A 22-year-old Jenin resident was arrested Wednesday for posing as an Israeli citizen in order to receive medical treatment.According to suspicions, the young Palestinian woman passed herself off as an Israeli in order to undergo complicated lung surgery at Haifa’s Rambam Hospital.
The woman arrived at the hospital a week and a half ago and presented herself as a citizen of Israel. During the course of her treatment, the hospital staff discovered that that her blood type does no match that that of the Israeli woman whose identity she stole. Despite this, and because of her sensitive condition, the suspect underwent the operation. Hospital staff only notified the police of the crime after the patient was healthy enough to be discharged.
Haifa Police chief Dudu Ben-Atia said that because of the sensitive nature of the case police is likely to allow the suspect’s release on bail until she makes a complete recovery.A spokesperson for Rambam Hospital said the hospital decided to authorize the surgery and provide the Palestinian woman with complete medical treatment despite that fact that they had discovered the identity theft beforehand.
The hospital staff expressed surprise at the fact that the woman had to resort to identity theft in order to undergo the operation, as they routinely treat patients from the Palestinian Authority.
