WHO says 11 children with cancer evacuated from Gaza via Israel for treatment
Kids exit through Kerem Shalom Crossing and are headed for Jordan, accompanied by one female escort each
The World Health Organization said 11 children with cancer were evacuated from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment on Thursday.
Israel has mostly sealed off the territory since launching an operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, in May. Israel currently controls all transfer points into and out of Gaza amid its war against the ruling Hamas terror group, and has only allowed a small number of patients to leave for treatment.
Nermine Abu Shaaban, the patient evacuation coordinator for the WHO, said the children were transferred through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Israel and were headed to neighboring Jordan for treatment. Seven of the children were transferred by ambulance and the remainder on a bus. The evacuation was organized by the WHO and two US charities.
One of the children being transferred, 2-year-old Mecca Zorab, has already undergone three surgeries in war-ravaged Gaza since a tumor was found in her head three months ago. Her mother, Fatima, could be seen holding and kissing her tiny hand as she lay on a stretcher in an ambulance with a breathing tube.
With another infant child to care for, Fatima is unable to accompany her daughter. She said the child’s grandmother was going with her instead.
Israel allows each patient to be accompanied by a female escort vetted by security services, who can bring a small bag of clothes, one mobile phone and a charger.
On Friday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant confirmed the evacuations, saying in a statement that the operation “conducted together with COGAT and the IDF evacuated children and patients requiring medical care to Jordan, following a similar humanitarian mission conducted several weeks ago.”
The war between Israel and Hamas, now in its 11th month, has decimated Gaza’s health system.
Most hospitals have shut down after running out of fuel or supplies or following raids by Israeli forces against terror operatives using the facilities. Israel has presented evidence that Hamas and other terrorists shelter in hospitals.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said some 28,000 patients require medical treatment outside Gaza.
Five-year-old Careeman al-Farra, who was also included in Thursday’s evacuation, was diagnosed with blood cancer as a baby and previously received treatment outside Gaza. Her mother said the cancer returned shortly before the war.
“There was no clean place for her to stay or be well-fed to help with her medical condition,” Zaher al-Farra said. “We tried to provide those things, but it was hard because we were displaced from one place to the other.”
The war in Gaza has been ongoing since Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. In response, Israel launched a ground invasion in Gaza with the proclaimed objectives of dismantling Hamas and getting the hostages back.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 16,000 combatants in battle as of July, and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 332.
