WHO: Evacuation of 37 patients from Gaza to receive treatment in Egypt

The World Health Organization announced on Saturday the evacuation of 37 patients, most of them Palestinian children, from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing to receive treatment in Egyptian hospitals.

“With the support of WHO and our partners, today, 37 patients, 34 children and 3 adults, accompanied by 39 companions, left Gaza via the Rafah crossing to continue receiving treatment in Egypt,” WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on the X platform.

He expressed his gratitude to the Egyptian government for its continued support and provision of specialized medical care to patients from Gaza, stressing "the need to accelerate medical evacuation operations through all possible routes to save thousands of lives."

On Saturday, the first batch of Palestinian patients and wounded left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt for the first time since last May, heading to Cairo for treatment, as part of the understandings of the ceasefire agreement that went into effect on January 19.

Anadolu Agency correspondent reported that buses and ambulances carrying about 50 sick and injured children and their companions left the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing heading to the Egyptian side.

The reopening of the Rafah crossing, the Palestinian side of which was occupied by Israel in May 2024, represents the next major step in the prisoner exchange and ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.

Israel's occupation of the crossing, which is the Palestinians' lung to the outside world, prevented thousands of wounded people from traveling to receive treatment.

On January 19, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect. Its first phase will last for 42 days, during which negotiations will begin to begin a second and then a third phase, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States.

With American support, between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, Israel committed genocide in Gaza, leaving more than 159,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.

Anatolia