While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is stalling the implementation of the humanitarian protocol for the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and obstructing the entry of humanitarian aid, 30,000 patients are waiting their turn for treatment outside the Gaza Strip.

This accumulation of sick cases and waiting comes at a time when the Israeli occupation authorities are deliberately delaying sending approval lists to obstruct the evacuation of patients and the wounded to continue their treatment abroad.

It is evident from data collected by an institution and government offices in the Strip that half a million people injured by the war need urgent surgical operations, amid a severe shortage of medicines and medical equipment in the Strip.

Ahmed Al-Farra, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Medical Hospital, said that 20,000 patients and wounded people registered with the Ministry of Health need to travel for treatment outside the Strip, in addition to 10,000 other cases intending to register to travel for treatment.

He explained that the delay in medical transfers led to deaths, particularly among children with cancer, calling for urgent intervention to preserve the lives of patients and the wounded.

He confirmed that children died, "some of whom were close to recovery, meaning that their blood was about to be cleansed of cancer cells, but as a result of the delay in receiving the prescribed treatment doses, their health condition worsened, and some of them actually died."

In turn, the Director of the Oncology Department at the European Gaza Hospital, Zaki Al-Zaqzouq, pointed out that 10,000 cancer patients need to receive treatment doses, but they are not available because the occupation does not allow them to enter the Strip.

He explained that the number of cancer patients travelling is very small compared to the need, which necessitates the patients’ departure, adding that all medications related to painkillers and medications for blood cancer patients have almost run out.

Al-Zaqzouq stressed that this means a death sentence on the lives of patients who need urgent treatment, knowing that 60% of the total medical referrals before the war were for cancer patients due to the shortage of medicines and diagnostic tools.

For his part, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, warned of Israel’s continued disruption of the humanitarian protocol, stressing that the occupation has stopped direct killing, while indirect killing is still ongoing.

Under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which went into effect on January 19, 300 people are allowed to leave each day, with the categories of people allowed to leave limited to 50 wounded during the war, each accompanied by 3 people, for a total of 150 travelers each day.

In addition to 50 patients in need of treatment abroad, each of whom is accompanied by only one person, their number becomes 100 travelers, in addition to 50 others under the category of humanitarian cases daily, but the occupation did not abide by what was agreed upon, according to government agencies.