UN chief demands evacuation of 2,500 Gazan children in need of medical treatment

By Agencies and ToI Staff 31 January 2025, 7:34 am

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Medics care for patients at a clinic set up by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) treating severe injuries and burns sustained in Israeli bombardment, at the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 24. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demands that 2,500 children be immediately evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment after meeting with four US doctors who said the children were at imminent risk of death in the coming weeks.

The doctors had all volunteered in Gaza during the 15-month-long war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Among those patients urgently needing treatment are 2,500 children, says Feroze Sidhwa, a California trauma surgeon who worked in Gaza from March 25 to April 8 last year.

“Of those 2,500 kids, the vast majority need very simple things done,” Sidhwa tells reporters after meeting with Guterres, citing the case of a three-year-old boy who suffered burns to his arm. The burns had healed, but the scar tissue was slowly cutting off blood flow, leaving him at risk of amputation, according to Sidhwa.

The doctors say they’re advocating for a centralized process for medical evacuations with clear guidelines.

At the start of this month, before the ceasefire came into effect last week, the World Health Organization said 5,383 patients had been evacuated with its support since the war began in October 2023, most of those in the first seven months before the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza was closed.