Gazan families broken apart as critically ill children evacuated for life saving treatment
Families were in tears as they held their little ones tight- not knowing the next time they would get to hug them again.
Thursday marked the first medical evacuation from Gaza since the territory’s sole travel crossing shut down in early May after Israeli forces captured it, Palestinian officials say.
Parents were forced the leave their children, the length of their separation indefinite, as over a dozen critically ill youngsters were selected to leave Gaza for treatment abroad.
Kamela Abukweik burst into tears after her son got on the bus - heading to the crossing with her mother. Neither she nor her husband were cleared to leave.
“He has tumors spread all over his body and we don’t know what the reason is. And he constantly has a fever,” she said. “I still don’t know where he is going.”
Israeli authorities say 68 people, made up of 19 sick and injured children plus their companions, have been allowed out of the Gaza Strip and into Egypt.
The evacuees left the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing, and the patients were to travel to Egypt and further abroad for medical treatment.
But it was not clear where they would receive treatment.
The nearly nine-month Israel-Hamas war has devastated Gaza’s health sector and forced most of its hospitals to shut down.
Health officials say thousands of people need medical treatment abroad, including hundreds of urgent cases.
They include Sadeel Hamdan, a nine months old little girl who doctors said could die without a medical evacuation to receive urgent treatment.
He explained she has liver cirrhosis which has led to her severe ascites, where fluid accumulates in the belly.
"No words can describe what we are seeing," said Dr Abed.
ITV News was told Sadeel left Gaza today, by NGO Children Not Numbers, who organised the evacuation with Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
Sadeel Hamdan is nine months old and her doctors say she could die without a medical evacuation
Dr. Mohammed Zaqout, the head of Gaza’s hospitals, said over 25,000 patients require treatment abroad, including some 980 children with cancer, a quarter of whom need “urgent and immediate evacuation.”
COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said the evacuation was carried out in coordination with officials from the United States, Egypt and the international community.
International criticism is growing over Israel’s campaign against Hamas as Palestinians face severe and widespread hunger.
The top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.
Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,600 people in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
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