Over 20,000 Gaza patients await travel as Israel continues to restrict Rafah crossing: Health Ministry

More than 20,000 sick and wounded Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are waiting to travel abroad for treatment as Israel continues to operate the Rafah border crossing with Egypt under tight restrictions, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday.

In a statement, the ministry said it is closely monitoring the continued partial and constrained operation of the crossing amid worsening health conditions in Gaza.

Israel reopened the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on Feb. 2 after occupying it since May 2024, but under highly restricted conditions.

The ministry said more than 20,000 patients and wounded people are registered on travel lists, including critically ill cancer, heart, and kidney failure patients.

Many of the injured require advanced surgical procedures unavailable inside Gaza due to the blockade and repeated targeting of the health care system, the ministry added.

Although Israel announced the reopening of the crossing, the number of people allowed to travel remains limited and disproportionate to the scale of the health catastrophe, it said.

The ministry said it had also received “harrowing testimony” from patients and wounded individuals who managed to leave for treatment abroad, reporting restrictive measures and unjustified complications imposed by Israel, further compounding their psychological and physical suffering.

On Feb. 5, the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory said returnees told it that after crossing, armed Palestinian men supported by the Israeli military took them to an Israeli military checkpoint, where some were handcuffed, blindfolded, searched, threatened, and had their belongings confiscated.