Some 22,000 patients and injured people in Gaza, including thousands of children, need treatment abroad. Ismail al-Thawabta, director general of the Palestinian government media office in the Gaza Strip, said in a statement Thursday that they needed to be urgently evacuated from the territory.
Al-Thawabta called for the border crossings to be fully and immediately opened. He urged that 1,000 patients and injured people be taken out of Gaza each day for treatment and said that border crossings should be organized to meet this need.
Crossing figures after the ceasefire
According to data from Israeli border crossing authorities, about 10,500 people left Gaza after the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, while about 6,000 people returned to the territory.
Al-Thawabta said the figures fell short of Gaza's humanitarian needs. He argued that the data did not reflect the conditions in which large numbers of patients and injured people were unable to access treatment.
Return of Palestinians outside Gaza
Al-Thawabta also called for the demands and rights of approximately 90,000 Palestinians outside Gaza concerning their return to the territory to be addressed.
Calling on the international community, the World Health Organization and United Nations agencies to exert serious pressure on Israel, al-Thawabta demanded that procedures at the border crossings be facilitated so they would not prevent patients from accessing treatment.
Figures released on medical evacuations
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the final week of August that support had been provided for the evacuation of 106 patients through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings. Nineteen of the evacuated patients were children, and 132 companions accompanied them.
According to figures provided by Ghebreyesus, 13,237 patients, including 6,276 children, and 16,406 companions had been evacuated from Gaza since October 2023.
