Hundreds of Gaza patients die waiting for medical evacuation

Five patients and seven companions crossed from Gaza into Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Feb. 2, yet the transfer barely moved the backlog for people trapped behind a system of delayed approvals and shrinking access to care. The World Health Organization said more than 900 Palestinians had died while waiting for medical evacuation, while Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry estimated about 300 Palestinians referred for treatment abroad had died since the ceasefire began.

The waiting list remains vast. WHO said about 16,500 people, including almost 4,000 children, are still awaiting approval to leave Gaza for treatment abroad, even though the advanced care they need is unavailable in the Strip. Patients needing evacuation include people with complex trauma injuries, cancer and kidney failure, conditions that cannot be managed when hospitals lack supplies, specialist staff and functioning referral routes.

WHO has evacuated more than 7,600 patients from Gaza since October 2023, and two-thirds of them were children. But the pace of movement has been far slower than the need. After Rafah briefly reopened in early February, WHO and partners facilitated the evacuation of only five patients and seven companions to Egypt on Feb. 2. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said WHO had facilitated 289 patient evacuations and 521 caregivers since Rafah reopened in early February, a number that underscored how limited the corridor remained.

The agency has pushed for the opening of all evacuation routes, especially access to the West Bank including East Jerusalem, where specialized treatment is more reachable. That demand reflects the reality inside Gaza, where delayed approvals have turned medical referral into a race against time for patients who were already cleared for outside care.

Doctors Without Borders said in December 2025 that patients could not wait for Gaza’s health system to be rebuilt and needed urgent medical evacuation immediately. The group also called on more countries to accept evacuees, arguing that the burden cannot fall on a handful of open crossings while people with life-threatening injuries and chronic illness keep dying in place.