78 patients evacuated from Gaza for care abroad

The Israeli military says it has allowed 231 patients and their caregivers to evacuate the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad.

COGAT, the military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza, said Wednesday that they left through the Kerem Shalom Crossing with Israel.

It says 78 patients and 132 caregivers travelled to the United Arab Emirates, and six patients and 15 caregivers went to Romania.

The operation was coordinated with the World Health Organization, the European Union and the UAE, which forged diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020.

On Tuesday, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said the U.N. health agency was helping coordinate the evacuations based on a list of priority candidates drawn up by the Health Ministry in Gaza.

"The patients are a mix of trauma patients, but also chronic diseases. We also medevac a lot of cancer patients,” he said.

Israa al-Halabi, whose son Abdel-Moneim was hit by shrapnel, was eagerly waiting evacuation in a Rafah hospital ward on Tuesday. She and her son will travel to the United Arab Emirates so Abdel-Moneim can receive treatment for burns and an amputated leg.

Also set to leave were Khitam Darwish and her son Ali Darwish. Ali, who is autistic, sufferers from an eye injury and hemiplegia and has burns on his back.

Israel has controlled all of Gaza’s border crossings since it invaded the southern city of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, in May.

The Israel-Hamas war, now in its second year, has gutted Gaza’s health system, with less than half of its hospitals even partially functioning.

Thousands of people remain on waiting lists to get out.

“WHO estimates that between 12 and 14,000 critical patients should be medevaced outside Gaza to get the right treatment and care they deserve,” Peeperkorn said.