Many young Israeli women agree to sell their organs because of their dire economic situation, police report says.
The women reportedly travelled to Turkey to undergo surgery. The removed organs — usually kidneys — were then transplanted into patients.
“This is a very severe case involving the exploitation of young women in very serious economic distress, who were convinced to travel to other countries and donate their organs, with some having second thoughts at the end of the process, only to realize it was too late,” said officer Peretz Amar, commander of the Negev subdistrict police.
According to Israeli police on Tuesday, an inquiry has begun into an international organ trafficking ring stretching from Israel to Turkey. The probe is focused on the southern Israeli town of Be’er Sheva and involves cases of women aged 18 to 20.
A physician from central Israel is also suspected of carrying out tissue tests of the patients and the donors and advising them before the surgery, police said.
A report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in August 2013 indicated, “The incomes of about one in five Israeli households fall below the (relative) poverty line.”
In 2012, at least 10 Israeli citizens were arrested for membership in an organ trafficking gang. It also included organs of the Palestinians killed by the Israelis.
Israel admitted in 2009 that it had harvested organs from dead Palestinians without permission from their next of kin in the 1990s.
