Sterilized Coverage of Gaza’s Swine Flu
Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reports that the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian rights groups have accused Hamas of barring swine flu patients from crossing into Israel to be treated in Israeli or West Bank hospitals.
Oddly, AP’s article today (“Israel treating Gazans infected with swine flu“) left out that bit.
Also noted by Ma’an but ignored by AP is the fact that the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories department (COGAT) today released a statement saying that “approximately 10,000 vaccinations against swine flu have been transferred to the Gaza Strip via Israel, which remains ready to receive further requests.”
In addition, the COGAT statement notes that 8,000 patients and their relatives have crossed from Gaza into Israel in 2009, belying the AP’s claim that Israel’s treatment of five swine flu patients from Gaza “is a rare loosening of the tight blockade Israel imposed on Gaza after Hamas militants seized the coastal area in June 2007.”
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