Tearful goodbyes as sick children evacuate Gaza to find medical care

Outside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Kamla Abu Kwaik was in tears as she waved goodbye to her five-year-old son, Fayez. Tumours on the boy’s lymph glands are now pressing against his spleen and kidneys, making him incapable of walking or moving. 

Fayez was crying, wrapping his little arms tightly around both his parents, near the bus he and his grandmother would take across the border to seek medical treatment in Egypt.

Both of Fayez’s parents applied to accompany him on his journey, but only his grandmother, Naglaa Abu Kwaik, was given permission to go. Heartbroken, his mother waved as the bus carrying her son drove the few kilometres across the Kerem Shalom border to safety. 

“I’m so sad that I’m leaving him, but he’s sick,” Kamla told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife. “He’s crying and I can’t do anything for him.” 

Israeli authorities say 68 people — 19 sick and injured children plus their companions — have been allowed out of the Gaza Strip and into Egypt to seek medical help, though it was not immediately clear where they would receive treatment. It was the first medical evacuation out of the enclave since the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) took over the Rafah border crossing in May. 

News of the evacuations was met with tepid optimism. Ahmed Zaqout, director of the Gaza Strip Hospitals, said more than 25,000 patients need treatment abroad — including roughly 980 children with cancer.

“Many of them are in urgent need of a referral order because there is no treatment now in Gaza,” he told CBC.

“They are manageable if the treatment is there, but they are going to die if they are stopped inside Gaza and cannot exit outside Gaza for treatment in Egypt.”

Nine months of war has devastated much of Gaza’s health infrastructure, with Israel targeting its attack on hospitals and schools it claims Hamas fighters have used as shields and hiding places for weapons. Health staff are scrambling to deal with the high demand for medical attention from civilians caught in the crossfire of fighting — without access to proper medical supplies.

Before May, medical evacuations took place through the Rafah crossing with Egypt — the only direct exit from the Gaza Strip. Egypt has refused to reopen the border until Palestinians regain its control.

When the IDF took over the Rafah border crossing, medical evacuations stopped and the entry of aid dropped drastically. Thousands of Gazans were displaced from Rafah, which was designated a safe zone, back to central Gaza to avoid being caught in the fighting in the small town bordering Egypt. 

The Kerem Shalom crossing at the junction of two borders — Gaza and Israel, and Gaza and Egypt — became the next option for medical evacuations. COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said Thursday that the evacuation took place in co-ordination with the United States, Egypt and the international community. 

Zaqout said medical evacuations are essential, especially for patients with treatable cancers. 

“The war has destroyed more than 70 per cent of our capacity to treat our patients … we are in urgent need for referral [abroad] for these patients.” 

WATCH | Parents, doctors struggle to help starving children in Gaza: 

‘This is the most difficult tragedy’: Mother of malnourished child in Gaza

Ghanima Jumaa says there’s nothing she can do as she watches her nine-year-old son suffering from malnutrition at the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza, unable to evacuate to find care in another country since the Rafah border is closed.

The international community has criticized Israel’s war against Hamas as the campaign cuts off the flow of critical food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, leaving Palestinians totally dependent on humanitarian aid organizations struggling for access. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel has strongly denied.

Israel launched its attack after Hamas led a surprise assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which left roughly 1,200 dead and saw around 250 people taken hostage. Israel’s offensive has left 37,000 dead in Gaza, according to Palestinian tallies. 

Humanitarian groups said the war has hit children particularly hard.

Before getting on the bus to Egypt Thursday, Fayez’s grandmother said her grandson is somehow still one of the luckier ones.

“This child is considered, compared to kids in the hospital, not to be an emergency. [When] you see the martyrs and the ones in pieces…” she added, trailing off. 

“The situation in hospitals is very, very difficult.”