A recent paper in the BMJ Paediatrics Open<https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e001655.full> highlights the still-current practice of forced separation of children from their parents at the Gaza-Israel border, when Palestinian children are referred for treatment in Israeli or West Bank hospitals.
This practice which is described in the paper as state sanctioned child abuse, is damaging to children and should be ended within the shortest possible time.
Tony Waterston
Tony Waterston CHIFA profile: Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician who worked mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He spent 6 years working in Zambia and Zimbabwe and directed the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Diploma in Palestinian Child Health teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was an Editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics. His academic interests are child poverty, advocacy for child health and children's rights. He is currently the lead moderator of CHIFA (HIFA's sister forum on child health and rights). www.chifa.org He is also a member of the HIFA Steering Group. www.hifa.org/people/steering-group www.hifa.org/support/members/tony
Tony.Waterston AT newcastle.ac.uk
