More than 900 Palestinians, including children, have died in Gaza while waiting to be evacuated for urgent medical treatment, the World Health Organization confirmed. The deaths highlight the devastating collapse of the enclave’s health system, strangled by an unrelenting siege and the aftermath of a genocidal war that has left hospitals in ruins and doctors helpless.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva that around 16,500 people, among them 4,000 children, remain in critical need of transfer to hospitals outside Gaza. Many of them are cancer patients, trauma victims or children suffering from preventable diseases. Tedros warned that each day of delay is “a death sentence for the most vulnerable,” as the Strip remains sealed off from the outside world despite a declared ceasefire.

According to the WHO, 119 evacuation missions have been carried out since May 2024, providing some relief to more than 8,000 patients. Yet Gaza’s medical network continues to operate at less than half its capacity, crippled by shortages of medicine, electricity and clean water. Health workers describe operating in impossible conditions, performing surgeries without anaesthetics and watching patients die from treatable wounds.

Tedros called for the immediate opening of all crossings and unrestricted medical access, stressing that “the duty to save lives must come before political agendas.” His words echo the growing outrage of humanitarian groups who warn that Gaza’s hospitals, once places of healing, have now become symbols of abandonment and suffering.