WHO says first five patients evacuated via Gaza’s Rafah crossing
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A Palestinian waving from a window as people wounded in war and patients get ready to leave Gaza for treatment abroad.
PHOTO: REUTERS
GENEVA – The first five patients had been transferred through Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt
“On Feb 2, WHO and partners supported the medical evacuation of five patients and seven companions to Egypt via the Rafah crossing,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said on Feb 3.
“It was the first medical evacuation through this route since some time in 2025,” he said, referring to a limited number of evacuations during an early 2025 ceasefire.
More than 18,500 patients are awaiting evacuations after the two-year war, he said, with trauma injuries from the war, as well as chronic conditions such as cancer and diabetes.
A UNICEF spokesman said more than 3,000 of them were children.
The Gaza health authorities are choosing whom to prioritise among the sick and wounded, Mr Lindmeier said.
“We know that patients have died basically waiting for evacuation, and that’s something which is horrible when you know just a few miles or kilometres outside that border, help is available,” he added. REUTERS
