Over 12,000 people still need medical evacuation, and according to WHO, it would take 5-10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients, including thousands of children. In the meantime, their conditions get worse and some die, at this rate.
“On 31 December 2024, 55 patients and 72 companions were evacuated to the UAE. We thank the United Arab Emirates government for their continued support – they have helped with the medical evacuation of over 1200 patients so far. We also thank Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye, Algeria, Italy, Romania, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Tunisia, Oman, Jordan and the USA for their support with medical evacuations and health care,” the health organisation said in a statement.
With too many lives at continuing risk the WHO continues to urge Israel to increase the approval rate for medical evacuations, including no denials of child patients, expedite approvals for medical evacuations, and allow all possible corridors and border crossings to be used for safe medical evacuations. WHO is also calling on all countries to help by receiving patients and offering specialised healthcare to prevent more suffering and deaths.
