GENEVA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday pleaded that thousands of critically ill and injured people be allowed to leave Gaza for urgent medical treatment, describing such evacuations as a potential “game-changer” for the territory’s overwhelmed health system.
Since the war in Gaza began two years ago, the UN health agency has facilitated the medical evacuation of nearly 7,800 patients from the Gaza Strip.
However, the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10 has done little to accelerate the process — the WHO reports that only 41 critically ill patients have been evacuated since the truce began.
Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, called for all crossings out of Gaza into Israel and Egypt to be opened up during the ceasefire — not only for the entry of aid but for medical evacuations too.
“All medical corridors need to be opened,” he said, particularly to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as happened routinely before the war.
“It is vital and is the most cost-effective route. If that route opened, it would really be a… game-changer.”
Speaking via video link from Jerusalem, the WHO official told journalists in Geneva that while two evacuations are planned for next week, he urged daily transfers, saying the organisation is prepared to handle “a minimum of 50 patients per day.”
At the current pace, evacuating the 15,000 people in need of treatment — including 4,000 children — could take roughly a decade, he warned.
The WHO also reported that more than 700 people have died while waiting for medical evacuation since the war began.
The UN health agency has called on additional countries to accept patients from Gaza. Although more than 20 nations have taken in evacuees, only a few have done so in significant numbers.
Peeperkorn said only a fraction of Gaza’s health system remained in service — just 14 of 36 hospitals are even partially functional for a population topping two million.
The World Health Organisation said on Thursday that there has been little improvement in the flow of aid into Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect, and hunger levels show no signs of easing.
“The situation remains catastrophic because the aid that is entering is not enough,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an online press briefing from the agency’s headquarters.
Repeated cuts to aid by Israel have worsened the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, with the United Nations warning that parts of the territory are facing famine conditions.
Since the beginning of 2025, at least 411 people in Gaza, including 109 children, are known to have died from malnutrition, according to Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories.
“All of these deaths were preventable,” stressed Teresa Zakaria, WHO’s unit head for humanitarian and disaster action. More than 600,000 people in Gaza were currently facing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity”, she added.
