BBC Photo: Three year-old Zain Tafesh died from leukemia earlier this week
Source: BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cze61zg7zzpo)
DST News: As Gaza clings to a fragile ceasefire, children continue to die waiting for medical evacuations that Israel has yet to approve. Hospitals, crippled by two years of war, are overwhelmed, and doctors warn that without urgent transfers abroad, hundreds more young lives could be lost.
Three-year-old Zain Tafesh, suffering from leukemia, died earlier this week. At Nasser Hospital, two 10-year-olds — one paralysed by Israeli fire, the other battling a brain tumour — lie in critical condition. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 15,000 Gazans urgently need evacuation for life-saving treatment.
In one ward, Ola Abu Said gently strokes her son Amar’s hair. The 10-year-old was struck by a bullet allegedly fired from an Israeli drone while in his family’s tent. The projectile remains lodged in his spine, leaving him paralysed. “He needs surgery urgently,” Ola pleads. “But Gaza doesn’t have the facilities. The doctors say the operation could save him — or kill him — but we can’t even try.”
Nearby, Ahmed al-Jadd, another 10-year-old, lies weakly in bed as his sister Shahd keeps vigil. Their father was killed in the war. “Ahmed used to sell water to help us survive,” Shahd says. “Then he started getting sick. When the ceasefire was announced, I prayed he could go abroad for treatment — even a one percent chance is something.”
Earlier this week, the WHO coordinated the first medical convoy to leave Gaza since the truce began on 10 October, evacuating 41 patients and 145 caregivers through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing en route to hospitals in Jordan. But that number is a fraction of what’s needed. The UN agency has urged Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing with Egypt, traditionally used for medical evacuations, but it remains closed.
Israel says it will not reopen Rafah until Hamas returns the bodies of Israeli hostages as stipulated in the ceasefire deal. Since seizing control of the Gaza side of the border in May 2024, Israel has kept it shut.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged Israel to allow Gazan patients to be treated in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as was common before the war. “Hundreds could be treated quickly and effectively if this route reopened,” said Dr. Fadi Atrash, head of Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem. “We have the facilities, the staff, and even the medical records of many Gazan patients.”
The Israeli defence body Cogat told the BBC that the matter rests with Israel’s political leadership, while the prime minister’s office declined comment.
The Hamas-run health ministry reports that from August 2024 to August 2025, at least 740 people — including 140 children — died while waiting for evacuation approval.
Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of paediatrics at Nasser Hospital, says the situation has become unbearable. “It’s the most painful thing — to know exactly what your patient needs, but have no way to provide it. Every day, we lose more lives.”
This week alone, Nasser Hospital buried three young patients: eight-year-old Saadi Abu Taha, who succumbed to intestinal cancer, and Zain Tafesh and Luay Dweik, both aged eight, who died from hepatitis.
For Gaza’s doctors and parents, the ceasefire has offered a fleeting illusion of hope — but without the means to evacuate the sick, peace has yet to save the dying.
