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Gaza girl awaiting surgery reunited with her mother in West Bank

Alsaafin, Linah
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/gaza-girl-awaiting-surgery-reunited-mother-west-bank-180301184310244.html

Publisher:  Aljazeera
Date Written:  01/03/2018
Year Published:  2018  
Resource Type:  Article

After getting an Israeli-issued medical permit, Inam al-Attar traveled without her parents from Gaza Strip to West Bank.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

After battling kidney failure for nearly the entirety of her short life, Inam al-Attar, 12, from the Gaza Strip finally obtained a medical permit issued by Israeli authorities to undergo surgery in one of Ramallah's hospitals in the occupied West Bank.

Yet the experience was marred by heartbreak as she was forced to make the trip beginning from the Israeli Erez checkpoint, north of Gaza, without her parents by her side.

Usually, a medical patient from the Gaza Strip is granted at least one guardian to accompany him or her to medically referred hospitals in the West Bank, Jerusalem or Israel. Inam had counted on her mother Salwa being with her every step of the way.

"The Israelis did not give us a reason for refusing to give me a permit to go with her," Salwa al-Attar told Al Jazeera.

"The entire family tried to convince me and my daughter that we had no choice but to let her go by herself, but I was too distraught to allow it at first. Inam needs round the clock care and did not want to go without me."

On Monday, Salwa accompanied her daughter on the short trip from their home in Beit Lahia to Erez checkpoint, also known as the Beit Hanoun crossing. Israeli soldiers allowed Inam to pass through, but said her mother had to turn back because she did not have a permit to cross.

"We were both inconsolable," Salwa said. "Inam reached Ramallah's Medical Complex after an hour and a half and kept crying for me."

Inam's story spread like wildfire. Local media converged at the complex and in response to the questions fielded by the crowd of journalists around her, the little girl broke down.

"I want my mother!" she cried. "I don't want anything else, I just want my mother to be with me."

The governor of Ramallah, Laila Ghannam, was among those who received Inam on Monday.

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