Rights orgs to Israel’s High Court: Order government to allow ailing Gazans to exit Strip

Three human rights organizations petition the High Court of Justice to order the government to allow sick and injured Gazan civilians who are in life-threatening conditions to leave Gaza to gain medical treatment.

According to the petition, filed by Doctors for Human Rights, Hamoked and Gisha, Israel has not allowed the sick and injured to be evacuated from Gaza since May 7 and the beginning of the IDF’s operation in the southern city of Rafah.

During that operation, Israel took control of the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza, through which sick and injured Gazans were able to leave the coastal enclave for medical treatment since October 7 and up until May 7.

The petitioning organizations estimate that there are 14,000 critically sick and wounded people in need of evacuation for the purposes of life-saving treatment, a number that is growing on a daily basis due to the severely damaged health system in Gaza because of the war and the severe humanitarian conditions in the Strip resulting from the fighting.

“Even when the cannons are thundering, Israel has an obligation to act in accordance with the principles of international law and basic moral principles and according to the ruling of this court, and enable the provision of medical treatment to men, women, the elderly, children and infants, whose fate depends upon it, whose lives are hanging by a thread,” the petitioning organizations say.

“They have no possibility of receiving medical treatment without the state allowing it and establishing a proper mechanism for the implementation of its obligations. Every day that passes brings with it suffering and devastating harm that must be prevented.”

Up until the Hamas invasion and atrocities of October 7 and the outbreak of war, some 2,000 sick Gazans left the territory every month to receive medical treatment, principally in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Egypt, and a small number in Israel, mostly through the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel.

Since October 7, Erez was closed to medical evacuees, although 4,895 Gazans have been able to leave the territory through the Rafah Crossing, out of 12,760 requests made up until May 7.