Gaza girl dies as a result of Palestinian infighting, Israel blamed

Palestinian media and social media all had variants of this story last week:

Marah Diab, born & died (today) undersigned in Gaza b/c israel refused to let her out to get proper renal treatment. http://pic.twitter.com/lfjd6HsFTr

— Abbs Winston (@AbbsWinston) February 17, 2016

What really happened?

JPost has the story:

Diab had been waiting for life-saving treatment abroad or in Israel ever since her kidney transplant surgery in Gaza failed. Her family hoped that she could leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing after Egypt announced its three-day opening on February 13. However, the girl did not make it and the Egyptian authorities closed the border crossing way, leaving her behind, helpless.

In an interview to Al-Jazeera, the girl's father claimed that the family had contacted a Jenin resident who was ready to donate a kidney for the girl, but the move was prohibited by international law. Thus, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas decided that the girl should be transferred to Israel to get a kidney transplant.

However, according to Diab's father, Palestinian Authority Health Minister, Dr. Jawad Awaad, opposed Abbas's decision. As a result, the family blames Awaad for their daughter's death, claiming that he "killed her when he refused their request to transfer the girl to a hospital in Israel in order to get a kidney transplant."

PIC adds:

The father held the Health Minister, Jawad Awad, and the head of the External Medical Treatment Department, Amira al-Hindi, responsible for the death of his daughter. “We’d got a permission to transfer Marah to 1948 Occupied Palestine for treatment and for urgent kidney transplantation but the two officials turned blind eyes to Marah’s case, in a flagrant violation of all ethics, social norms, and humanitarian laws,” the father said.

Israel gave permission for Marah to get treated in Israeli hospitals, as it has treated hundreds of other Gazans. She was prevented from going by her own people.

And Egypt refused to give her permission to cross its border.

And Israel gets blamed.

(h/t Spotlighting)

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