KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli authorities say 68 people — 19 sick or wounded children plus their companions — have been allowed out of the Gaza Strip and into Egypt in the first medical evacuation since early May, when the territory’s sole travel crossing was shut down after Israel captured it.The nearly nine-month Israel-Hamas war has devastated Gaza’s health sector and forced most of its hospitals to shut down.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Gisha, an Israeli human rights organization, petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to create a “permanent mechanism” to allow people needing medical treatment to evacuate Gaza.Adi Lustigman, an attorney with Physicians for Human Rights Israel, said that before May 7, when the Israeli military launched their ground operation in Rafah and took control of the crossing, approximately 50 Palestinian patients per day crossed into Egypt for medical treatment abroad.