Before Oct. 7, 2023, Ayat Qadoum and her family of six lived in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City. Her husband worked, and all four of her children attended school. The two eldest—16-year-old Hala and 15-year-old Ibrahim—often competed academically as they studied to one day become doctors.
Less than a week after the Israeli military began bombing Gaza City, Qadoum, her husband, and their children left Shuja’iyya, travelling south to the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip, a supposed “safe zone,” according to Israel. Despite assurances, on Dec. 6, 2023, Israel bombed the apartment tower where they stayed with extended family.
“The children were playing with their father and cousins to make them forget a little about the horror and suffering they were experiencing,” Qadoum recalled to Prism. “Suddenly, everything changed.”
The Israeli bombing killed Ibrahim and three of Qadoum’s nieces and nephews. In addition to the dead, there were also the wounded, including Hala, who suffered second and third-degree burns to her chest, neck, and shoulder. Due to Israel’s ongoing bombings, invasion, and blockade, the medical treatment Hala required could not be obtained anywhere in the Gaza Strip. It would be nearly a year before Hala could finally leave Gaza to seek health care abroad.
There were many hurdles, but Hala was fortunate to eventually leave Gaza for treatment. Israel continues to prevent medical evacuations—even after agreeing to facilitate them prior to breaking the recent ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
“Unprecedented” Israeli violence against civilians in Gaza
Since Palestinian militants led by Hamas launched Operation Al Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has retaliated by killing more than 60,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 100,000. The casualties represent “unprecedented levels” of civilians harmed by explosives, according to Iain Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence, which monitors violence against civilians worldwide.
“The use of airstrikes, artillery, and other explosive weapons in densely populated urban areas has resulted in widespread devastation,” Overton told Prism. “The injuries experienced by civilians, including children, are often catastrophic. Traumatic amputations, severe burns, penetrating shrapnel wounds, and blast-induced brain injuries are among the most common.”
In addition to serious injuries resulting directly from Israel’s bombing campaign over the last year and a half, Palestinians in Gaza are also denied health care due to the Israeli blockade. The blockade has existed to greater or lesser degrees since 2007, but it worsened in 2023, obstructing the free flow of food, water, medicine, building materials, and other essential goods.
The long-term deprivation caused by Israel’s blockade is compounded by its widespread bombing of housing and health care facilities in Gaza, as well as its targeting of medical workers. In April, Israel opened fire on Palestinian medics, killing 15, before bulldozing over their bodies and burying them and their mangled ambulances in a mass grave.
Amira Nimerawi, CEO of Health Workers 4 Palestine, an organization that advocates for Palestinians’ right to health care, explained the increasingly dire conditions in Gaza for those in need of care.
“Eighty percent of the residential buildings have been destroyed in Gaza,” Nimerawi told Prism. “So you’ve got people exposed to the elements, whether it’s extreme heat or extreme cold. And then you need to factor in the fact that the majority of the population are also suffering from malnourishment and dehydration. That makes them more vulnerable to simple things, like the cold and the heat.”
These conditions are compounded by overcrowding in shelters and “so-called humanitarian zones,” Nimerawi explained, leading to a “proliferation of infectious diseases.” Between Israel’s ongoing blockade and bombings, Nimerawi underscores that the entire population of Gaza—more than two million people—is being systematically denied desperately needed access to health care.
Israeli obstruction of medical evacuations from Gaza
With Gaza’s health care system in ruins and Israel’s continued blockade of humanitarian aid, Palestinians severely injured in Gaza have little choice but to attempt to seek medical treatment elsewhere. Of the more than 100,000 injured Palestinians in Gaza, 12,000 in critical condition or suffering from chronic diseases have been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for medical evacuation, typically to neighboring Egypt or Jordan.
Facilitating these medical evacuations was a key provision in the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which the Israeli government broke on March 18 when it resumed bombing Gaza. But even before breaking the ceasefire, Israel systematically prevented approved patients from leaving Gaza, according to Nimerawi. The Health Workers 4 Palestine CEO is also a volunteer with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), which provides health care services such as medical evacuations to those injured in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“The majority of those, let’s say, ‘official’ 12,000 are still in Gaza,” she said, referring to the WHO-approved medical evacuees. “Their health conditions have completely deteriorated, and many have died.”
Nimerawi shared the story of a young Palestinian boy who had severe burns from an Israeli bombing in May of 2024. PMRS arranged for him to receive medical treatment in Egypt. The Israeli authorities ultimately approved the transport, but the boy succumbed to his injuries before he was allowed to cross the Israeli-controlled border between Gaza and Egypt.
“You’re never really given a reason,” Nimerawi said, describing Israeli denials of medical evacuations. “You’re just told, ‘No, they can’t leave’—or you’re just waiting and waiting, despite even Israeli approval.”
In light of such hurdles, Hala’s medical evacuation from Gaza is a rare feat. On Nov. 27—nearly a year after surviving the Israeli bombing in Nuseirat—she and her mother left Gaza for Egypt and then the United States. They arrived in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 2. Hala is now scheduled to receive treatment for both her burns and a previously undiagnosed perforated eardrum, most likely suffered during the bombing.
Hala’s evacuation from Gaza was organized by Health, Education, Aid and Leadership Palestine (HEAL Palestine). The organization focuses on the medical needs of Palestinian children, who face many of the same injuries as adults as well as additional barriers, such as requiring a guardian to travel abroad.
“Most of the injuries are related to trauma, such as amputations from bombings, burns, and neurological injuries, such as cranial defects,” said Steve Sosebee, executive director of HEAL Palestine. “For the tens of thousands of children who need medical care outside Gaza, they need to be accompanied by a relative—and in most cases these relatives are denied permission to be evacuated.”
Palestinians receiving medical treatment in Palestine
Beyond Egypt and Jordan, the United States is also a destination for medical treatment for patients from Gaza. HEAL Palestine has brought dozens over the last year alone. But for Palestinians like Nimerawi, the hypocrisy of countries like the U.S. allowing just a handful of Palestinians to receive medical treatment domestically while continuing to back Israel’s genocide internationally cannot be overlooked.
“It’s nowhere near enough,” Nimerawi said of the U.S. providing medical treatment to limited patients from Gaza. “It’s a great first step for countries to be accepting patients into their medical systems. That’s a first step towards some sort of measure of reparation—but it’s not enough.”
From an advocacy perspective, Nimerawi emphasized the need for an international arms embargo against Israel to finally end its genocide in Gaza. And although medical evacuations from Gaza continue to be a priority for organizations like the WHO, PMRS, HEAL Palestine, and even ceasefire negotiators with Hamas, Nimerawi stressed the necessity for Palestinians to be able to receive health care in Palestine.
“While there is a need for patients to be evacuated to receive the treatment that they deserve and that they have a right to—as any other human being has the right to access quality health care—there also needs to be a focus and emphasis on supporting Palestinian-led rebuilding of the health care system in Gaza,” said Nimerawi. “What we don’t want is for the sort of advocacy for children and others being evacuated for treatment to cloud the fact that Palestinians have the right to a fully functioning, quality health care system that is protected.”
In light of Israel breaking the ceasefire and resuming bombings, invasions, and the full blockade of Gaza, the health care system that Nimerawi said Palestinians deserve appears unlikely in the near future. However, the next generation of Palestinian health care workers may not be far off. After completing her medical treatment in the United States, Hala and her mother plan to return to family in Egypt and hopefully regain some semblance of their former lives.
“I really want to continue my education,” Hala told Prism. “I hope to study medicine.”
Source: Prism / Digpu NewsTex
