A wounded woman is being evacuated following an Israeli strike in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood on December 3, 2024, amidst the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian territory. — AFP
On Tuesday, medical professionals and human rights organizations urged the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor from Gaza to facilitate the urgent evacuation of patients to hospitals in East Jerusalem. Israel controls all exit points from the Gaza Strip, which has been ravaged by over a year of warfare between Israel and militants led by the Palestinian group Hamas. While rare medical evacuations have been coordinated by international organizations or foreign countries with Israeli authorities, the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) called for the immediate reopening of the Gaza to East Jerusalem medical corridor, estimating that approximately 25,000 patients in Gaza require urgent medical attention.
Fadi Atrash, the director of Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, emphasized that reopening the evacuation corridor is crucial to continue providing essential treatments in East Jerusalem hospitals, which have both the capacity and medical expertise. Before the war, patients in Gaza needing medical care unavailable in the Palestinian territory could be evacuated to hospitals in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem or the occupied West Bank, and in some cases, Israel. However, since the Gaza war began last year, this mechanism has been inactive.
During a special evacuation in early November, the World Health Organization reported that around 14,000 people were awaiting medical evacuations. Shortly after, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated that Israeli authorities had blocked, without explanation, the medical evacuation of eight children and their caretakers from Gaza, including a two-year-old with leg amputations, to the MSF hospital in Jordan. "We strongly condemn this decision," MSF declared.
On Tuesday, 31 patients and caregivers departed Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel, according to Cogat, the Israeli Defense Ministry agency managing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories. The patients were scheduled to be transferred to Jordan and the United States for treatment. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted on X that the 31 included 11 children with cancer awaiting treatment and 20 companions. "Thousands of patients across Gaza still need medical evacuations for life-saving medical care. We urge that all corridors be utilized for the safe transfer of patients outside the Gaza Strip," he said.
Over 105,000 people have been injured in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023, according to figures from the territory's health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable. Gaza's healthcare system has been significantly damaged by the war, with only a few medical facilities currently able to provide care.
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