Israeli authorities are preparing to send a group of Palestinian patients who were being treated in East Jerusalem hospitals back to Gaza this week.
The group of 22 Gazan Palestinians includes five newborn babies and their mothers, cancer patients now in remission, and a few companions who had accompanied them, according to hospital officials.
They had all received permission from Israeli authorities to travel to Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem for advanced medical care – most before the October Hamas 7 attack on Israel.
But staying in East Jerusalem is no longer an option.
The Israeli defense ministry body responsible for Palestinian affairs, COGAT, has for months been pushing East Jerusalem hospital officials for a list of patients who no longer require in-patient medical treatment to send them back to Gaza, those officials told CNN.
The patients on that list, which has been seen by CNN, are expected to board buses for the Kerem Shalom crossing on the border between Israel and Gaza on Wednesday.
Among them will be Nima Abu Garrara, who was brought from Rafah to East Jerusalem while pregnant with twins and gave birth on October 5. All her twins have known is the safety of a room at Makassed Hospital.
Soon, that will be torn away, traded for the reality of war. Abu Garrara fears a grim future in Gaza, where an Israeli military ground offensive on the southern city of Rafah looms.
“I’ll be the one responsible for anything that harms them,” she said referring to her twins.
