More than 20,000 sick and wounded Palestinians in Gaza are waiting for permission to travel abroad for medical care as Israel maintains tight controls over the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday.
In a statement, the ministry said it is monitoring the limited operation of the crossing as health conditions across Gaza continue to deteriorate.
Israel reopened the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on Feb. 2 after occupying it in May 2024, but movement remains heavily restricted.
According to the ministry, more than 20,000 patients are registered on travel lists, including people with advanced cancer, severe heart disease and kidney failure, many of whom require urgent specialized treatment unavailable in Gaza.
Many of the injured also need advanced surgical procedures that cannot be performed in Gaza because of the blockade and repeated strikes on the health care system, the ministry said.
Although Israel announced the reopening of the crossing, the number of people allowed to travel remains limited and disproportionate to the scale of the health crisis, it said.
The ministry said it has received "harrowing testimony” from patients who managed to leave for treatment abroad, describing restrictive measures and what it called unjustified complications imposed by Israel that compounded their psychological and physical suffering.
On Feb. 5, the U.N. Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory said returnees reported that after crossing, armed Palestinian men supported by the Israeli military took them to an Israeli military checkpoint, where some were handcuffed, blindfolded, searched, threatened and had their belongings confiscated.
In response, two Israeli human rights organizations, Adalah and Gisha, called for an end to what they described as "a policy of abuse and unlawful restrictions” imposed on Gaza residents seeking to return through Rafah. They said the measures amount to "forced displacement.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry warned that maintaining restrictions at Rafah, limiting the number of travelers and slowing medical evacuations threaten the lives of thousands of patients and deepen the humanitarian crisis.
It urged that the crossing be opened permanently to allow patients and wounded people to travel without restrictions or delays.
The ministry also called for the urgent evacuation of critical cases and an increase in the number of travelers in line with accumulated medical needs, urging international and humanitarian organizations to intervene to guarantee patients’ right to treatment and travel under international law.
Palestinian officials say about 80,000 people have registered to return to Gaza, underscoring what they describe as a widespread refusal of displacement despite the destruction.
Before the war, hundreds of Palestinians crossed Rafah daily in both directions under a system managed by Gaza’s Interior Ministry and Egyptian authorities, without direct Israeli involvement.
Under the first phase of a cease-fire agreement, Israel was to fully reopen the crossing when the truce took effect Oct. 10, but it has not done so.
The cease-fire halted nearly two years of war that began Oct. 8, 2023. Palestinian authorities say the conflict has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, wounded over 171,000 and caused widespread destruction affecting about 90% of civilian infrastructure. The United Nations estimates reconstruction costs at roughly $70 billion.
At least 601 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,600 injured in Israeli attacks since the cease-fire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.