At approximately 9:30am on Sunday 25 April 2010, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested a Palestinian patient; 'Aed Rafeeq Abdel-Jawwad Ziyada, 26, at the Erez crossing in the North of the Gaza Strip.
Ziyada, like many Palestinian patients, went to Erez to be interviewed by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), as part of the Israeli procedures, to obtain permission to get access to a hospital in West Bank, Israel or abroad.
Ziyada is now detained at Ashkelon prison in Israel and he is under interrogation.
  Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Adalah and Physician for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) strongly condemn the Israeli enticement of Ziyada and his arrest.
The organizations view this as an illegitimate practice that takes advantage of the patients' helplessness and turns medicine into a tool in the service of the security system.
The organizations demand unrestricted medical access to patients to receive medical treatment in hospitals outside the Gaza Strip.
  According to Al Mezan's field investigations, 'Aed Rafeq Ziyada applied for Israeli permission for medical treatment in the Hussein Medical Hospital in Jordan.
On Saturday 24 April 2010, Ziyada received a phone call from the Palestinian Health Coordination Office telling him that the ISA wanted to interview him the next day.
At approximately 9:30 am on Sunday 25 April 2010, Ziyada arrived at the Erez Crossing for the interview, but he did not return home.
At approximately 8 pm on the same day, Ziyada's father received a phone call telling him that his son 'Aed was detained at Ashkelon prison in the south of Israel.
  In an affidavit to Al Mezan, his father said that 'Aed works for the Palestinian police.
On 18 December 2006, he was injured by a bullet in the abdomen and his intestine was ruptured.
He was referred to Soroka Medical Centre in Israel for medical treatment on the same day.
He stayed there for ten days during which he underwent four surgical operations.
He was supposed to go to the hospital after six months for a medical check-up and to undergo plastic surgery on his abdomen.
 In August 2007, Ziyada applied to obtain Israeli permission for a medical check-up and he obtained it.
However, when he arrived at the Erez Crossing, the ISA interrogated him and ordered him to return to Gaza and he then was denied medical access.
  On 19 March 2010, Ziyada obtained a referral and appointment with doctors at the Hussein Medical Hospital in Jordan.
He also obtained a visa to enter Jordan via the Allenby Bridge in Jericho in the West Bank.
On 7 March 2010, Ziyada applied for Israeli permission to travel to Jordan via the Erez Crossing.
Ziyada did not receive any response and therefore he lost his appointment with the doctors in Jordan.
At approximately 3 pm on Saturday 24 April 2010, Ziyada received a phone call from the Palestinian Health Coordination Office telling him that the ISA wanted to interview him the next day.
At approximately 8 am on Sunday 25 April 2010, Ziyada left his home, but he did not return home.
At approximately 8 pm on the same day, Ziyada's father received a phone call telling him that his son 'Aed was detained at Ashkelon prison in the south of Israel.
  According to Al Mezan's lawyers who visited Ziyada in prison, a Beer Sheva court extended Ziyada’s remand until 4 May 2010 for the purpose of interrogation.
  This is not the first time the IOF have arrested Palestinian patients at the Erez Crossing after informing them that they should come to Erez crossing to be interviewed as part of security procedures to obtain permission to travel.
The IOF has previously arrested three patients.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel sent a letter to the Israeli Attorney General about the three cases in which the patients were arrested and taken to Israeli detention facilities.
The organizations demanded that the Israeli authorities immediately stop this misleading policy towards patients and to ensure unrestricted medical access to patients to receive medical treatment in hospitals outside the Gaza Strip.
 (For more information about this letter please see the organizations’ Press Release).
  The human rights organizations strongly condemn the detention of Ziyada and view it as a continuous exploitation of patients' suffering.
The IOF is violating its legal obligations under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
  Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, calls on the IOF to provide medical treatment for Ziyada.
The organizations also call on the international community to promptly intervene to stop the Israeli systematic violations of human rights and international human rights law; to ensure immediate medical access as well as other basic needs for Gazan patients, and to provide protection for Palestinian civilians who live under Israeli occupation and siege on the occupied Palestinian territory.
  End