palestinians access to vital medical treatment solely because their residence is registered in Gaza, even when they do not actually reside there and no security claims are made against them.»
The statement further criticized the foundation of Israeli policy: «This represents a flagrant and ongoing violation of the obligations imposed on Israel as an occupying power under international law… The aim of the ruling is to support an illegal policy that, in practice, condemns sick children to death.»
«This ruling means supporting an illegal policy that effectively condemns sick children to death, even when the treatment that could save their lives is within reach,» the organization added, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Debate in the Supreme Court
The measure prohibiting Gazans from entering Israel for medical care was implemented after the events of October 7, 2023, and is currently under review in the Israeli Supreme Court. Human rights groups have filed petitions to reverse it, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has defended its stance on barring critically ill patients from Gaza from receiving potentially life-saving medical treatment in hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as was the case two years ago.
Last November, the government stated before the court that «the exit of Gaza residents to the West Bank or Israel poses security risks,» including «the potential exploitation of this platform to establish links with terrorist activities, recruitment, information transfer, and the establishment of terrorist infrastructure in Israel and the West Bank.»
The Jerusalem District Court echoed this position, stating that «all residents of Gaza are considered potential threats,» arguing that those who perpetrated the attacks on October 7 «were also residents of Gaza who were once considered ‘uninvolved’ civilians capable of crossing Israel’s borders regularly.»
4,000 Children in Gaza Need Urgent Medical Treatment
The court’s decision not only affects the life of this five-year-old boy but also sets a precedent with broader implications. According to Gisha’s petition, nearly 4,000 children in the Gaza Strip also require urgent medical treatment. The organization pointed out in its statement that «it is difficult to identify a real and relevant difference between the petitioner and other children, apart from the fact that he is currently in Ramallah.»
As the boy remains in Ramallah with his family, time is running out. The urgently needed bone marrow transplant is not available in the West Bank, and the doors to Israel remain closed. Israeli judicial and political authorities have decided that the postal code with which he was born weighs more heavily than his place of residence or the severity of his illness.
