UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has called for 2,500 children to be immediately evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment.
He made this plea after meeting with US doctors who said that the children were at imminent risk of death in the coming weeks.
The four doctors had all volunteered in Gaza during the 15-month-long war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas that has devastated the territory of more than 2 million people and its healthcare system.
Guterres said that he was “deeply moved” by his meeting with the American doctors.
He posted on social media after the meeting, “2,500 children must be immediately evacuated with the guarantee that they will be able to return to their families and communities.”
Just days before a ceasefire began on January 19, 2025, the World Health Organization said that more than 12,000 patients were waiting for medical evacuations and it had hoped they could be ramped up during the truce.
According to Feroze Sidhwa, a California trauma surgeon who worked in Gaza from March 25 to April 8 last year, among those patients urgently needing treatment are 2,500 children.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with Guterres, Sidhwa said, “There’s about 2,500 children who are at imminent risk of death in the next few weeks.” Sidhwa added that some are dying “right now,” some will die “tomorrow” and some will die the “next day.”
“Of those 2,500 kids, the vast majority need very simple things done,” he said, citing the case of a 3-year-old boy who suffered burns to his arm. The burns had healed, but the scar tissue was slowly cutting off blood flow, leaving him at risk of amputation.”
Feroze Sidhwa
Also, Ayesha Khan, an emergency doctor at Stanford university hospital, worked in Gaza from the end of November until January 1, 2025.
She spoke about many children with amputations, who had no prosthetics or rehabilitation.
She held up a photo of two young sisters with amputations, who were sharing a wheelchair.
They were orphaned in the attack that injured them and Khan said that their only chance for survival is to be medically evacuated.
“Unfortunately, the current security restrictions don’t allow for children to travel with more than one caregiver. Their caregiver is their aunt, who has a baby that she is breastfeeding.
“So even though we were able to, with great difficulty, get evacuation set up for them, they won’t let the aunt take her baby with her. So the aunt has to choose between the baby she’s breastfeeding and the lives of her two nieces.”
Ayesha Khan
Doctors Advocate For Centralised Process For Medical Evacuations
The doctors said that they are advocating for a centralised process for medical evacuations with clear guidelines.
Thaer Ahmad, an emergency room doctor from Chicago, who worked in Gaza in January 2024, noted that under the ongoing ceasefire agreement, there is supposed to be a mechanism in place for medical evacuations. “We’ve still not seen that process spelled out,” Ahmad said.
Additionally, Ayesha Khan stated that there was no process in place to get the children out, adding, “And will they be allowed to return?”
“There is some discussion right now of the Rafah border opening only for exits, but it’s exit without right to return.”
Ayesha Khan
At the start of this month, before the ceasefire, the WHO said that 5,383 patients had been evacuated with its support since the war began in October 2023, most of those in the first seven months before the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza was closed.
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