Thousands of sick, injured Gazans await evacuation at Rafah

Amid Gaza’s unrelenting nightmare, 123 Palestinian patients and wounded civilians crossed the Rafah border since Saturday, clutching onto their last hope for survival. 

Many had waited for weeks, even months, in overcrowded hospitals, denied basic care. 

Gaza’s hospitals are shattered, their corridors filled with the anguished cries of the wounded. Whoever is left of doctors work beyond exhaustion; their supplies are nearly depleted. Bandages are reused, painkillers rationed, and life-saving surgeries are delayed until it is too late.

For these 123 patients, crossing meant survival, but even that hope was fragile, according to Ahmed Zaqout, the health ministry director in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza. 

Yet, he remarked to The New Arab, “the number of those who left Gaza in three days is not enough as there are about 12,000 patients and wounded who need to leave Gaza for treatment.”

Based on the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, about 200 patients and wounded people are supposed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, which is still under Israeli siege. 

However, the patients’ travel process is complicated. The Israeli authorities and Mossad, as well as the Egyptian authorities, must approve the names of those who need to travel. 

“Because of the complex bureaucratic procedures, patients’ travel was delayed today as the Israeli authorities have not provided the approved list of names,” Zaqout said. 

“Every day, we watch people suffer unbearable pain. We want to help, but our hospitals are collapsing. We don’t have enough doctors, medicine, or beds. More than 3,000 patients urgently need to leave. Each day they wait, their chances of survival fade,” he explained.

Zaqout painted a bleak picture of Gaza’s spiralling health crisis. “Hospitals are running at half capacity. Our doctors are heroes but are too few for the flood of patients. Medicine is nearly gone.

Many of these people should have left weeks ago, but now it’s too late for some,” he complained. 

Delays at the Rafah border are not just an inconvenience but could be a death sentence. Shrapnel wounds fester, infections spread, and minor injuries turn into permanent disabilities. Those who might have survived with timely care now faced irreversible suffering. 

Even for those allowed to evacuate, the struggle is far from over. Rafah, a narrow, heavily monitored crossing, is another endurance test. Each step forward means more obstacles and medical clearance, securing transport, and enduring the agonising wait at border control.

“I still can’t believe I made it out,” Omer, a Palestinian patient who preferred to use his first name only, told TNA. 

For ten months, Omer has been suffering from severe leg injuries from an Israeli airstrike. “I spent several months while I was lying in pain, wondering if I would ever get treatment. The doctors did their best, but nothing was left. There is no medicine or equipment. Crossing Rafah felt like escaping death, but I keep thinking of those still waiting,” he said. 

Thousands more Gazans remain trapped, their fate uncertain. Farid al-Masri, a 45-year-old father of three suffering from kidney failure, is still waiting for his turn to cross the border. 

“I feel like I am counting my last days,” he told TNA weakly. “I need dialysis, but the machines barely work anymore. I watch people around me deteriorate, some not making it through the night. I don’t know if my name will ever be on that list, but I pray I get my turn before it’s too late.”

“The world must not look away…Because every day of delay is another life lost to a preventable tragedy,” he added.