Israel bars entry of 5-year-old from West Bank for cancer care, citing Gaza address

The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday rejected a petition to allow a five-year-old Palestinian boy to enter Israel for life-saving cancer treatment, citing policy that prevents Gaza residents from entering the country, despite the family moving to the West Bank in 2022.

Following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, Israel issued a sweeping ban on the entry of Gazans, including those seeking medical treatment. Previously, some residents of Gaza and the West Bank were able to enter Israel for care.

The boy’s mother described the ruling as a “death sentence” for her son, according to the Haaretz newspaper, and said that the boy’s father died of the same type of cancer three years earlier.

The Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, which has been representing the unnamed family since November 2025, filed the petition on their behalf.

According to Gisha, the family requested permission to bring the child to Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer near Tel Aviv for antibody immunotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.

The case summary noted that Sheba specializes in advanced-stage acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the type of cancer the boy has, and that West Bank doctors emphasized the child must begin intensive treatment “without delay.”

Gisha said in a statement that the court had chosen not to intervene in the state’s decision to bar the boy’s entry “despite the immediate danger to his life” and “an expert opinion by an Israeli physician.”

According to Gisha, the state argued that the child was refused on the grounds that Gaza residents are barred from entering Israel “for any purpose whatsoever.”

Additionally, the state was said to have claimed that the family did not demonstrate enough effort to find another country where the child could receive treatment.

The presiding judge, Ram Winograd, supported that argument, claiming that there was insufficient evidence presented to establish that the child’s medical condition prevented his transfer to Jordan.

However, case notes from Istishari Arab Hospital, the largest private hospital in the West Bank, stated that “given his condition” the boy “is not medically stable for transfer outside the country.”

Palestinian media reported the child is no longer able to walk and suffers from a severely weakened immune system, requiring medication to control seizures and blood pressure problems.