The World Health Organization's (WHO) top official in Gaza, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, said Thursday (6/2) that more exit routes from the Gaza enclave are urgently needed for the medical evacuation of thousands of Palestinians, including children, who need life-saving medical care.
“There should be more patients going through Rafah to Egypt, but we also want other medical corridors,” Peeperkorn said, speaking in a teleconference from Gaza. “And the first medical corridor that we really want to see restored is the traditional referral route to the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The hospitals in east Jerusalem and the West Bank are ready to receive patients.”
Peeperkorn said that under the ceasefire agreement, they can evacuate up to 50 Palestinian patients a day. So far, they have been able to evacuate no more than 39 patients a day. He said this should be increased because there are 12,000 to 14,000 patients who need to be evacuated, including at least 5,000 children. These patients suffer from trauma, heart problems and a number of diseases, including cancer.
Before Hamas's terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war, there were 50 to 100 patients in Gaza who were referred daily to hospitals in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, mainly for heart problems and cancer treatment, Peeperkorn said.
During the first months of the war between Israel and Hamas, nearly 5,000 patients were evacuated via the Rafah crossing to Egypt – and some to other countries – for treatment.
But after the Israeli military closed the Rafah crossing in early May last year ahead of its offensive into the southern Gaza Strip, the number of people evacuated dropped dramatically. From May until the ceasefire came into effect in mid-January, fewer than 500 Palestinian patients were evacuated.
"In fact, residents, and some critical patients, including children, who cannot get medical help, are in a dying condition," said Peeperkorn.
Specialized care in war-torn Gaza is scarce. WHO says only 18 of the Strip’s 36 hospitals are still partially functional. Some are in ruins. Many lack basic supplies and adequate fuel. Critical equipment has been destroyed, Peeperkorn said, and there is only one CT scanner and one MRI machine left in all of Gaza.
The health care needs are enormous for all Palestinians in Gaza due to physical and psychological trauma, Peeperkorn said. The current ceasefire has allowed WHO to scale up its response to the general population, including plans to provide more beds in the few hospitals that are still operational, he said. In the weeks since the ceasefire began, WHO has sent 105 truckloads of medical supplies to meet the health needs of 1.6 million Palestinians
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