UN says medical evacuations from Gaza continue but treatment gap remains

At a United Nations press briefing, the spokesperson (identified in the transcript as Steph) said medical evacuations from the Gaza Strip are continuing each day but remain limited in scale. "Yesterday, the World Health Organization and partners supported the evacuation of 55 patients and 72 of their companions," the spokesperson said.

The briefing said roughly three-quarters of those evacuated left through one crossing and about a quarter through another; since the reopening of a crossing nearly 260 patients have been evacuated. The spokesperson added that about 18,500 people require treatment that is not available locally and are awaiting evacuation for care.

UN humanitarian officials emphasized the need both to reopen medical referral routes to the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and to scale up local health services and rehabilitate facilities so fewer patients require evacuation. The spokesperson said meeting people’s needs will also require increased entry of a wide range of humanitarian supplies and equipment and that humanitarian partners must be enabled to operate without hindrance.

The Food and Agricultural Organization also reported distribution of assistance linked to the conflict’s wider humanitarian impact: over the past four months FAO provided more than 1,800 metric tons of animal feed and veterinary kits to over 2,300 livestock holders, and reported steep declines in livestock survival rates and reduced cropland accessibility since October 2023.

The briefing did not provide a firm timeline for scaling evacuations and noted operational constraints for some types of supplies and movements. The spokesperson said the UN will continue to press for improved humanitarian access and work with partners to deliver both frontline medical evacuations and local capacity building.