Ill Palestinians 'asked to spy'

by Sanjay Jha | August 3, 2008 at 10:54 pm

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In a staratling revelation a human rights group has accused Israeli governement of forcing injured and sick Palestinians to become their spy. The allegation came after Israel granted temporary refuge to more than 180 supporters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas following fierce fighting in Gaza with their Hamas rivals. Many of them were wounded and received treatment in an Israeli hospitals. They belong to an outfit opposed to Hamas and are loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli officials are quoted to be saying that they don't waste time and effort on people who cannot help them.

Israeli security agents are putting pressure on some Palestinian medical patients to become informants, according to a human rights group.

Physicians for Human Rights says it has documented about 30 cases of people from Gaza being denied treatment for not providing information.

The Tel Aviv-based group says this breaches international law.

An Israeli official dismissed the claims, saying patients were only questioned as a security measure.

The report says that Palestinian patients have "become an accessible and important target for the GSS [General Security Services] for the purposes of recruiting and gathering information".

The group cites cases in which patients were summoned for questioning and others where patients did not come to a crossing for fear of being arrested.

'Need to question'

Israel has prevented all but emergency humanitarian aid reaching the Gaza Strip since the militant group Hamas seized power there in June 2007.

Although most people cannot leave the territory, medical cases are being considered for permission to get out.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors, not security forces, should decide who can be granted that permission.