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The Hugo Chávez Hospital, installed in the Palestinian village of Turmos Ayya thanks to the donation of the Venezuelan regime, has temporarily ceased to be an important ophthalmological center to basically serve patients with the coronavirus in the West Bank.

"We are facing a new attack of this virus that is causing much suffering among the sick. I only hope that our people will follow the recommendations of the Ministry of Health to reduce the number of those infected," says Dr. Murad at the entrance to the Palestinian hospital. after talking with relatives of an active patient. The Palestinian doctor appreciates the economic support (15 million dollars) from Venezuela four years ago and adds, with sensible signs of weariness, that he has the same concerns as the rest of the doctors in the world before the common enemy.

The viral plague, which is now becoming more virulent for Palestinians than when it appeared in these lands five months ago, has caused 43 deaths and 6,692 confirmed cases in the West Bank . Most in the last three weeks, which has led the Palestinian Government to order new restrictions on movement between provinces. Especially in the Hebron area, which is by far the most affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. Many patients at the Hugo Chávez Hospital come from that district.

The stress in the medical center contrasts with the tranquility of Turmos Ayya, which we access through an imposing corridor of palm trees. The small Palestinian town, located 25 kilometers north of Ramallah, stands out for its olive oil, its cultivated fields and its spacious houses. The fact that the ghost of the virus has not crossed its walls - no case since March - does not reduce the unrest among its 3,500 inhabitants. Much of them have close ties to the United States and Panama. Like Munir Oda who shares with THE WORLD a wish and a fear: "We hope that this virus will come and go like other diseases, although I am afraid this will go on for a long time. Hopefully it is not God's punishment for Humanity because there is no justice in the world".

Born in this well-kept village, Oda emigrated to Panama at the age of 22, where today he has numerous family members and businesses. Straddling his two homelands, this veteran Palestinian businessman criticizes the presence of Israeli soldiers and settlements in this West Bank area under Israeli security control (under the Oslo accords) and admits that the conflict is in serious decline. Will he see peace between Israelis and Palestinians? "I do not know but whoever does not want peace is in the wrong mind. Where there is peace, there is life and happiness," he answers.

Mayor Said Kouk's office does not differ from that of other positions in the Palestinian National Authority (ANP). Turkish coffee, Arab sweets and papers on the table, the Palestinian flag and the portraits of Yasir Arafat and his successor Abu Mazen. Noting that the City Council has taken the necessary precautions and expressing its confidence that the conscientiousness of its inhabitants will do the rest, he recalls that one of the great risks of contagion in the West Bank is the Palestinians who work in Israel where the virus has killed 368 persons.

"For us, the Israeli colonies are worse and we are more concerned with them than the coronavirus. We have lost about 500 hectares of our people's land due to construction in the settlements," he says, pointing from the window: "Look, there is the Shilo colony. " In a few minutes, we are in his vehicle driving through the Palestinian camps. A tent appears in the landscape. "This is how the settlers start until they build an enclave. They do what they want," accuses Kouk, who also criticizes the plan - for the moment frozen - of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to annex 30% of the West Bank (Jewish settlements and Valle del Jordan) as established by the peace program of US President Donald Trump. Today it is believed that, if carried out, it would be limited to less than 10%.

Like many of her Turmos Ayya neighbors, Suha Badran could be in Panama or the United States right now. His case is special since in a few days he must appear before an ANP court. "Palestinian police officers detained me for several days and beat me. I was in jail for 70 days and went on a hunger strike in protest. They accused me of giving money to the poorest as a way to support Hamas but it is not true. There is no evidence. I don't go into politics, "says this Palestinian born in Panama and the mother of three children.

When I ask him what will come before peace with Israel or the vaccine against the virus, he responds smiling: "Both are very difficult. In this sense, I can say that people here come out more in this second wave of the virus despite being more serious than at the beginning in March. After the first closure, people want to go out. In Turmos Ayya everything is calmer ". An island in the face of the wave of the virus although curiously it houses a hospital focused on fighting it.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, the problem is not so much the health effect of the virus - since March, one death (after arriving through the Egyptian border crossing of Rafah) and 72 cases - but the serious economic situation. Under the control of the Islamist group Hamas, the restrictive measures due to the pandemic, the economic sanctions of its internal rival Abu Mazen from the West Bank and isolated by Israel and Egypt, the very poor Palestinian enclave is witnessing an increase in unemployment (45%) and suicides ( 17 since January, according to a local NGO). On the other hand, Hamas has denied the information about the desertion of its maritime command officer who fled to Israel, taking with him a confidential document, allegedly after it was discovered that he was collaborating with the Israeli Intelligence services.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Israel
  • Hamas
  • U.S
  • Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Venezuela
  • Donald Trump
  • Egypt
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

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