2,500 Gaza children face death without urgent medical evacuation: UN

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
31 Jan 2025 08:47
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California trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa warns that 2,500 Gaza children face imminent death within weeks, with some already dying daily due to a lack of urgent medical care.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres meeting with four American doctors who have worked in Gaza during the Israeli genocide. (@antonioguterres/X)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the urgent evacuation of 2,500 children injured during the 15-month-long Israeli war on Gaza to receive urgent medical treatment.

His appeal follows a meeting with US doctors who warned that the children face an "imminent risk of death" in the coming weeks.

The four doctors, who had volunteered in Gaza during the 15-month-long war on Gaza, described the dire state of the territory’s healthcare system, which has been severely affected by the ongoing war.

Guterres said he was "deeply moved" after his discussion with the US doctors on Thursday. "2,500 children must be immediately evacuated with the guarantee that they will be able to return to their families and communities," he wrote on social media.

I was deeply moved by the testimonies and impressed by the dedication of 4 American doctors that have worked in Gaza.

2,500 children must be immediately evacuated with the guarantee that they will be able to return to their families and communities. pic.twitter.com/X9VlRECWMu
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 30, 2025

Just days before a ceasefire began on 19 January, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that over 12,000 Palestinians were awaiting medical evacuations and had hoped for an increase in transfers during the truce.

Among those in urgent need of treatment are 2,500 children, according to Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon from California who worked in Gaza from 25 March to 8 April last year.

"There’s about 2,500 children who are at imminent risk of death in the next few weeks. Some are dying right now. Some will die tomorrow. Some will die the next day," Sidhwa told reporters after meeting with Guterres.

Many of these children require relatively simple medical procedures, he said, pointing to the case of a three-year-old boy who suffered burns on his arm. While the burns had healed, the scar tissue was progressively restricting blood flow, putting him at risk of amputation.

Gaza’s amputee children struggle without prosthetics or care

Ayesha Khan, an emergency physician at Stanford University Hospital who worked in Gaza from late November until 1 January, highlighted the struggles of children who had undergone amputations but lacked access to prosthetics or rehabilitation.

She shared a photograph of two young sisters who had lost limbs and were forced to share a single wheelchair. "They were orphaned in the attack that injured them," Khan said. "Their only chance for survival is to be medically evacuated."

Khan also detailed the complications preventing evacuations, noting that current security restrictions only allow children to travel with one caregiver. "Their caregiver is their aunt, who has a baby that she is breastfeeding," she explained.

"So even though we were able to, with great difficulty, get evacuation set up for them, they won’t let the aunt take her baby with her. So the aunt has to choose between the baby she’s breastfeeding and the lives of her two nieces," she stressed.

Cogat, the Israeli agency responsible for coordinating with Palestinian authorities, did not respond to requests for comment on Guterres’ call for the evacuation of the 2,500 children.

The doctors are advocating for a streamlined medical evacuation system with clear protocols. "Under this ceasefire agreement, there is supposed to be a mechanism in place for medical evacuations. We’ve still not seen that process spelled out," said Thaer Ahmad, an emergency room doctor from Chicago who worked in Gaza in January 2024.

Khan also raised concerns about whether evacuated children would be allowed to return. "And will they be allowed to return? There is some discussion right now of the Rafah border opening only for exits, but it’s exit without right to return."

Before the ceasefire, the WHO reported that 5,383 patients had been evacuated with its assistance since the war began in October 2023, with most of those transfers occurring in the first seven months before the closure of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.