Much of Gaza’s healthcare system has been destroyed in more than two years of war. Hospitals have been placed under siege, and doctors have been forced to treat critically injured patients amid a dire lack of medical supplies.
“We did what we could. Remember us.” Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, a doctor at Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, wrote these words on his hospital whiteboard. He was later quoted by Palestine’s ambassador to the United Nations and in proceedings before the International Court of Justice. The phrase became emblematic of the desperation of medical staff under bombardment.
Six months after a fragile ceasefire took effect, Israeli attacks continue, and medical needs in Gaza still far exceed capacities. Only a limited number of medical centers are currently operational. Respiratory and gastroenterological illnesses have been circulating, and medical supplies are still running low. Specialized treatment for those suffering from cancer or chronic conditions such as kidney disease may not be available at all. Similarly, “complex reconstructive surgeries, advanced pediatric orthopedics, customized prosthetic fittings (including innovative 3D-printing technologies), and specialized trauma surgery” cannot be provided locally, says Omar Abd Alrahman from the Freundeskreis Palästinensischer Familien Marburg, a German civil society initiative.
Medical evacuations could save the lives of severely ill or injured patients who cannot obtain the care they need inside Gaza. But for the vast majority of patients, evacuations remain firmly out of reach. The Health Cluster for the occupied Palestinian territory reported in April that there are currently more than “18,500 critical patients, including 4,000 children” in need of evacuation.
Over the course of two years, from October 2023 until September 2025, only 7,802 patients were allowed to leave Gaza to access treatment elsewhere, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Following the ceasefire, the Rafah crossing was partly reopened in February this year for the first time since May 2024, which led to a temporary increase in evacuations. Amidst the US-Israel-Iran war, the number once again declined sharply; in the first two weeks of April, only 85 patients and 160 caregivers were evacuated. As of March 2026, the total number of evacuees since the onset of hostilities two and a half years ago stood at 11,124 patients. Before the war, 50 to 100 patients were evacuating the Gaza Strip for medical treatment every day, according to the WHO. Even then, the process was lengthy, cumbersome, and involved what the human rights organization Gisha refers to as “[b]ureaucratic violence.”
Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli authorities have blocked patients from Gaza from accessing medical care in close reach in hospitals and medical facilities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Previously, institutions such as the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, run by the Lutheran World Federation, took in a large number of patients from Gaza.
Several human rights organizations, including Gisha, Adalah, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, have been calling on the Israeli authorities to reverse course, including in proceedings before Israel’s Supreme Court sitting as High Court of Justice. They submitted a petition in November 2025, arguing that Israel is obliged to ensure patients’ access to adequate medical care in light of the effective control it continues to exert over external borders and various other facets of life in Gaza. No hearing has taken place to date.
Writing in The Lancet, a group of experts called medical evacuations to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem “[t]he safest, most effective, and most lawful solution.” They cite concerns that, in case of transfers abroad, evacuees may subsequently not be allowed to return to Gaza or other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.
With the closure of the medical corridor to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, patients from Gaza have been evacuated abroad. However, third countries often lack the political will to receive patients, even if there is capacity within the medical system. As of October 2025, over 3,700 patients have been transferred to neighboring Egypt, followed by almost 1,500 to the United Arab Emirates; EU member states collectively account for just over 500 referrals, according to the WHO. UN figures from October 2025 show that while Italy has taken in more than 200 patients, Germany has only accepted a single referral from Gaza.
The government has a moral responsibility to facilitate the medical evacuation of innocent children who have suffered life-altering injuries and cannot be treated locally.
Omar Abd Alrahman
While local municipalities have offered to host medical evacuees, the German government has denied the entry of children from Gaza on multiple occasions. In March, a conference in Marburg, a city near Frankfurt, organized by the Freundeskreis Palästinensischer Familien, brought together Palestinian and international medical experts, civil society, and community organizers. A final outcome document highlights the need to rebuild the medical system in Gaza, and calls for the German authorities to facilitate the treatment of patients from Gaza in German hospitals in the meantime.
“Germany has one of the most advanced healthcare systems in the world and a strong humanitarian tradition,” Abd Alrahman said. “We believe the government has a moral responsibility to facilitate the medical evacuation of innocent children who have suffered life-altering injuries and cannot be treated locally.”
In practice, he cites “heavily bureaucratic and political” challenges: “Obtaining visas for the injured children and, crucially, their accompanying family members is extremely difficult and slow. Additionally, there is a lack of a centralized, fast-track coordination mechanism between government authorities, NGOs, and the receiving hospitals.”
As with the pending hearing before Israel’s Supreme Court on medical evacuations to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, time is of the essence, and continuing delays often amount to a death sentence for patients. “1,092 patients have died while awaiting medical evacuation between July 2024 and Nov. 28, 2025,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cited figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health in December last year, noting that this probably is an undercount.
On April 6, 2026, Ghebreyesus announced a temporary suspension of WHO-assisted medical evacuations on social media following the killing of a WHO contractor in Gaza. He concluded his post with words he used many times over the last two and a half years: “Peace is the best medicine.”
