Israel has approved the evacuation of 21 children suffering from cancer from among thousands of children waiting for treatment in Gaza for the first time in two months

At least 21 children suffering from cancer entered Egypt from the Gaza Strip for the first time this Thursday through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, with more than a dozen ambulances transferring them to a hospital in North Sinai in the first medical evacuation since early May.

The Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry confirmed the loss of at least 21 young cancer patients, saying it was “a drop in the ocean” not just for cancer patients but also for patients who need treatment abroad. The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza City, the Strip’s only cancer hospital, stopped operating in early November due to a fuel shortage, leaving around 10,000 cancer patients across the territory without the possibility of receiving treatment. Nearly nine months of war have devastated Gaza’s healthcare sector and forced most of its hospitals to close.

The Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, known by its acronym COGAT, said on Thursday that the evacuation was carried out in coordination with officials from the United States, Egypt and the international community.

Parents can accompany their children without permission

Relatives bid tearful farewell to children at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Many families appeared anxious, as not all parents were allowed to travel and even those who were allowed to accompany patients were unaware of their final destination.

Nour Abu Zahri cried as she said goodbye to her young daughter. The girl’s head has been severely burned in an Israeli airstrike. She said she was not allowed to leave Gaza with them, although her mother was. “It’s been almost 10 months, and there is no solution for the hospitals here,” she told The Associated Press. The agency also collected testimony from Kamela Abukwayik, who burst into tears when her son boarded a bus headed to the square with his mother. Neither she nor her husband were allowed to leave. “She has tumors all over her body and we don’t know what’s causing them. And she has a constant fever,” she said. “I still don’t know where this is going.”

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the only one available for people to enter and exit, was closed after Israeli forces captured it during their operation in the city early last month. Egypt has refused to reopen its side of the crossing until the Gaza side is returned to Palestinian control.

When this happened, Turkey announced that it could receive a thousand cancer patients, while the United Arab Emirates promised to care for the same number, as well as another thousand injured children.

Thousands of patients are waiting for treatment

Before May, most patients who needed to leave the enclave for medical reasons did so via the Rafah crossing, on the Egyptian border and the only one not under Israeli control, which was closed after the Israeli operation in the city began. The offensive began after 7 October and resulted in the deaths of 37,765 people, of whom 15,882 were children.

Since the war began and until Israel took control of the Rafah crossing, more than 2,600 patients had been evacuated, including 1,700 wounded and 900 sick, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-controlled Strip.

Gazan health officials estimate that about 25,000 people still need to be moved off the Strip for treatment and that dozens of patients have died while waiting to be evacuated.