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Gaza patients to be evacuated for treatment

November 5, 2024

Some 100 people will leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment. The World Health Organization has said the measure is inadequate and that thousands of patients were waiting to be evacuated for medical treatment.

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A destroyed building in Gaza
The Israeli army's heavy bombardments of the Gaza Strip resulted in many needing medical aidImage: AFP

More than 100 people, including children, will be evacuated from Gaza to receive medical treatment.

This is a rare transfer of patients out of the war-torn enclave, a World Health Organization (WHO) official told Reuters news agency.

"These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medical evacuation outside of Gaza," said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

According to Peeperkorn, 12,000 people are awaiting transfer for medical treatment outside of the Gaza Strip.

The 100 patients will travel in a large convoy via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, with some then traveling to Romania.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, the death toll in the enclave since the war's break stands at 43,391.

The numbers do not differentiate between combatants and civilians, but Gazan officials said more than half of those killed are women and children.

The war in Gaza began after militants led by the Hamas group, deemed a terrorist organization by several countries, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

ftm/sms (Reuters, AP)