WHO asks more countries to accept Gaza patients

Doctors perform surgery on a patient at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The World Health Organization on Wednesday called on more countries to accept and treat patients from the Gaza Strip after the medical evacuation of a group of mostly children to Jordan.

“Today, WHO led the medical evacuation of 35 patients, mostly children, from Gaza to Jordan, accompanied by 72 family members,” the UN health agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

“We are grateful to the government of Jordan for its continued support and for providing specialised care to critically ill patients.

“More than 10,000 people in Gaza still need medical evacuation. We urge more countries to step forward to accept patients for medical evacuations -- lives depend on it. There are many more waiting.”

The agency has long called for expanded medical corridors, including the full resumption of the pre-war traditional referral pathway to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

It has also said that at current rates, it would take years to evacuate all Gaza patients needing treatment.

The WHO says that in Gaza, airstrikes and a lack of medical supplies, food, water and fuel have “virtually depleted” the under-resourced health system, with many hospitals out of operation and others barely functioning.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.