JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority has stopped paying for the Palestinians’ treatment in Israeli hospitals and the patients have been sent home, The New York Times reported.
The Palestinian Authority stopped paying partly in anger over Israel’s military operation in Gaza, the newspaper reported Monday. Palestinian health officials have instructed families to place their children in facilities in the West Bank, Jordan or Egypt, according to the Times.
The Palestinian health minister, Fathi Abu Moghli, told the Times that the Palestinian Authority pays Israeli hospitals $7 million a month for patient care.
“Since the first day of the Gaza aggression I said that I will not send to my occupier my injured people in order for him to make propaganda at my expense and then pay him for it,” Moghli said.
There are 24 hospitals in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, according to the Times.
An Israeli clinic set up by the army and Magen David Adom on the Israeli-Gaza border on Jan. 18, the same day Israel announced a cease-fire, already has been closed. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority refused to allow Palestinians to be treated there.
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