GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A U.S. charity has inaugurated the first children's cancer department in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The $3 million department, sponsored by Palestine Children Relief Fund, will help many children avoid the difficult journey of exiting the blockaded area for treatment in Israel and the West Bank, often without an accompanying parent.
At Tuesday's opening, it was called "a symbol of hope."
The facility — a new floor at Gaza's pediatric hospital — will provide chemotherapy, though bone marrow transplants and nuclear medicine won't be available.
The fund says it has an agreement with the World Health Organization to secure free movement of samples to labs in Israel or Jordan.
Israel and Egypt have blockaded Gaza, home to 2 million people, when the militant Hamas group seized power there in 2007.
