Group of sick Gazan children allowed medical passage to Egypt for first time since May

More than 10,000 patients still need medical evacuation, WHO says

Israel said it has allowed 68 people, including 19 sick and injured children and their companions, to leave Gaza for Egypt through the Karam Abu Salem crossing.

It is the first medical passage permitted since Israeli forces last month took control of the Rafah border crossing, the sole entry and exit point that had been available to Gaza’s civilians.

Dr Ahmad Zaqout, the director of Gaza’s hospitals, told media that 21 leukaemia patients left Gaza for Egypt on Thursday. “We accept this method of evacuation, although it is complicated. Bringing these patients out this way is insufficient.

“We are constantly urging the opening of the Rafah border to allow this large number of patients to receive treatment outside Gaza.”

Dr Zaquot said more than 25,000 people require treatment abroad, including 10,000 cancer patients.

“The closure of the Rafah border, the destruction of over 70 per cent of our treatment capacity, and the absence of necessary treatments, especially for cancer, have created an urgent need for these patients to be able to leave,” he added.

The process was carried out in co-ordination with the US, Egypt and the international community.

Three-year-old Rawand Shahla has developed a brain issue due to malnutrition. Her father, Ahmad, says she needs urgent treatment which is not available in Gaza.

“Rawand left to Egypt to get treatment with her mother and four sisters, I hope she gets treatment and comes back soon,” he told the National.

The family has been displaced many times since the start of the war, from the north of Gaza to Rafah in the south, then to Deir Al Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

According to the government media office in Gaza, thousands of patients are facing death because they need to travel to receive treatment, but the closure and destruction of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on June 17 has prevented them from leaving.

The World Health Organisation put the number of patients needing medical care outside Gaza at 10,000.

“Medical evacuation corridors must be urgently established for the sustained, organised, safe and timely passage of critically ill patients from Gaza via all possible routes,” Hanan Balkhy, regional director for the WHO, said on X.

“This includes Rafah and Karem Shalom to Egypt, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and from there to other countries when needed.”

Kamla Abu Kwaik did not receive approval to leave with her five-year-old son, Fayez, an advanced cancer patient. His condition worsened during the war, and he cannot walk. His grandmother, however, was permitted to take him instead.

“I am deeply saddened that I cannot be with him,” Mrs Abu Kwaik told media.

“My child is five years old and cannot be without his mother. He requires special care.

“He cries and keeps asking for me to be with him, but there’s nothing I can do.”