Israel 'ups questioning of Gaza patients'

Israel's Shin Beth internal security service has increased its interrogations of people seeking to leave Hamas-run Gaza for medical treatment, a rights group said in a report on Monday. Data collected by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel "indicates a rise in the number of Palestinian patients interrogated and forced to provide information as a precondition to exit Gaza for medical care," it said. "Between January 2008 and March 2009, at least 438 patients have been summoned for... interrogations... as a precondition for the review of their applications for an exit permit for the purpose of accessing medical treatment outside of the strip," it said. Whereas in January 2008, 1.45 percent of people who had submitted applications to Israeli authorities to leave Gaza were questioned, that number rose to 17 percent in January 2009, the group said. It said the Shin Beth had interrogated minors, photographed patients against their will; harassed, cursed and intimidated patients during questioning; and returned to Gaza patients who did not cooperate. People seeking to leave Gaza for medical treatment find themselves "between a rock and a hard place" as they also face pressure from the Hamas rulers of Gaza, the group said. Hamas has set up a checkpoint on the Gaza side of Erez and has "been preventing individuals from reaching the Erez crossing for... interrogations," it said. "In some cases, patients report threats leveled at them that if they proceed to interrogations they will be harmed," it said. A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister's office, which oversees the Shin Beth, rejected the report's accusations. A total of "13,000 sick are treated every year in Israel," Mark Regev said. "To suggest that all of them are required to provide information is simply ridiculous." But he said "the authorities have a duty to proceed with security checks to assure that the people entering Israel will not take advantage of this to commit attacks, as was the case in the past." Israel has sealed off Gaza to all but essential humanitarian goods since June 2007, when Hamas -- a group pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state -- violently assumed power in the Palestinian territory. In December 2008, Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza in response to persistent rocket fire from the territory, with the 22-day war killing more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Gaza is one of the world's most densely-populated territories where the vast majority of the 1.5-million population relies on UN aid.