A remarkable achievement: the revocation of the decision by the Political-Security Cabinet to deny relatives of Hamas members exit permits to leave the Gaza Strip in order to receive medical treatment.

This important ruling, rendered in response to our petition in collaboration with Gisha, Adalah and Al Mezan, constitutes an outstanding achievement in the current political climate. It will allow the five petitioners, female patients with cancer and malignant tumors, to travel out of the Gaza Strip for life-saving medical treatments at Al Makassed and Augusta Victoria hospitals in East Jerusalem. It will also change things for many Gazan female and male patients who have been prevented for many months from travelling out for treatment by the Cabinet’s decision.

Following numerous requests by patients whose applications for vital treatment in Israel and East Jerusalem were refused due to family ties to Hamas, we approached the Coordination and Liaison Administration, demanding that they allow these patients entry and avoid arbitrary, collective punishment. When we realized that our pleas came to naught, we petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ), in the clear knowledge that these women’s lives were on the line.

Our petition argued that the state’s decision not to allow entrance into Israel of female cancer patients (and other patients denied entry on grounds of family ties to a Hamas member) in order to access medical treatment ran counter to ethical values and to the humanitarian obligations of the State of Israel under International Humanitarian Law, and constituted an arbitrary, unreasonable and unproportional decision when viewed under Israeli Law as well.

In the ruling handed down yesterday, the Justices determined that the Cabinet’s decision was illegal, unproportional and contrary to the values of Judaism and the State of Israel and that relatives of Hamas members could not be categorically punished just because of their family ties.

The Justices further determined that patients could not be used as pawns to put pressure on Hamas with a view the push for the return of the prisoners and missing persons, even when it is clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that the end is a worthy one; the end, however, does not justify all means.

Our petition to the HCJ was the last recourse in a fight against a cruel policy that affected a particularly vulnerable population—women facing life-threatening diseases, a policy seemingly meant to further Israeli pressure on Hamas.

Our victory at court is first and foremost a victory for those women and men whose lives depend on Israel issuing entry permits for life-saving treatment, against a backdrop of poverty, closure and a protracted humanitarian crisis.