A medical evacuation occurred in the Gaza strip for the first time since the area of Rafah and its crossing was seized by Israel, as a group of sick children and their companions were evacuated from the region through the Keres Shalom cargo crossing. The war that has raged on since October 2023 has decimated parts of Gaza, including the health care system as most hospitals were forced to shut down. 

The head of Gaza’s hospital system, Mohammed Zaqout, said the group included 19 children, with most being cancer patients, and the evacuation was coordinated by the World Health Organization along with three American charities. According to the Associated Press, Zaqout said there had been 21 children initially scheduled to evacuate, but one did not make the departure in time, and it is unknown why the other did not make it. 

There are an estimated 980 children with cancer along with a total of 25,000 patients in Gaza that need urgent treatment, Zaqout said, according to AP News.

“They are at risk of death due to a lack of treatment and necessary health care,” he said at a news conference outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, according to The Washington Post. 

With this being the first medical evacuation in the region, reports state that humanitarian groups hope this will yield a new route for vulnerable and severely ill Palestinians who need urgent medical care. The Washington Post reports that it is unclear where the patients will be taken for treatment and if more Palestinians will be allowed to evacuate. 

“We are so happy, but we don’t know the next step,” Souad al-Qanou, 26, said via WhatsApp. She left Gaza with her two sons, 8-year-old Ahmed and Amjad, who is 6, according to the Washington Post. 

Ahmed has testicular cancer and Amjad suffers a kidney condition while also facing malnourishment from the ongoing war. 

A father of a young wounded girl being evacuated, Nour Abu Zahri, was pictured weeping as he said his goodbyes to her. She suffered burns on her head to due an Israeli airstrike, and he did not receive permission to leave with her, but her mother did, according to the Associated Press.

“It’s been almost 10 months, and there is no solution for the hospitals here,” he said.

Critically sick children wave to their relatives before being evacuated out of the Gaza Strip. Photo: AP Photo / Abdel Kareem Hana

Rafah was seized by Israel last month, claiming it was necessary to eject Hamas. According to the Gaza Health ministry, there has been more than 37,000 people killed. While there has been no definitive number given regarding the number of civilians killed versus combatants, reports state most of the people killed are women and children. 

The Rafah crossing that was shut down existed as the sole way out for injured and ill Palestinians. Reports state that while waiting for permission to leave and receive treatment abroad, some of the sick Palestinians, facing critical illnesses, died. 

The World Health Organization reported that 4,895 Palestinians have been medically evacuated up to May 7. As of now, the World Health Organization reports that an estimated 10,000 people also need to be medically evacuated from the region, according to Rik Peeperkorn, the organization’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza. 

“And that is an underestimation,” he said at a news conference Wednesday, the Washington Post reported. “We need all routes to make this happen. And that is why we plead, we request to open the Rafah crossing and make sure there can be organized medevac into Egypt.”

Tania Hary, director of the Israeli right group Gisha, an organization aimed at protecting the freedom of Palestinians’ movement in Gaza, said Israel should’ve “already made plans for this kind of thing” prior to the Rafah military invasion.