Arab News<\/a>\n <\/p>\nLONDON: Medics in the UK and US say Israel has denied them entry into Gaza, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Israel is required under international law to allow entry to the Palestinian enclave for humanitarian aid, but medics have told The Guardian that they believe they have been barred for speaking out about the situation there.<\/p>\n
James Smith, an emergency doctor from the UK, said: \u201cI can only assume that it was elements of my public profile, because I\u2019m otherwise a white, middle-class, British man with no Palestinian heritage, no criminal convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cNot just had I spoken to media outlets but I had spoken in a particular way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith, who was working with the group Medical Aid for Palestinians, said among Israel\u2019s guidelines for allowing NGOs and other staff to enter Gaza are clauses on calling for or participating in boycotts of the country. \u201cIt\u2019s the expression of my politics that must have rattled them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Consultant surgeon Khaled Dawas, who traveled to Gaza in 2024, told The Guardian that political views of individuals must be the reason for Israel barring access to Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t think of anything else,\u201d he said after he was denied access in August and November last year. \u201cI\u2019m not military. I don\u2019t carry anything. I\u2019m no different to the colleagues who have gone in. The only difference is that they haven\u2019t spoken up as much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chicago-based emergency physician Thaer Ahmad said he was denied access to Gaza on four occasions. He believes that his Palestinian-American identity may have been part of the reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis idea of weaponizing access and weaponizing aid, it\u2019s engrained in all of the decisions that we see are being made in Gaza,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In August, the World Health Organization said the refusal rates for international medics trying to enter Gaza had risen by 50 percent in the previous six months.<\/p>\n
In December, 37 NGOs were informed by Israel that they would need to cease all operations in Gaza despite the humanitarian situation in the enclave.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among those barred is MAP, which said it had struggled to gain any access to Gaza since September, with no reason given by Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n
MAP\u2019s CEO Steve Cutts told The Guardian: \u201cIsrael\u2019s deregistration of international NGOs and restrictions on medical personnel are part of a wider pattern of measures that are cruelly blocking humanitarian assistance and obstructing independent medical witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victoria Rose, a plastic surgeon from London who was denied entry in 2025, said: \u201cThey don\u2019t want anyone going that knows the system, is useful, that is effective, that\u2019s where it seems to be. I don\u2019t necessarily think they\u2019ve got a handle of what I\u2019ve done or said.\u201d<\/p>\n
A petition recently filed in Israel\u2019s Supreme Court on behalf of seven denied access requests into Gaza cited the case of British orthopaedic surgeon Graeme Groom, who said he was denied access to the enclave on three occasions since Oct. 7, 2023, without explanation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think it may be because we are bearing witness to what is happening in Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cDenying us entry is an extension of the policy which has excluded international journalists, and kills Palestinian journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: \u201cIsrael must immediately lift restrictions and allow food, medical supplies and fuel to reach those in desperate need, in line with international humanitarian law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In December, 37 NGOs were told to cease all operations in Palestinian enclave UK Foreign Office: \u2018Israel must…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-296892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}