Palestinian conjoined twins make fraught journey from Gaza to Saudi for surgery

Conjoined Gaza twins arrive in Saudi for surgery

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The first known Palestinian conjoined twins were flown to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for separation surgery, overcoming a particularly Gazan string of obstacles including a blockade, squabbling governments and even holidays.

Egyptian officials authorized a rare opening of the Rafah crossing Tuesday so the 11-day-old girls, their parents and a medical team could enter Egypt. A special Saudi medical plane then whisked them to Saudi Arabia, where Saudi King Abdullah will pay for their operation.

Khaled al-Marghalani of the Saudi Health Ministry confirmed the twins had arrived and been taken to the National Guard Hospital in the capital, Riyadh.

The girls, Rital and Ritaj, were born in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on March 27, joined at the chest and sharing a small intestine. Each girl has a heart, lungs and other organs, increasing chances they’ll be able to survive separately, said Ayman Abu Amouna, the doctor who oversaw their care in Gaza.

TV footage of the twins in the Gaza hospital showed them sleeping face to face, each in her own diaper, one with an arm around the other’s body.

Mohammed al-Kashif of Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza said the birth sparked curiosity and doctors from around Gaza came to see the babies because they had only read about the rare condition in textbooks.

Al-Kashif said the girls were the first conjoined twins on record in the Palestinian territories. Spokesman Omar Nasser for the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry in the West Bank concurred.

Rival Palestinian governments have ruled the two territories since the Islamic militant Hamas seized Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, leaving him in control only of the West Bank. Attempts at reconciliation have failed.

Israel and Egypt imposed a strict blockade Gaza after the Hamas takeover, harming the territory’s health services and making it hard for patients to travel for treatment. Israel says it lets sufficient humanitarian products, including medical supplies, into the territory.

Kashif said Gaza’s Health Ministry asked the Saudi Embassy in Egypt to facilitate the twins’ travel. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank issued passports for the girls and their father on Saturday but couldn’t send them to Gaza, because Israel was observing the last Sabbath of the Passover holiday and offices were closed, Nasser said.

The West Bank and Gaza lie on opposite sides of Israel.

The passports reached Gaza on Sunday, but the family couldn’t travel on Monday because of a holiday in Egypt, Nasser said.

Further complications arose because Egypt has minimal contact with the Hamas government in Gaza, preferring to deal with the Palestinian Authority.

On Tuesday, following Saudi intervention, Hamas facilitated the twins’ transfer to the border, which Egypt opened especially so they could cross.

They boarded a special medical plane chartered by Saudi King Abdullah Tuesday afternoon. In Saudi Arabia, chief surgeon and Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabia will perform the surgery, paid for by the king, said Ahmad Mohammed al-Sedairi, Saudi ambassador to Egypt.

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Hubbard reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Ashraf Sweilam in Rafah, Egypt, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed reporting.