GAZA CITY – More than 50 Palestinians died waiting for Israeli visas totravel for medical treatment last year, with only around half of allapplications granted, new figures showed Tuesday.

A total of 54 Palestinians died awaiting permits in 2017, the World HealthOrganization said, in what rights activists called an overly bureaucraticsystem which deprives Palestinians of their right to healthcare.

The WHO said it did not have a directly comparable figure for 2016, but AlMezan Center for Human Rights said it had recorded only a couple per annumin previous years.

Israel argues rigorous checks are necessary for security reasons for thosecoming from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave ruled by its Islamistenemy Hamas.

Gazans require Israeli permits to leave the enclave and travel to Jerusalemor the West Bank for treatment which the Palestinian Authority, theinternationally recognised Palestinian government, pays for.

High-quality medical care for conditions such as cancer is not possible inGaza, largely due to a shortage of facilities and Israel s restrictions onimports of key medical technology it argues could be seized by Hamas formilitary purposes.

Of more than 25,000 applications to travel for treatment in 2017, only 54percent were granted in time for their appointments.

This was down from 62 percent the year before and 92 percent as recently as2012, the WHO said.

“There is a worrying decline in the approval rate for patients to exitGaza, with 2017 the lowest rate since WHO began monitoring this in 2008,”said Gerald Rockenschaub, head of WHO offices in the Palestinianterritories.

In a joint statement Tuesday, Al Mezan, Amnesty International, Human RightsWatch (HRW), Medical Aid for Palestinians and Physicians for HumanRights-Israel called on Israel to ease restrictions.

Omar Shakir, Israel-Palestine head for HRW, said they had seen “wider andwider” use of security justification to reject or delay permits forPalestinians.

“It is not based on security but based on a political strategy to isolateHamas that uses the people of Gaza as collateral in that calculus,” he toldAFP.

“Hamas operates every day to take advantage of the civilian measures thatthe state of Israel promotes,” a statement from COGAT, the Israeli defenceministry body responsible for coordination of such permits, said inresponse. APP/AFP