Israel and Egypt agreed to permit not less than 19 sick youngsters, most of them most cancers sufferers, to go away Gaza for medical therapy on Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian officers mentioned, within the first main evacuation of critically unwell Gazans for the reason that Rafah border crossing shut down in early Might.
The Israeli navy mentioned the operation had been carried out in coordination with the US, Egypt and the worldwide group. In whole, 68 individuals — sick and injured sufferers and their escorts — had been allowed to go away, the navy mentioned.
Over 10,000 sick and wounded individuals in Gaza require pressing care that’s obtainable solely outdoors the enclave, the World Well being Group mentioned this week. They embody these wounded in airstrikes, in addition to most cancers sufferers, youngsters with life-threatening sicknesses and older individuals who want open-heart surgical procedure.
Even earlier than the conflict, many Gazans had been pressured to journey overseas for lifesaving therapies, like chemotherapy, which had been nearly nonexistent within the Gaza Strip. The enclave’s well being sector has struggled for over 15 years beneath a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade supposed to include Hamas.
However the principle conduit by which Gazans may depart — the Rafah crossing with Egypt — shut down after Israeli forces captured the border in Might throughout a navy offensive. Egypt shuttered its facet of the gateway in protest, and the Gazan half was later destroyed in a fireplace, in response to the Israeli navy, seemingly dashing hopes that it will be reopened within the close to future.
At the very least two sick Gazans who had been slated to go away in early Might have died, their members of the family mentioned.
With the Rafah crossing closed, the group of youngsters evacuated on Thursday was taken into Israeli territory by one other border level, Kerem Shalom, earlier than being dropped at Egypt. The transfer didn’t seem to instantly herald a brand new everlasting route for the critically unwell to securely depart Gaza.
One of many youngsters who made the crossing on Thursday was a 10-month-old woman named Sadeel Hamdan.
For months, her household had seemed on with rising dread as Sadeel’s situation deteriorated. Her stomach swelled like a balloon due to extreme liver failure, and he or she desperately wanted a transplant, her father, Tamer Hamdan, mentioned.
On Thursday morning — after weeks of ready — Mr. Hamdan and Sadeel had been lastly permitted to go away the enclave. After coming into Israel, they had been ferried together with different sufferers to Nitzana, an Israeli village, the place they crossed into Egyptian territory, he mentioned.
“Thank God,” mentioned Mr. Hamdan, who was reached by telephone as he sat in a bus on the Egyptian facet of the checkpoint. “We’re so pleased that we introduced out Sadeel safely. Now we simply want to finish her therapy.”
Their departure from Gaza, nonetheless, was bittersweet.
Mr. Hamdan traveled together with his daughter in order that he could possibly be a partial liver donor, however his spouse and three different youngsters weren’t permitted to hitch them. He mentioned he feared for his or her destiny in Gaza.
“We’re all heading into the unknown,” he mentioned.
