Why Hasn’t Layla al-Ghandour’s Forensic Report Been Released Yet?

Last week, I posted about the case of 8-month-old palestinian baby girl Layla al-Ghandour, whose death was initially blamed on Israel, but due to a pre-existing medical condition, she was removed from the list of “martyrs” pending an investigation.

A few days after I posted this, AP reported:

On May 14, the Health Ministry initially said she died from tear gas fired by Israeli forces. After her funeral the following day, a medical official told the AP that he believed a serious pre-existing medical condition was to blame for the death.

The ministry later said it was referring the case to the forensic medicine department to issue a ruling.

The Justice Ministry, which controls the forensic medicine department, said it ended its investigation and referred the file to Gaza’s attorney general. Both authorities have declined to comment.

An official Health Ministry list of those killed in the protests between March 30 and May 19 had 112 names, but the infant was not on the list. The baby’s family refused to share hospital reports with the AP, after initially promising to do so.

Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra told reporters in a WhatsApp group on Wednesday that officials are still “waiting for the forensics report” and that in the meantime, the infant’s name would be kept off the list of those killed in the protests.

This was a week ago. Why have we not heard anything yet, even though the investigation into her cause of death was completed? Why did Layla’s family refuse to share the hospital reports with the media?

These are of course rhetorical questions. I think we know exactly why this is the case. Because you can sure as hell bet we’d have heard the results immediately had Israel been to blame.

Update: Meanwhile, despite the fact she is still officially off the “martyrs” list, there are those still claiming Israel killed her.

 

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