UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged on Thursday the immediate evacuation of 2,500 children from Gaza for urgent medical care.

His call followed a meeting with four American doctors who warned that these children face imminent death within weeks.

The doctors, who volunteered in Gaza during the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas, described the dire humanitarian situation. Before the ceasefire on January 19, the World Health Organization reported that over 12,000 patients were awaiting medical evacuation.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who worked in Gaza from March 25 to April 8 last year, stated that many of these 2,500 children require basic medical interventions. He cited a three-year-old boy with burn injuries whose untreated scars threaten to cause amputation.

Dr. Ayesha Khan, an emergency physician from Stanford University, described children who have undergone amputations but lack

prosthetics or rehabilitation. She shared an image of two young sisters who lost their limbs and now share a single wheelchair. Their only chance of survival, she stressed, is medical evacuation.

However, strict security restrictions complicate evacuations. One case involved an aunt who was permitted to accompany her two orphaned nieces but was barred from bringing her own breastfeeding infant.

Dr. Khan highlighted the cruel dilemma: “She must choose between her baby and the lives of her nieces.”