Explained: Why Palestinians need medical evacuations now
Over 15,000 patients with complex trauma injuries caused by bullets and bombs, or life-threatening conditions such as cancer or kidney failure, await medical evacuation from Gaza according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling on governments around the world to urgently increase medical evacuations for thousands of patients who are unable to access the care they need in Gaza.
These evacuations must be accompanied by a sustained effort to maintain the fragile ceasefire which has been violated multiple times, and ensure a massive, unrestricted influx of humanitarian aid into the Strip.
Even though thousands of patients are still waiting, the UK has so far accepted only 39 people for medical evacuation from Gaza with more planned from 22 October. Whilst the UK’s lifesaving medical evacuation efforts since September are welcome, the government must scale up this critical initiative.
Patients cannot wait for urgent healthcare
Governments around the world must drastically increase this vital lifeline and Israeli authorities must allow patients to leave to access the treatment they need, and ensure their right of return to Gaza.
“Palestinians in Gaza are enduring genocide. The health system lies in ruins,” says Dr Javid Abdelmoneim, International President of MSF and an emergency doctor who has worked in Gaza.
“Israeli forces attacked hospitals, reducing them to rubble; killed, detained and forcibly displaced medical staff; and systematically blocked supplies from entering the Strip.”
“Between July 2024 and August 2025, at least 740 patients, including 137 children, died while waiting for medical evacuation. These were preventable deaths - caused not only by destroyed hospitals, but by political inaction.”
As of October 2025, the WHO reports that over 15,600 people – one in four of whom are children – are awaiting lifesaving medical evacuation from Gaza.
Patients include those with complex trauma injuries caused by bullets and bombs, or life-threatening and chronic conditions such as cancer or kidney failure.
“These patients cannot wait for the healthcare system to be rebuilt – they need urgent care today,” says Dr Abdelmoneim.
“Between July 2024 and August 2025, at least 740 patients, including 137 children, died while waiting for medical evacuation. These were preventable deaths - caused not only by destroyed hospitals, but by political inaction.”
Who is this affecting?
The lack of evacuation routes has had a profound impact on Palestinian patients. These include:
Six-month-old Sarah was born with a rare genetic disorder that affected her body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Sarah died while waiting to be evacuated for proper diagnosis and care.
Mira, 10, was diagnosed with acute renal failure. She continues to wait for a country to accept her for treatment before it’s too late.
Yazan, 7, has been waiting for over a year for a country to accept him for medical evacuation and treatment. He was born with congenital brain anomalies and needs regular surgeries.
After a massive heart attack, Ahmed, 66, had to wait six months to be evacuated and receive a life-saving open-heart surgery.
However, we know the impact on the few patients who have managed to evacuate Gaza since October 2023.
Seventeen-year-old Karam was evacuated to MSF’s specialist reconstructive surgery hospital in Amman, Jordan, after suffering catastrophic injuries when his home was hit in an Israeli airstrike. Five months later, Karam is walking again, he is able to move his left arm and his left eye is slowly reopening – a near-miraculous recovery considering he was originally thought dead by medical staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza.
Inaction is indefensible
While more humanitarian assistance is starting to arrive, MSF is calling for it to be rapidly scaled up – including medical supplies, fuel, clean water, food, and shelter – to meet the staggering needs of two million people, many of whom are returning to the ruins of their former homes with winter fast approaching.
As of October 2025, the WHO has confirmed that only 14 out of Gaza's 36 hospitals were even partly functioning. None are fully operational following systematic and direct Israeli attacks, including ground offensives, tank shells, and airstrikes.
According to the Ministry of Health, 1,722 health workers have been killed. Just a week before the ceasefire, two MSF colleagues – an occupational therapist and a physiotherapist - were killed by an Israeli airstrike while on their way to work. In total, 15 MSF colleagues were killed in the past two years.
An MSF orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Mohammed Obeid, has been detained in harsh conditions since October 2024. We are urgently appealing for his release. The loss of health professionals is devastating for patients in Gaza.
“While some countries such as Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye and Jordan have carried their share of the responsibility, others have done almost nothing,” says Dr Abdelmoneim. “This inaction is indefensible.”
MSF and the Gaza genocide
As of October 2025, over 67,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including 15 MSF staff.
Prior to the ceasefire, our teams have seen: the deliberate targeting of medics and hospitals; the use of starvation as a weapon of war with a blockade starving people of food, water, fuel and medical supplies; the militarisation of aid, and the massacre of starving people queuing for aid.