Activists: Israel pressuring ill Palestinians to be informers

Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers. 24.10.07. Israel gave Hiyya permission to leave the Gaza Strip last month and cross Israeli territory for immediate surgery in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. But when he arrived at the Israeli border crossing, he learned that there was a catch. In a daylong interrogation, Hiyya said, Israeli intelligence offered him a deal: Tell us about your brother, a wanted militant, and we'll let you enter Israel for the operation you need. When Hiyya refused, they turned him away. Human rights groups charge that Hiyya's case is one of nearly a dozen they've documented in which Israelis allegedly have tried to recruit ailing Palestinians as informers in the low-intensity war with the militant Islamic group Hamas. Since June, at least five Palestinians have died after being denied permits to leave Gaza for emergency medical treatment, according to Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli human-rights group that's working to help patients in Gaza. Human Rights Watch's Abrahams warned that the Israeli strategy could create risks for Palestinians who're allowed out of Gaza because militants will suspect them of being collaborators. "It casts a shadow of suspicion over those who succeed to leave Gaza," he said. "People will wonder what they did to be able to get out."