The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday said more than 12,000 persons are in need of medical evacuation from Gaza Strip.
In a statement released on X platform, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for intervention to help injured victims of the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Ghebreyesus decried the slow pace of the evacuations, stating that the organisation has been able to evacuate about 5383 patients since 2023 while thousands are still in need, especially children.
He said, “WHO has repeatedly raised the alarm that patients in #Gaza need urgent medical evacuation for life-saving treatment, yet the pace of evacuations remains excruciatingly slow.
“Only 5383 patients have been evacuated with support from WHO since October 2023, of which only 436 since the Rafah crossing was closed.
“Over 12,000 people still need medical evacuation. At this rate, it would take 5-10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients, including thousands of children. In the meantime, their conditions get worse and some die.
“On 31 December 2024, 55 patients and 72 companions were evacuated to the #UAE. We thank the UAE government for their continued support – they have helped with the medical evacuation of over 1200 patients so far.
“We also thank Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye, Algeria, Italy, Romania, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Tunisia, Oman, Jordan and the USA for their support with medical evacuations and health care.” he said.
Ghebreyesus urged Israel to “increase the approval rate for medical evacuations, including no denials of child patients and hasten the process of approvals for medical evacuations while allowing all possible corridors and border crossings to be used for safe medical evacuations.
WHO also called on other countries to lend their support by receiving patients and offering specialized health care to prevent more suffering and deaths.
The war in Gaza escalated after Hamas’ launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1208 and kidnapping 251 others.
Since then, Israel’s retaliatory military action in Gaza has led to the death of over 45000 persons, the Palestinian health ministry said — a data the UN sees as being reliable.
Over 12,000 Require Medical Evacuation From Gaza, WHO Says is first published on The Whistler Newspaper