8,000 patients evacuated from Gaza in past 2 years as many more await transfer: WHO
WHO chief urges countries to receive more patients as over 16,500 people, including nearly 4,000 children, still need medical evacuation
A delegation from the World Health Organization (WHO) carry out work at Al-Shifa Hospital to evacuate 27 sick children and their companions for transfer to hospitals with bus outside the Gaza City, Gaza on July 29, 2025.
GENEVA
The World Health Organization (WHO) has helped evacuate nearly 8,000 patients from Gaza for urgent medical treatment over the past two years, but thousands more remain stranded as the territory's health system struggles to function, the agency's chief said Wednesday.
"I am heartened by the commitment shown by countries to provide seriously injured and ill children and adults with urgent medical care outside of Gaza," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on the US social media company X.
He said WHO's medical evacuation program has supported the transfer of close to 8,000 patients, including over 5,500 children, for treatment abroad.
Tedros expressed gratitude to the countries that "opened their arms and hospitals" to receive patients, but stressed that urgent needs persist. "Over 16,500 people, including close to 4000 children, are still awaiting evacuation as Gaza's damaged health facilities cannot provide the needed care," he said.
With the ceasefire currently holding, WHO is working to expand medical evacuations and coordinate treatment for critical cases outside Gaza, Tedros said, and called on countries to receive more of these patients and urged the opening of "all evacuation routes, particularly to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
