Humanitarian efforts are crippled as the ban by Israeli authorities on the entry of any supplies has now entered its fourth week. Most movement requests requiring coordination with Israeli authorities are denied.Not all requests - most.
What is the exception?
The only one I have been able to find is from a World Health Organization dashboard that shows that even after the end of the ceasefire on March 2, the number of medical patients and their relatives who have managed to leave Gaza has stayed mostly the same.
OCHA adds details:
On 19 March, WHO and partners, with the support of the European Commission (ECHO) under the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, evacuated 22 patients from Gaza via Kerem Shalom crossing for medical treatment in France, Italy, Norway and Romania. The patients were accompanied by 49 caregivers. No additional medical evacuations were reported since then. Between 1 February and 19 March, 1,724 patients, including 632 children, were evacuated along with 2,606 companions to receive specialized care in Egypt and other countries. According to WHO, about 11,000 to 13,000 people, including more than 4,500 children, remain in urgent need of medical evacuation. “Lives hang in the balance. We urgently call for the immediate resumption of daily medical evacuations through all possible routes, including the restoration of medical referrals to the West Bank and East Jerusalem," WHO added.
Why are there still over 11,000 people who need medical evacuation?
It isn't Israel that is limiting them - it is Egypt. Israel is clearly not closing the Rafah crossing.
Egypt can save thousands of lives. Not theoretically but directly. It is refusing to do so, making these evacuations as difficult as possible.
Before the ceasefire, Egypt closed Rafah completely - including for patients. The only evacuations of medical patients and caregivers came through Israel to go to other countries. The WHO statistics indicate that Israel facilitated the evacuation of over a thousand patients and caregivers between May 2024 and the ceasefire, while Egypt allowed no one to leave.
The WHO language shows how hard they try not to blame Egypt at all and to blame Israel. They purposely obfuscate the real issue: Egypt has the ability to save thousands of Palestinian lives, and chooses not to.
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