WHO calls for evacuating Gaza patients for treatment

The World Health Organisation has called for access to patients in the Gaza Strip and free passage to evacuate them for medical treatment, Reuters reported on Friday.

WHO Spokesperson Fadela Chaib told a Geneva briefing that around 600 patients, including some with chronic conditions, needed to be referred outside of the Palestinian enclave since the start of the hostilities, but had been unable due to crossing closures.

“It’s very important that we help Palestinians get the care they need, especially helping them get treatment outside the Gaza strip,” she asserted.

Dozens of health centres, Reuters reported, were damaged during Israeli bombings earlier this month, prompting the WHO to warn that facilities risked being overwhelmed.

“The capacity of the health system to respond is completely crushed,” MSF Head of mission in Gaza Helen Ottens-Patterson told journalists earlier this week.

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