After months of closure following the Israeli offensive, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has reopened, allowing a group of 50 sick and wounded Palestinian children to seek medical care abroad. This development is seen as a positive step in bolstering the recent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
A group of 50 sick and wounded Palestinian children began crossing to Egypt for treatment through Gaza ’s Rafah crossing on Saturday, the first opening of the border since Israel captured it nearly nine months ago. The reopening of the Rafah crossing represents a significant breakthrough that bolsters the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas agreed to earlier this month. Israel agreed to reopen the crossing after Hamas released the last living female hostages in Gaza .
\Egypt's Al-Qahera television showed at least two Palestinian Red Cross ambulances pulling up to the crossing gate. Several children were brought out on gurneys and transferred to ambulances on the Egyptian side. From there, they were rushed to hospitals in the nearby Egyptian city of el-Arish and elsewhere. Footage showed one young girl whose foot had been amputated being loaded into an Egyptian ambulance. \The children are the first in what are meant to be regular evacuations of Palestinians through the crossing for treatment abroad. Over the past 15 months, Israel’s campaign against Hamas in retaliation for the militants’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel has decimated Gaza’s health sector, leaving most of its hospitals out of operation even as more than 110,000 Palestinians were wounded by Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Remaining facilities are unable to perform many crucial treatments or specialized surgeries for wounds or diseases. Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza’s Health Ministry, said more than 6,000 patients were ready to be evacuated abroad, and more than 12,000 patients were in urgent need of treatment. He said the small numbers set to be evacuated will not cover the need, “and we hope the number will increase.” Rafah is Gaza’s only crossing that does not enter into Israel. Israeli forces closed the Rafah crossing in early May after seizing it during an offensive on the southern city. Egypt shut down its side of the passage in protest. Even before the Gaza war began, the Rafah crossing represented a crucial escape valve from the territory, where a 15-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade aimed at containing Hamas undermined health facilities and impoverished the population. Palestinians routinely applied for permission to travel outside the territory for lifesaving treatments not available in Gaza, including chemotherap
Gaza Israel Egypt Rafah Crossing Palestinian Children Medical Evacuation Ceasefire Hamas Health Crisis
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