Gaza Evacuations Stall: Over 21,000 Patients Await Urgent Exit

The ministry said departures took place on only 7 of the 17 enabled days, a pace it described as a severe blockage that would take four years to evacuate the current list and eight years when adding new monthly cases. It said irregular opening of border crossings and delays in travel authorizations had turned medical referrals into a deadly race against time for seriously ill patients.

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It specified that 2,027 patients have died while waiting for an exit permit since the closure of the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, and that only 3,056 patients and wounded people have been transferred abroad since February 2026.

The care crisis is aggravated by the Zionist entity’s siege on humanitarian aid, which maintains an estimated deficit of 50 percent in consumable medical supplies and 42 percent in essential medicines within the Gaza hospital network.

The World Health Organization said more than 18,500 patients need urgent medical evacuation because required treatments are not available inside Gaza. It recalled that the transfer mechanism depends on a multi-stage approval process and security filters applied by Israel before coordinating logistics with international organizations.

This persists despite international commitments. The first phase of President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan for Gaza, which took effect in October 2025 to end the attack, required Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the territory and open the Rafah crossing in both directions.

Israel delayed the partial reopening until February and maintains a regime of unjustified closures and severe restrictions. Palestinian citizens who have managed to return through the border crossing denounced having suffered systematic harassment and beatings by occupation forces, stating that Israeli troops demanded they leave the enclave with their families and never return.

Author: vmmh

Source: QNN

Source: TeleSUR

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