Israel and Egypt agreed to permit not less than 19 sick youngsters, most of them most cancers sufferers, to depart Gaza for medical remedy on Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian officers mentioned, within the first main evacuation of critically ailing 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 america, Egypt and the worldwide group. In complete, 68 individuals — sick and injured sufferers and their escorts — have been allowed to depart, the navy mentioned.
Over 10,000 sick and wounded individuals in Gaza require pressing care that’s accessible solely exterior the enclave, the World Well being Group mentioned this week. They embrace these wounded in airstrikes, in addition to most cancers sufferers, youngsters with life-threatening diseases and older individuals who want open-heart surgical procedure.
Even earlier than the struggle, many Gazans have been pressured to journey overseas for lifesaving remedies, like chemotherapy, which have been nearly nonexistent within the Gaza Strip. The enclave’s well being sector has struggled for over 15 years underneath a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade meant to include Hamas.
However the primary 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 hearth, in line with the Israeli navy, seemingly dashing hopes that it will be reopened within the close to future.
At the least two sick Gazans who have been slated to depart in early Might have died, their members of the family mentioned.
With the Rafah crossing closed, the group of kids evacuated on Thursday was taken into Israeli territory by one other border level, Kerem Shalom, earlier than being delivered to Egypt. The transfer didn’t seem to instantly herald a brand new everlasting route for the critically ailing to soundly depart Gaza.
One of many youngsters who made the crossing on Thursday was a 10-month-old lady named Sadeel Hamdan.
For months, her household had appeared on with rising dread as Sadeel’s situation deteriorated. Her stomach swelled like a balloon due to extreme liver failure, and she or he desperately wanted a transplant, her father, Tamer Hamdan, mentioned.
On Thursday morning — after weeks of ready — Mr. Hamdan and Sadeel have been lastly permitted to depart the enclave. After getting into Israel, they have 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 cellphone 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 remedy.”
Their departure from Gaza, nevertheless, was bittersweet.
Mr. Hamdan traveled along with his daughter in order that he might be a partial liver donor, however his spouse and three different youngsters weren’t permitted to affix them. He mentioned he feared for his or her destiny in Gaza.
“We’re all heading into the unknown,” he mentioned.
