WHO announces largest medical evacuation from Gaza since 7 October

The WHO announced Thursday the largest medical evacuation from Gaza since 7 October and said at least a quarter of those hurt in the war had "life-changing injuries".

The World Health Organization said that it along with partners on Wednesday evacuated 97 sick and severely injured patients from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory to Abu Dhabi for specialised care.

"This was the largest evacuation yet from Gaza since October 2023," Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative for the Palestinian territories, told reporters.

The patients, including 45 children, were suffering from a wide range of diseases like cancer, as well as serious trauma and other injuries.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the success of a"highly complex operation... despite severe operational challenges and insecurity".

The patients and 155 companions had first been transferred from four locations across Gaza to a hospital in the centre of the territory before being flown to Abu Dhabi.

WHO said it was especially complicated to extract the patients who had been in hard-to-reach northern Gaza.

"We had a very small window," Peeperkorn explained.

The patients were among the more than 10,000 people that the WHO has estimated require urgent medical evacuation.

Life-changing injuries 

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 41,118 people have been killed in Israel's war on Gaza, while over 95,000 have been wounded.

The WHO on Thursday said it had determined that at least a quarter of all those wounded in the war up to July 23 -- at least 22,500 people -- had suffered "life-changing injuries", many requiring amputations and other "huge" rehabilitation needed for years to come.

And by Thursday, a quarter of all those wounded is "more like 24,000", Peeperkorn said.

WHO said "many thousands of women and children" figured among those badly injured and that many had suffered more than one injury.