Hismi Bisnak, a resident of Aboush in the northern West Bank with a prescription from a mobile clinic run jointly by Israeli Physicians for Human Rights and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. photo: Christian Aid / Alex Klaushofer
'These are things that in a developed country, like Israel, would have been immediately taken care of'

Hismi is in her seventies or eighties – ’I don’t know exactly’ she says – and has been receiving treatment from a mobile clinic run by Christian Aid partners the Israeli Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS).

Every weekend, Israeli doctors and nurses volunteer their time to offer basic medical care and treatment to villages in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The role of these mobile clinics is increasingly important, as access to healthcare has become more and more obstructed by closures and curfews imposed by the Israeli army over the past four years.

These mobile clinics are often the only access to treatment and medicine for Palestinians trapped in enclaves or forbidden to travel due to the route of the separation barrier Israel is building throughout the West Bank.

Due to intense back and leg pain Hismi is unable to walk far: ’I used to go to [the nearest town] Tulkarem, but now I can’t because the road is blocked and people have to travel cross country to get to it. My illness prevents me from doing this.’

Roadblocks installed by the Israeli Defence Forces prevent vehicles from entering or leaving many West Bank villages. Palestinians needing to travel to hospitals have been delayed or refused passage at checkpoints.

The mobile clinic in Aboush is set up in the local school. Once the morning classes have finished, medics treat patients in the classrooms while, through a classroom window, nurses dispense medicines from a makeshift pharmacy. The patients queue outside, sitting on benches or standing in the playground.

’Sometimes I go to the clinic in the village, but they haven’t got medicine there. I go home again, with pain but without medicine,’ Hismi explains. ’I am very happy this clinic has come here today.’

Hanna Kanz, 58, is an Israeli nurse who has been volunteering on the mobile clinics for 13 years. ’You see genetic problems here,’ she says. ’Problems from birth that are not taken care of. These are things that in a developed country, like Israel, would have been immediately taken care of.’

Lack of health education is a big issue in the territories but Hanna explains it is a case of priorities. ’When you ask the mothers if their kids have a toothbrush, they say they do. But it’s a question of priorities – if people are shooting at you every day, you don’t worry about rotten teeth.’

Asked about how she feels being treated by an Israeli, the frail Hisni is resolute. ’Whoever cures me is my friend. In future I hope to be able to go to Israel for treatment. I ask Allah to relieve me from the pain I am suffering from.’