WHO: At current rate, it will take 10 years to evacuate injured from Gaza

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised concern over the slow pace of medical evacuations for Palestinians in Gaza, warning that at the current rate, it could take five to ten years to address the backlog of critically ill patients, including thousands of children.

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza, revealed that out of 12,000 Palestinian patients awaiting urgent transfer for treatment, only 78 have been evacuated recently.

Among those waiting are 2,500 children, according to UNICEF, with some tragically losing their lives while suffering prolonged delays.

Medical evacuation requests often face months-long delays for approval from Israeli authorities, and recent months have seen a sharp decline in the number of successful evacuations.

According to WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris, since Israel launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October last year, approximately 5,230 patients have been evacuated from Gaza.

However, the evacuation pace has drastically slowed, particularly since May, when Israel invaded and took control of the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, closing it and raising the Israel flag over it. Only 342 patients have been evacuated since; averaging fewer than two per day.

READ: Several killed as Israel army intensifies attacks in northern Gaza

In a rare exception in November, 200 critically ill and injured Palestinians, along with their caregivers, were evacuated in one of the largest operations in months. Despite this, many patients face rejection for unclear or unexplained “security reasons”, including children whose accompanying caregivers are sometimes denied passage.

Moeen Mahmood, Jordan country director for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), criticised the decisions as “arbitrary”, lacking clear criteria or logic. Meanwhile, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), claims it “makes every effort to approve the departure of children and their families for medical treatments, subject to a security check.”

In August, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) requested from the Israeli military to evacuate 32 children and their caregivers, however only six were granted passage. Moreover, in November, MSF applied to evacuate eight more children, including a two-year-old with leg amputations. However, the request was denied.

Israeli officials later claimed that five of the eight children were approved, but their caregivers were barred from traveling due to unspecified “security concerns.” MSF was advised to resubmit the applications with alternate carers, but no explanation was given for the rejection of the other three children.

Meanwhile, one of the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza came under attack on Friday. Rik Peeperkorn of the World Health Organisation stated that the Israeli strike occurred without prior warning or an official evacuation order.

Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, confirmed multiple strikes hit the facility, one of the last functioning health centres in northern Gaza. The attack left four hospital staff among the dead and wounded. He said, “There was a series of airstrikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire.”

Israel has killed 45,000 Palestinians, mainly children and women, and wounded 106,000 others since October last year. At least 11,000 are missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure destroyed by the apartheid state.