25 countries call for facilitating access for Gaza patients to the West Bank

Twenty-five Western countries signed a joint statement yesterday, Monday, to facilitate the access of patients from the Gaza Strip to the occupied West Bank for treatment.

Israel called for the reopening of the medical corridor between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and offered to provide financial aid, medical teams, and equipment to treat these patients.

The joint statement issued by Canada yesterday, Monday, stated, "We strongly urge Israel to reopen the medical corridor to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, so that medical evacuations from Gaza can resume, and patients can receive the treatment they urgently need in the Palestinian territories."

The statement added, "We also urge Israel to lift the restrictions on the delivery of medicines and medical equipment to Gaza."

Among the 25 countries that signed the statement were Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the European Union, and Poland, with the United States not included.

In late August, relief agencies reported that essential aid, including medicines, had not reached the residents of Gaza since May, and the World Health Organization announced that the health system in Gaza was on the brink of collapse.

Images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage over the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives since October 2023, completely displaced Gaza's residents, and caused a famine crisis.

Many human rights experts and researchers, along with a United Nations investigation committee, state that this attack amounts to genocide.

Some of the United States' key allies, notably Britain and France, have supported the establishment of a Palestinian state at the United Nations as a means to achieve a two-state solution, despite Washington's rejection.