GENEVA – The World Health Organization said Nov. 5 that a large-scale medical evacuation from Gaza was planned this week, with more than 100 seriously ill and injured patients due to leave the war-torn territory.

The WHO said it, together with its partners, would evacuate up to 113 patients on November 6, most of whom would go to the United Arab Emirates and some would head to Romania for specialized care.

If it goes ahead, it would be the largest evacuation from Gaza since October 2023, according to data from the UN health agency.

Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Palestinian territories, said he was hopeful the evacuation would go ahead.

He said efforts were currently being made to bring patients from various hospitals in the Gaza Strip to the European Gaza Hospital near Khan Yunis in the south.

They will be transported to the Kerem Shalom crossing early on November 6 and then flown to the United Arab Emirates and Romania, Dr Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva, via video link from Gaza.

Those on the list are among up to 14,000 people currently waiting in Gaza to be evacuated from the territory for medical reasons.

About half of them have suffered traumatic injuries during the war and the rest suffer from serious illnesses such as cancer, he said.

Since the war in Gaza began The deadly Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 inside Israel, Less than 5,000 people have been granted medical evacuation out of the territory.

Meanwhile, only 282 have been able to leave since Israel closed Gaza’s main Rafah border crossing in early May, Dr. Peeperkorn said, adding that about a third of them were children.

Dr. Peeperkorn lamented the “ad hoc” access to desperately needed medical evacuations from Gaza.

“What we need is regular access… that is adequately supported, facilitated and not made unnecessarily dangerous,” he said.

“We need medical corridors, and the first medical corridor that we basically ask to be restored is the traditional bypass route from Gaza to East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and… a second medical corridor should be opened again to Egypt, and perhaps to Jordan. “

The Hamas attack on October 7 killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliation campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures that the United Nations considers reliable. AFP