Gaza children are dying as they wait for Israel to pull out

Many lives in Gaza still remain.

Two 10-year-old boys lie in different wards of Nasser Hospital, one paralyzed from the neck down after being shot by an Israeli bullet, the other suffering from a brain tumor.

Now that a fragile ceasefire is in place, they are among about 15,000 patients who the World Health Organization (WHO) says are in urgent need of medical evacuation.

Ola Abu Said sits gently stroking the hair of his son Amr. His family says he was in their tent in southern Gaza when he was hit by a stray bullet fired by an Israeli drone. It is trapped between two of his vertebrae, which paralyzes him.

“He needs surgery urgently,” says Ola, “but it’s complicated. The doctors told us it could lead to death, stroke or brain haemorrhage. He needs surgery in a well-equipped facility.”

Currently, Gaza is anything but. After two years of war, hospitals here are in critical condition.

Sitting at her younger brother Ahmed al-Jad’s bedside, his sister Shahad says her brother was a constant comfort to her through two years of war and displacement.

“He is only 10 years old and when our situation was very bad, he would go out and sell water to bring us money,” she says. A few months ago, he showed the first signs of illness.

“Ahmed’s mouth started to tilt to one side,” explains Shahad. “Once he kept telling me: “Shahd my head hurts” and we just gave him paracetamol, but then, his right arm stopped moving.”

A one-time university student is desperate for her brother to go abroad to have a tumor removed.

“We cannot lose him. We have already lost our father, our home and our dreams,” says Shahad. “When the ceasefire happened, it gave us some hope that Ahmed had a 1% chance of traveling and getting treatment.”

WHO coordinated the first medical convoy to leave Gaza since the fragile ceasefire began on Wednesday, October 10. While 41 patients and 145 caregivers were taken to hospitals abroad via Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, ambulances and buses took the group to Jordan. Some have stayed there for maintenance.

The UN agency has called for a rapid increase in the number of medical evacuations to deal with thousands of cases of sick and injured. It wants to evacuate patients from Egypt across the Rafah border with Gaza as before.

However, Israel said it was keeping the crossing closed until Hamas “fulfills” its commitments under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire agreement by returning the bodies of the dead hostages. Israel has closed the Gaza side of the Egyptian border since May 2024, after taking control during the war.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the “most effective solution” would be if Israel allowed Gazan patients to be treated in the occupied West Bank, which includes pre-war East Jerusalem.

Top EU officials and foreign ministers of more than 20 countries – including the UK – have previously called for this, offering “financial contributions, the provision of medical staff or essential equipment”.

CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital on Mount Olive Dr. “Reopening this route for the East Jerusalem hospital network and hospitals in the West Bank could easily and efficiently treat hundreds of patients in a short period of time,” says Fadi Atrash.

“We can treat at least 50 patients a day for chemotherapy and radiation and more. Other hospitals can do a lot of surgeries,” the doctor tells me.

“Referring them to East Jerusalem is the shortest distance, the most efficient way, because we have the system. We speak the same language, we have the same culture, in many cases we have medical files for Gazan patients. They have been receiving treatment in East Jerusalem hospitals for more than a decade before the war.”

The BBC asked Kogat, the Israeli defense agency that controls the Gaza crossing, why the medical route was not approved. Kogat said it was a political leader’s decision and referred questions to the Prime Minister’s Office, which did not elaborate.

After the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel cited security as the reason for not allowing Gazan patients into the other Palestinian territories. It also pointed out that the main crossing point for people in Erez was targeted by Hamas fighters during the attack.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that in the year to August 2025, at least 740 people, including about 140 children, died while on the waiting list.

At Nasser Hospital, the director of pediatrics and obstetrics, Dr Ahmed Al-Fara, expresses his dismay.

“It is the most difficult feeling for a doctor to attend, to be able to diagnose a condition, but to be unable to perform the necessary tests and receive the necessary treatment,” says Dr Al-Fara. “In many cases this has happened and unfortunately, our lack of capacity is causing daily loss of life.”

Since the armistice, hope for more of his patients is gone.

Last week, in the hospital grounds, a funeral was held for eight-year-old Saadi Abu Taha, who died of colon cancer.

Three-year-old Zain Tafesh and eight-year-old Louie Dweck died of hepatitis a day later.

Without action, there are many more Gazans who will not have a chance to live in peace.