The sick and injured Palestinians leave Gaza while Rafah Crossing reopens

Thirty-seven Palestinians sick and injured left Gaza for medical treatment in Egypt after the reopening of the border crossing of Rafah after eight months.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on X that 34 children and three adults, as well as 39 companions, had left Gaza to receive treatment in Egypt.

The key gateway between Gaza and Egypt had been closed since Israeli forces took control of the Gaza team in May of last year.

He reopened as part of a ceasefire and a hostage agreement between Hamas and Israel.

Images of the evacua show Palestinian children in civilians and ambulances arriving in border crossing.

“We are impatiently waiting for this day,” said May Khader Abdul Ghani, whose son, Moatasem Billah Ramillah Nabil Sammour today, has a rare autoimmune disease at BBC Arabic’s Gaza today.

She said her son had been placed in intensive care at Nasser Hospital in Gaza and had suffered from intense pain in the past three months.

“Thank goodness, that his name was included in the reference for treatment. I hope that his suffering ends after receiving the appropriate treatment,” she said.

His son said that he had suffered a lot while waiting to be referred to a hospital in Egypt.

“I have serious difficulty moving, my mouth has ulcers and I also find it difficult to eat, drink and everything,” he said.

Mohammed Abu Jalala was also one of those who accompany relatives crossing the border for medical treatment. He said that his niece Lara Abu Jalala had suffered serious wounds after a bombardment, who killed his parents and brothers.

“One foot was so seriously damaged that he had to be amputated. We tried to avoid amputation, but he had to be done because the foot had gangrene in the bone,” he declared. “The other is always injured and needs treatment, and amputation needs follow -up and treatment.”

Addressing the BBC of The Crossing, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza, described the evacuation as a “ordered” process.

“Ambulances go one by one, first with non-walking patients, then patients who work and the companions. They will be checked and then went on the Egyptian side,” he said.

He estimates that 14,000 people need access to the treatment they cannot obtain in Gaza.

The WHO estimates that half of the injuries of these patients “are linked to the injuries of war and trauma, amputees, burns, vertebral injuries that will need several operations and specialized rehabilitation,” he declared, adding that the other half suffers from chronic diseases.

“About 5,000 of them, we expect to be children.”

The head of the European Union foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, said on Friday that the block had deployed a surveillance mission at the level.

“He will support the staff of Palestinian borders and will allow the transfer of people out of Gaza, including those who need medical care,” she wrote on X.

The Rafah crossing is the southernmost post of the Gaza exit. There are only two other border crossings of and in the Gaza – Erez band, a crossing in Israel in the north of Gaza, which is for people, and Kerem Shalom, a junction of only commercial goods with Israel in the South of Gaza.

More than 47,000 Palestinians were killed in the military offensive of Israel in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health managed by Hamas.

The offensive occurred after 1,200 people were killed and 251 brought back to Gaza as hostages when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

The reopening of Rafah’s crossing came while Israel and Hamas have made their fourth hostage release and the exchange of prisoners since the start of the ceasefire on January 19.

Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for Three Israeli hostages – Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon and Keith Siegel.