Gaza: Palestinians are dying amid lethal evacuation delays
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said the darkest moment of the Gaza conflict is unfolding in the north of the Strip, where the Israeli military is effectively subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation, as well as being forced to choose between mass displacement and being trapped in an active conflict zone.
“The bombing in north Gaza is non-stop,” he said on Friday. “The Israeli military has ordered hundreds of thousands to move, with no guarantees of return. But, there is no safe way to leave. The bombs continue to fall, the Israeli military is separating families and detaining many people and people fleeing have been reportedly shot at.”
Possible atrocity crimes in the north
Calling on world’s leaders to act, the UN rights chief said States have a duty under the Geneva Conventions to ensure respect for international humanitarian law.
“Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day,” he stressed.
“The Israeli Government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians. We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”
Trapped in bureaucracy
At the same time, children are being medically evacuated from across Gaza at a rate of fewer than one child per day, with many suffering from such serious conditions as head trauma, amputations, burns, cancer and severe malnutrition, James Elder, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told reporters in Geneva on Friday morning.
“This is not a logistical problem,” he said. “We have the ability to safely transport these children out of Gaza. It is not a capacity problem. Indeed, we were evacuating children at higher numbers just months ago. It is simply a problem that is being completely disregarded.”
As the year-long war grinds on, children are being medically evacuated from Gaza at a rate of fewer than one child per day, with many suffering from such serious conditions as head trauma, amputations, burns, cancer and severe malnutrition.
Trapped in the grip of an indifferent bureaucracy, children’s pain is brutally compounded, he said, adding that when a patient is denied an evacuation, there is nothing that can be done.
No reasons given for refusals
If this lethally slow pace continues, it would take more than seven years to evacuate the 2,500 children needing urgent medical care, Mr. Elder warned, adding that COGAT, the acronym for the Israeli authorities responsible for humanitarian affairs in the occupied Gaza Strip, “does not provide reasons for refusals”.
“It is not known how many child patients have been rejected for medevac [emergency medical evacuation],” Mr. Elder said.
“Only a list of approved patients is provided by Israel’s COGAT, which controls Gaza's entry and exit points. The status of others is not shared.”
“As a result, children in Gaza are dying, not just from the bombs, bullets and shells that strike them, but because, even when ‘miracles happen’, even when the bombs go off and the homes collapse and the casualties mount, but the children survive, they are then prevented from leaving Gaza to receive the urgent care that would save their lives.”
Violation of human rights
From 1 January to 7 May, an average of 296 children were medically evacuated each month. Since the Rafah crossing closed on 7 May due to the Israeli ground offensive there, the number of children medically evacuated has collapsed to just 22 per month, or 127 children.
“After more than a year of attempting to shed light on the atrocities being committed against children in Gaza, perhaps then it is this that is the clearest and most damning reality: children – deeply unwell children – are being denied the medical care that could save them in Gaza and then prevented from leaving to places where help awaits,” Mr. Elder said.
“Children are thus being denied the medical care that is a basic human right, and those who barely survived ruthless bombings are condemned to die from their injuries.”
No escape
“One of the many tragedies of Gaza is that appalling figures have failed to stir those with power to act,” he said, sharing the stories of several children he has met who are waiting for medical evacuations.
He said there is “no escape” for 12-year-old Mazyona, whose siblings were killed when two rockets struck her home, leaving her with devastating facial injuries, shrapnel embedded in her neck that requires a medical evacuation for specialised care and bone surgery.
Likewise, he continued, six-month-old Atef is battling muscle cancer and severe malnutrition, and four-year-old Elia, who sustained fourth-degree burns when overnight shelling set her home ablaze, was approved to leave Gaza for emergency treatment, but is still waiting as doctors said they fear they will soon have to amputate her hand and other leg if she is not medically evacuated.
“All of this unfolds amid relentless bombings, as Gaza’s hospitals have been decimated, leaving them unable to care for the flood of child patients,” he warned, adding that medical staff repeatedly report urgent shortages of essentials like needles, plaster, burn cream, IV fluids, and painkillers along with critical items like wheelchairs, crutches, hearing aids, even batteries.
Rights experts say disabilities ignored
For those trapped in Gaza, the needs of people with disabilities are being sidelined, independent UN rights experts said on Friday.
“Many of the almost 100,000 injured Palestinians in Gaza will acquire long-lasting impairments requiring rehabilitation, assistive devices, psychosocial support and other services that are severely lacking,” said the experts, who have previously raised these concerns with the Government of Israel.
The experts noted that multiple evacuation orders totally disregarded persons with disabilities who often face extreme difficulties to follow or understand instructions.
They said Palestinians with disabilities face unbearable protection risks, including inescapable death and injuries, amid indiscriminate attacks by Israeli occupation forces which have destroyed critical infrastructure, and annihilated the possibility of humanitarian assistance.
“The impact extends beyond physical injuries, with grave emotional and psychological traumas and wider effects on the social fabric and needs of families and communities, especially impacting women who often bear the brunt of caregiving.”
Indiscriminate attacks
Persons with disabilities are being killed and injured by indiscriminate attacks despite posing no security threat, epitomising the deliberate assault on civilians by Israel, the independent experts warned, who represent no government or organisation and receive no salary for their work.
“They were in the impossible situation of either leaving their houses and the assistive devices they require to survive or staying behind without their families and caregivers and being exposed to a heightened risk of being killed,” they said. “During evacuation attempts, women and girls with disabilities are particularly exposed to increased dangers and further trauma.”
Escalating Israeli settler violence
Referring to the situation of escalating violence by illegal Israeli settlers and Israeli forces, mass destruction of homes and roads and movement restrictions in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the experts warned that Palestinians with disabilities in those occupied territories cannot access health, rehabilitation, and other essential services.
“Over the past year, Israel has been in breach of its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including armed conflict,” the experts said.
Parties to the conflict must immediately accept a ceasefire, they said. The experts also recalled the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion of July 2024, which declared Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, amounting to racial segregation and apartheid.
“Israel must comply with its international obligations and the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ regarding its conduct in Gaza that aim at preventing further acts of genocide,” the experts said.