Palestinian and int’l doctors call for evacuation of 25,000 patients in Gaza to hospitals in East Jerusalem

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - Palestinian and international doctors called Tuesday for the opening of a humanitarian corridor from the Gaza Strip to enable the urgent evacuation of 25,000 patients to hospitals in East Jerusalem as Israel’s ongoing genocide has rendered most of the enclave’s medical facilities non-operational.

The call came during a press conference at the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem.

The doctors emphasized that based on estimates, 25,000 people in Gaza urgently require life-saving medical treatment due to their critical conditions.

They outlined three key steps to address the crisis.

First, the establishment of safe medical evacuation routes to ensure patients can reach hospitals in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, or third countries.

Second, ensuring families stay together during treatment.

Third, supporting the right of evacuated Palestinians to return to Gaza once medical care is completed, without choosing between their health and homeland.

- Unimaginable suffering

Dr. Khadra Salama, a pediatric oncologist, highlighted the severe suffering of Gaza's children, many of whom can no longer access life-saving cancer treatments that were already scarce before the Israeli genocide.

“We cannot allow these children to die simply because they cannot get the care they desperately need,” Dr. Salama said during the conference.

World Health Organization (WHO) representative Dr. Rik Peeperkorn stressed the urgent need for humanitarian access, calling for the facilitation of medical supplies, patient evacuations and entry for humanitarian teams to provide life-saving care.

Violet Mubarak, director of the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre, called for immediate action to protect the rights of disabled children in Gaza, emphasizing that “every child in Gaza deserves early medical intervention and life-saving services in their Palestinian context.”

Six specialized hospitals in East Jerusalem have provided medical care for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza for decades. However, Israel restricts Palestinian access to these hospitals, requiring special permits that have been suspended for Gaza residents since the beginning of the Israeli genocide on Gaza in October 2023.

Following the closure of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in May as Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing, it has become impossible to transfer patients from Gaza for treatment outside the territory.

Gaza’s hospitals are suffering from a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies due to the ongoing war. Many health care workers have been killed, and ambulances have been targeted.

For more than a year, Israel has systematically targeted Gaza’s hospitals through bombings, repeated raids and attacks on medical staff, patients and ambulances, claiming that military sites belonging to the Palestinian group Hamas are located within these hospitals -- an accusation repeatedly denied by the group and unproven by Israel.

Dr. Fadi Al-Atresh, CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital, reiterated the necessity of reopening the humanitarian corridor, stressing that “the situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Reopening the corridor is crucial so we can continue to provide life-saving treatments at hospitals in East Jerusalem, where we have the capacity and medical expertise.”

“We request that all Gaza patients be given a chance for treatment. The shortest and most effective route is allowing them to leave Gaza for hospitals in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,” Al-Atresh told Anadolu.

He expressed profound frustration, saying, “I feel deep sorrow and helplessness. We feel depressed because we cannot help our people there, not because we lack the ability, but because we are prevented from doing so.”

Dr. Guy Shalev, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, condemned the ongoing suffering in Gaza, asserting that reopening the humanitarian corridor is the only sustainable solution to the medical emergency that is costing lives daily.

“There is no hope left for civilians in Gaza while these attacks continue, and no limitations are placed on Israel to halt its actions,” Shalev told Anadolu.

Since launching a genocidal war against Gaza following an attack by Hamas in October 2023, Israel has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 105,000, according to official figures.

The second year of the genocide in Gaza has drawn widespread international condemnation that notes that starvation tactics and blocking humanitarian aid deliveries amount to deliberate attempts to destroy an entire population.

Last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its actions in Gaza, which have drawn mounting international condemnation.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio