Palestinian medical staff are expected to begin strikes in the West Bank this week, after failing to reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, the Medical Association – Jerusalem Center (PMA) announced on Monday.
The Palestinian Authority paid out only $650 to employees in April, according to the Saudi-British publication Independent Arabia, as opposed to the 80% wages it has been paying out since tax revenue began being withheld in 2022.
Under a 2018 law, Israel calculates each year how much it believes the Palestinian Authority has paid in stipends to terrorists and deducts that amount from the taxes it has collected on the Palestinians' behalf.
Members of the Palestinian Nursing Union complained to Arabic media sites that the cuts had left some nurses unable to afford transportation to their workplace, and their workload had quadrupled, endangering patients.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced earlier this week that approximately NIS 590 million was deducted from the Palestinian Authority to cover both debts to the Israel Electric Corporation, water and environmental corporations, as well as funds that the PA had transferred to terrorists.
“We will not transfer funds that ultimately reach terrorists who harm Israeli citizens. Our policy is clear: every shekel intended to encourage terrorism or hostile activity will be deducted and stopped,” Smotrich said. “At the same time, we are acting responsibly to ensure that the funds are directed toward safeguarding the vital interests of the State of Israel. Those who choose to fight the State of Israel in the international arena and support terrorism will pay the price.”
The PA’s continued financing of convicted terrorists has contributed largely to the medical crisis in the West Bank. Medical centers have reportedly been forced to suspend or ration referrals from public institutions to private and nonprofit hospitals, which until now have cost $30 million per month on average.
Dr. Salah al-Hashlamoun, president of the Palestinian Medical Association, told Independent Arabia that the meeting with PA officials lasted for three hours, and they were unable to guarantee full pay for healthcare employees.
In a video posted by Ramallah News, Hashlamoun complained that medical staff were worn down by the COVID-19 pandemic and were victims of an increasing number of attacks by the public.
Combined with a medication, hospital bed, and personnel shortage, and the PA’s decision to reduce the number of working days to three, he warned that the Palestinian medical system was suffering a “comprehensive collapse that threatens patients’ lives and undermines the foundations of the right to treatment.”
West Bank’s hospitals experiencing a shortage of medications
Additionally, the West Bank’s public hospitals are reportedly experiencing a shortage of medications. The Palestinian Authority is understood to owe pharmaceutical companies and hospitals a debt now exceeding $1 billion.
“Today we stand before an unprecedentedly harsh phase, a phase in which crises are accelerating and forcibly pushing us from bad to worse, until exhaustion has reached its peak, and the energies of doctors have been depleted to a point where silence is no longer acceptable. What we are witnessing is no longer merely difficult circumstances, but a pressing reality that threatens the very essence of medical work and undermines the most basic elements of its continuity,” PMA published in their statement.
“In light of your trust, which we cherish, we affirm clearly and unequivocally that the Medical Association will never be a mere spectator or retreat, nor will it allow the rights of doctors to be diminished or their status marginalized. Rather, we will be at the forefront, waging the battle to defend our legitimate rights by all available means, and working tirelessly to rectify the course of the health sector, which has been tampered with, in a manner befitting the dignity of the doctor and the sanctity of their mission.”
While doctors from certain units have continued to perform their duties, and the union has instructed medical staff to continue to provide treatment in life-threatening situations, Palestinians deprived of proper treatment are growing increasingly frustrated with the situation.
West Bank resident Mohammad Qandah reportedly left the Ramallah Medical Complex for a private hospital after the staff shortage left nobody in the orthopedic department to treat his daughter’s broken leg.