Thousands of Gazans need medical attention—injured or sick—the regional agency of the World Health Organization highlighted on Wednesday and welcomed the first Egyptian health evacuation from Gaza.
On Wednesday, Egypt allowed, for the first time since the start of the war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, to open the Rafah border crossing for the sick and wounded.
On Wednesday, Egypt allowed, for the first time since the start of the war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, to open the Rafah border crossing for the sick and wounded.
Until then, only humanitarian aid had passed there, and only in dribs and drabs.
“WHO welcomes Egypt’s decision to accept 81 injured and sick people from the Gaza Strip in need of treatment,” WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region said in a statement.
However, he also pointed out that these patients are only a small part of the people who need urgent help in the Palestinian territory, bombed incessantly by Israel and under an almost complete siege.
Advertisement: Scroll to Continue
The WHO estimates that more than 1,000 patients “need dialysis to survive” and that more than 2,000 patients need treatment for cancer.
As for heart patients and diabetics, the WHO estimates 45,000 and 60,000, respectively.
Israel claimed to be responding to an unprecedented attack by Hamas on its territory, which left 1,400 dead.
Israeli bombardment has left more than 8,700 dead in Gaza so far, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which controls the Palestinian territory.
