issued in two days, but unfortunately, it took three weeks, which affected him so much. We suffered from the lack of medications in Gaza. Before my son was doing dialysis, he used to take a medicine that should be provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, but because of the siege, it was unavailable more than once. In the end, after a long time of waiting, we got the referral and applied for the permit. They refused to issue me a permit another time because I was previously denied, and again, only our son got the permit.Right now, we simply do not know what to do. We are looking for the best possible treatment for our son but we are denied from accessing the right hospitals. My husband and I hope that the situation in Gaza will improve and that we can afford him a good medical treatment here, close to our home.” Travel Restrictions for Medical Personnel Travel restrictions for medical personnel are common in all parts of the oPt. In East Jerusalem, the six Palestinian hospitals constitute an important part of the Palestinian health system.253 However, it is almost impossible for medical personnel from the Gaza Strip to go to any of these hospitals, and by setting a quota for the number of medical personnel allowed to enter the hospitals in East Jerusalem at some 2,000 persons, Israel directly interferes with the functioning of those facilities.254 Since the permits of health workers are occasionally denied without apparent reason,255 these restrictions lead to a shortage of doctors working in East Jerusalem, and to uncertainty about the number of employees who will be able to go to work at a given time. Ambulance drivers operating in the oPt also face severe restrictions as they need special permits to cross checkpoints, which endangers the patients even further. Because Palestinian registered ambulances are not allowed to travel inside Israel, patients often need to be transferred from one ambulance to another at a checkpoint, which, especially in critical conditions such as head or spinal injuries, is a dangerous and time consuming process.256 Moreover, not only are permits to cross checkpoints difficult for ambulance drivers to obtain, the access to the so-called “closed military zones” is also an obstacle. For instance, during the 2014 Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip, medical personnel were frequently informed of the position of injured Palestinians, 253 Physicians for Human Rights, “Divide & Conquer: Inequality in Health”, January 2015, page 42. Available at: http://www.phr.org.il/uploaded/Divide%20and%20Conquer%20ENG%20REPORT%20 JAN%202015.pdf 254 Ibid. Pages 42-43 255 Claude de Ville de Goyet et al., “Report of a Field Assessment of Health Conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt)”, World Health Organization, 2015, page 7. Available at: http://applications. emro.who.int/docs/Cons_Rep_2015_EN_16311.pdf?ua=1 256 Physicians for Human Rights, “Divide & Conquer: Inequality in Health”, January 2015, page 44. Available at: http://www.phr.org.il/uploaded/Divide%20and%20Conquer%20ENG%20REPORT%20 JAN%202015.pdf 68