WHO welcomes 1st medical evacuations since Rafah closure, urging 'more needs to be done'

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday welcomed the first medical evacuation of 21 children with cancer from Gaza since Rafah closure in early May, arguing that "more needs to be done."

There are more than 10,000 people who need to be evacuated and receive medical care outside of Gaza, spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told a UN press briefing in Geneva.

Jasarevic said 6,000 of them have trauma, and more than 2,000 also have chronic diseases.

"Since the closure of Rafah, we did not have any medical evacuation until yesterday, at least 21 children with cancer," he said, and urged: "We need to reopen Rafah and any other border crossing to get these people out so their lives can be saved. We really need to advocate for a resumption of medical evocations.

"What happened yesterday is welcome, but more needs to be done," he stressed.

WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus also welcomed the evacuations in an X post, and said: "We appeal for facilitated medical evacuation via all possible routes, including Rafah and Karem Shalom, to Egypt, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and from there to other countries when needed."

"We appeal for sustained medical evacuations and a safe, timely, transparent and organized process," Tedros said, underlining that these patients "urgently need" specialized lifesaving care.

- Every day in Gaza situation is 'worst it's ever been'

A senior communications officer of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, participating virtually in the UN briefing from Central Gaza, stressed that every day in Gaza the situation is the "worst it's ever been."

"I feel like we have been communicating the duration of the war, how the situation is, how it's getting worse. And you know, sitting here today, it has to be the worst it's ever been, and I don't doubt that tomorrow, again, will be the worst it's ever been," Louise Wateridge said. "Every day that we're here, it's the worst it's ever been. It's never getting better."

Wateridge drew attention to the out-of-control trash situation in the besieged strip and said it is building up among the population.

"It just keeps getting worse, and with the temperatures rising, it's really adding misery to the living conditions here," she said as people are living around it.

She also stressed that summer is also worsening the conditions of Gazans living as most of them live in makeshift shelters of plastic sheetings.

"The temperatures inside the plastic sheeting are even higher than it is outside the plastic sheetings," she said, and added: "It's really unbearable for people to live in these conditions."

About the closure of Rafah, she underlined that even with Rafah open, "never has there been near enough aid entering the Gaza Strip throughout this war."

"But there were systems in place. People were getting food. People were getting water," she said. "There was a daily rhythm to people's survival."

However, after May, the situation returned to "absolute chaos" as humanitarian operations were significantly affected by the extension of military operations, and 1.4 million people were forcibly displaced from Rafah to places where everything was rubble with no access to water, sanitation, and food.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 37,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 86,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.​​​​​​​