Jerusalem, Dec 3 (EFE).- Doctors and humanitarian organizations called Tuesday for the reopening of the humanitarian corridor between Gaza and East Jerusalem, saying 15,000 patients urgently need to be evacuated.
The first and most urgent corridor is the Gaza-East Jerusalem corridor, about 80 kilometers (49 miles) from the enclave, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, told EFE.
“We are asking for medical corridors. The first, for proximity, should be to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the traditional referral route for patients from Gaza,” he said.
The WHO estimates that “between 10,000 and 15,000 critical patients in Gaza need to be treated outside the territory,” although the Hamas-run health ministry puts the figure at 25,000.
“Most of these patients are trauma cases and grave spinal injuries, amputations or burns that require surgery or reconstructive surgery that they cannot get in Gaza,” he added.
“Absurd” number of transfers
The director of the NGO Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI), Guy Shalev, told EFE that of the more than 15,000 Palestinians in need of urgent evacuation, only 340 had been authorized by Israel.
“It is absurd to think that thousands of people who need urgent medical attention are not being evacuated by Israel, that there is no basic mechanism to screen them and allow them to leave,” he said.
Most of these patients have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, Romania, Jordan, and the United States.
Regular evacuation
“We are very grateful that these countries are accepting patients, but at this evacuation rate, it would take 10 years to mobilize all the patients in need,” said Peeperkorn.
These medical and humanitarian organizations demand that the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border (closed by Israel on May 6) also be opened as a medical corridor and a third to Jordan.
“We need organized and regular medical evacuations, at least once a week,” he said.
Cancer emergency
The situation for cancer patients in Gaza was already critical before the war, with many requests from Gazans for specialist treatment in Jerusalem hospitals being rejected by Israel.
Fadi Atrash, director of the Palestinian Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem (which provides cancer treatment to Gazans), said the condition of these patients was “catastrophic.”
The doctor explained that in 2023, around 1,750 cancer patients were treated at the center, which has completely changed with the war.
“Since Oct. 7, we haven’t received any of them, and they haven’t received any treatment. Many died under poor living conditions, displaced, without medicine, without treatment, without even painkillers,” he added.
In addition to the cancer patients, there are an estimated 2,000 sick people who have gone undetected because 17 of the enclave’s 36 hospitals are only partially functioning, operating under constant bombardment and lacking medical supplies.
The PHRI director said they were working to get Israel to allow these patients to leave. The NGO filed a petition with the Supreme Court six months ago and has yet to receive a response, although they are not confident that the Israeli government will relent.
“We have heard very harsh words and criticism from different countries against the Israeli government, but they have no effect, and even (…) the Israeli government is becoming more aggressive,” he added.
Nearly 14 months of war have left more than 44,400 people dead in Gaza, more than a thousand wounded, and 90% of the civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, destroyed. EFE
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