British Broadcasting CorporationWounded and critically ill Palestinians are traveling from Gaza to the United Arab Emirates for treatment, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, in the biggest wave since the war began after Hamas launched a brutal attack on southern Israel on October 7 Medical evacuation.
Gaza hospital sources said 150 patients had been loaded onto five buses, but WHO has not yet confirmed the exact number.
A subsequent massive Israeli military campaign devastated Gaza’s health care system.
In early May, after the Israeli military took control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the main channel for medical evacuees was closed.
The World Health Organization says some 5,000 Gazans have so far been receiving treatment outside the country, but 10,000 still need to leave.
This latest group began gathering at pick-up points on Sunday to be transported to a central location before departure.
In the city center of Deir al-Balah, bus stops were packed with patients and their families.
“I appeal to the world to look at us with compassion,” said Shaza Abu Selim, who was pushing her daughter, Lamis, in a wheelchair. The young girl needs major surgery for scoliosis, which has been delayed for six months. She was almost motionless, her face stained with tears and exhaustion.
“I couldn’t believe it when they contacted me [to say] My daughter is also on the list to travel outside Gaza for treatment,” her mother said. “I don’t know when the war will end…May God make everything easy and heal everyone.”
Even before the conflict, some Gazans were receiving treatment outside the country because the health system was ill-equipped to cope with complex medical conditions.
However, Israeli bombings closed hospitals, killed doctors, blocked medicines, and overwhelmed remaining facilities, causing casualties.
Nasima Aguil’s story encapsulates the pain and despair caused.
“We were shocked,” she said. “My eldest son was killed, my father was killed, my younger son Arthur lost his sight.”
Ms. Argyle sat, holding little Axel in her arms, his eyelids closed over his empty eye sockets. Her leg was bandaged.
“His left eye was blown out with a skull fracture,” she said. “My second son suffered leg injuries and deformities, I suffered a fractured skull, lost sight in my left eye, fractured shoulders and ribs.”
Israeli forces say they have found Hamas fighters and infrastructure inside hospitals and clinics, but the radical Islamist movement that controlled Gaza before the war denies this.
But human rights activists accuse Israel of obstructing medical evacuations.
Doctors for Human Rights Israel and other groups filed a petition with Israel’s High Court after the Rafah crossing was closed in early June.
Egypt has refused to reopen the crossing, which is the only route out of Gaza without entering Israel and previously the main exit point for fleeing civilians and Israelis, since Israeli forces began a ground operation to seize the border area two months ago. channel.
Egyptian officials insist that the Gaza side of the crossing must be returned to Palestinian control.
As a result of the court’s action, the Israeli government committed to establishing a permanent mechanism allowing regular medical evacuations.
But it has yet to do so, announcing on Sunday that it was canceling the expected evacuations without giving a reason.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the decision personally after Hezbollah launched a deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights over the weekend that killed 12 children and teenagers, Kan public broadcaster reported.
This seemed to be quickly reversed. Azza Ahmed Kafarneh, 57, a mother and grandmother living with cancer, told the BBC patients prepared to go home after hearing the news but were told to stay , because “they’ll probably agree to wait for you to leave.”
Nothing was certain in this war, and for those lucky enough to escape it, farewells were bittersweet.
Sarah Marzouk, a 12-year-old girl who wiped away tears at a bus stop on Sunday, said she lost a foot when her neighbor’s house was bombed.
“I hope the war will end and all kids like me can go abroad with me to get prosthetics and receive treatment,” she said. “I also hope to be able to come back and see my father safely.”
Ms Ahmed Kafaneh said she would not have left if she had not felt so uncomfortable. She has not heard of any medical evacuees returning to Gaza.
“I was confused about leaving my family and going to therapy,” she said. “Things could take longer, the war could go on for a long time, things could get worse. No one knows.
