United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the immediate evacuation of 2,500 children from Gaza for treatment after meeting with US doctors who said the children were at imminent risk of death in the coming weeks.
All four doctors volunteered in Gaza during the 15-month war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group that has devastated the enclave of more than two million people and its health system.
Just days before the truce began on January 19, the World Health Organization (WHO) said more than 12,000 patients were waiting for medical evacuation and hoped that the number could increase during the truce.
Among the patients in urgent need of treatment are 2,500 children, said Feroze Sidhwa, a California trauma surgeon who worked in Gaza from March 25 to April 8 last year.
“There are about 2,500 children who are at imminent risk of death in the next few weeks. Let them die right now.” Let him die tomorrow. Let him die the next day – Sidhwa told reporters after the meeting with Guterres.
“Out of those 2,500 children, the vast majority need very simple procedures,” he said, citing the case of a three-year-old boy who suffered burns on his hand. The burns healed, but the damaged tissue slowly cut off blood flow, leaving him at risk of amputation, Sidhwa said.
Ayesha Khan, an emergency physician at Stanford University Hospital, worked in Gaza from late November to January 1. She spoke about many children with amputations, who did not receive prostheses or underwent rehabilitation.
She posted a photo of two young sisters with amputations, sharing a wheelchair.
They were orphaned in the attack in which they were wounded, and Khan said, “Their only chance of survival is medical evacuation.”
“Unfortunately, current security restrictions do not allow children to travel with more than one guardian. Their guardian is their aunt, who has a baby she is breastfeeding,” she said.
“So, although with great difficulty we managed to organize an evacuation for them, they do not allow the aunt to take her baby with her. So the aunt has to choose between the baby she is nursing and the life of her two nieces,” she added.
The doctors said they are in favor of a centralized medical evacuation process with clear guidelines.
“According to this ceasefire agreement, there should be a mechanism for medical evacuations. “We haven’t seen that process worked out yet,” said Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician from Chicago who worked in Gaza in January 2024.
Khan said there was no procedure in place to take the children out, adding: “And will they be allowed to return? There is currently discussion about opening the Rafah border for exits only, but that is an exit with no right of return.”
Guterres said he was “deeply moved” by the meeting with the American doctors.
“Some 2,500 children must be evacuated immediately with guarantees that they will be able to return to their families and communities,” Guterres said on the X platform after the meeting.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that liaises with the Palestinians, did not respond to a request for comment on the request by Guterres and the doctors he met for the medical evacuation of the 2,500 children. Israel’s mission to the UN also did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, before the ceasefire, the WHO said 5,383 patients had been evacuated with its support since the start of the war in October 2023, the majority in the first seven months before the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza was closed, Reuters reported.
