Palestinians urges intl. pressure on Zionist entity to lift Gaza siege

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has called on the international community to put pressure on the Israel regime to lift its ongoing land, air, and sea blockade, so that the impoverished coastal sliver can cope with cases of coronavirus infection.

“We raise our voice and ask the whole world to help lift the siege on Gaza to enable it to face the coronavirus pandemic,” Yousef Abu al-Rish, a health ministry official in Gaza, announced in a statement late on Sunday.

He reassured the Gazans that only two cases of the disease were reported, emphasizing that medical teams are fully prepared to deal with the cases.

Palestinian officials have announced the first two cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the highly contagious new coronavirus, in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Abu al-Rish said late on Saturday that the two Palestinian patients had returned from Pakistan via Gaza's Rafah border with neighboring Egypt on Thursday.

The pair exhibited symptoms of the illness, which include dry cough and high fever, he told a news conference.

The senior Palestinian health official added that the two were placed in quarantine upon arrival and are now in a field hospital in the border town of Rafah.

Abu al-Rish urged Gaza's nearly two million residents to take precautionary measures and to practice social distancing by staying home in a bid to halt the potential spread of the virus.

SS