CAIRO (AFP) - Twenty-one cancer patients crossed from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip into Egypt on Thursday through the Kerem Shalom crossing, a medical source in Egypt's El-Arish city told AFP.
"They will be transported to the United Arab Emirates for treatment," said the source, who requested anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.
It is the first evacuation from Gaza since the Rafah border crossing was closed in early May, when Israeli forces took over the Palestinian side of the terminal.
Negotiations to re-open the Rafah crossing, a key conduit for aid and evacuations on Gaza's border with Egypt, have repeatedly floundered.
Cairo has refused to resume operations through the crossing as long as Israeli forces remain in control of the Palestinian side.
According to Mohammad Zakut, a senior official in Gaza's health ministry, nearly 5,000 patients have been evacuated since the war began, but 25,000 more "still require treatment abroad".
Among them are 10,200 cancer cases, including nearly a thousand children -- 250 of whom "need to leave Gaza immediately," he told reporters Thursday (June 27).
The Israeli military said it had coordinated "with officials of the US government, Egypt and the international community" for "the passage of 68 sick and injured children together with companions from the Gaza Strip".
Hanan Balkhy, the World Health Organisation's Eastern Mediterranean regional director, said the "news of the medical evacuation of critically ill children from Gaza -- the first since May 7 -- is a welcome step."
"But more than 10,000 patients still require medical care" outside Gaza, she said on social media platform X, calling for "evacuation corridors" to be established "urgently... via all possible routes".
Since Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing, aid into Gaza -- already far from sufficient, according to the United Nations -- has slowed to a trickle.
Some trucks have been diverted to the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, but humanitarian sources say the daily average of trucks entering the Palestinian territory has been less than 90 a day.
The United Nations says a daily minimum of 500 trucks are needed to meet Gazans' basic needs.
The world body has repeatedly sounded the alarm on the humanitarian crisis in famine-stricken and bombarded Gaza, where the few remaining hospitals are struggling to function as food and other essentials become increasingly difficult to obtain.
As a result of fuel shortages, the Palestine Red Crescent Society announced Thursday it has been forced to halt over a third of its ambulance fleet.
At least 37,765 people have been killed in Gaza during more than eight months of war, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The Gaza war started with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The Palestinian army also seized about 250 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the Israeli army says are dead. - AFP
