Medicine

By LISA BEYER/JERUSALEM

Palestinian health professionals now have a new solution to their chronic shortages of medical equipment and supplies: filch the stuff from Israel. According to a senior doctor in the West Bank, criminal gangs are offering their services to Palestinian medical centers--asking what items are needed and furnishing them cheaply after robbing Israeli facilities, which, because of higher budgets, are generally better outfitted. A Jerusalem pharmacy was robbed two weeks ago of medicines worth tens of thousands of dollars. The thieves left the narcotics on the shelf and took mainly antibiotics and fertility drugs, both scarce in the Palestinian territories. Recently hit too was the pathology lab of West Jerusalem's Bikur Holim Hospital, where thieves made off with $100,000 worth of equipment, such as centrifuges and a microscope. According to the Palestinian doctor, some of the same types of equipment turned up soon after in clinics in the West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli police say they are investigating all possibilities but that if the goods are in Hebron, they have no jurisdiction there.

--By Lisa Beyer/Jerusalem