Mohamed Solaimane
The New Arab / January 14, 2026
Gaza’s patients, children and students face death, separation and lost futures as Israel keeps the Rafah crossing closed, blocking medical evacuation and travel.
In a makeshift shelter in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Jihad Abu Tair lights a small fire using scrap metal from food cans, rigging a computer fan to a battery to help the flames cook tea and eggs for his children. His greatest concern is his 15-year-old daughter Dua’a, who has blood cancer.
Dua’a underwent bone marrow transplantation five years ago at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, with her sister Orouba (20) as the donor. She was scheduled for a follow-up appointment on 10 October 2023 — three days after Israel’s genocide began. The appointment never happened, and she has received no medical examinations since.
Jihad, who holds a doctorate in media, describes his daughter’s body as appearing half her actual age due to stunted growth from deteriorating health conditions. Her mother has been outside Gaza since November 2023, accompanying her sister Dima (16) for treatment abroad.
“Every day that passes without opening Rafah crossing is a threat to my daughter Dua’a’s life,” Jihad says.
“We cling to this one hope that we might succeed in saving her and returning to life, even a little. It is inconceivable, unacceptable, inhumane, illegal and immoral to punish thousands of patients by closing the crossing.”
Dua’a interrupts her father, speaking in a weak voice: “I want to live, I want to be beautiful like others, I want to go to school and then to university. This is my right. I have no guilt in anything else.”
She adds, “Why do they close the Rafah crossing? I am sick and pose no threat to them. I want my message to reach the world: open Rafah crossing for patients so we can stay alive.”
1,234 deaths and counting
According to Zaher al-Wahidi, director of the Health Information Centre at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 20,400 patients have completed all treatment procedures abroad and are awaiting travel opportunities. Among them, 5,000 cases require immediate evacuation for life-saving medical interventions, 2,500 are emergency cases of similar severity, and 7,000 require evacuation within one to two months.
The waiting patients include 5,000 children, more than 2,000 elderly people, 4,000 cancer patients, and 6,000 war wounded, Zaher says. These figures include only those who have completed complex referral procedures; an additional 2,004 files are currently being processed.
He confirms that 1,234 patients have died while waiting to travel, with approximately 10 daily deaths recorded among patients denied travel for treatment outside Gaza.
“The continued closure of Rafah crossing by Israel simply means recording more daily deaths and threatening the lives of approximately 3,700 patients who need urgent evacuation, in addition to major and continuous deterioration in patients’ health conditions,” Zaher says.
He adds that cancer patients have no real opportunity for treatment inside Gaza and are deprived of treatments that mean staying alive, as health capabilities are completely unavailable.
While Israel permits 30 to 40 patients monthly to leave through Kerem Shalom crossing — an arrangement Zaher describes as “sterile and deadly” — he emphasises that even if the Rafah crossing reopened with previous mechanisms allowing dozens to leave daily, evacuating all waiting patients would take two years.
“This is a prescription for death, not life,” he says. “We need 200 to 300 patients to leave daily through Rafah crossing to preserve patients’ lives and reduce the extensive health damage inflicted on them,” he adds.
“Quite clearly, continued closure of the crossing means the death of more patients daily.”
Treatment procedures and medical gaps
Regarding evacuation mechanisms and priorities if the Rafah crossing reopens, Zaher explains that the Health Ministry’s role is limited to approving referrals and submitting them to the World Health Organisation, which obtains security approval from Israel.
“Then a long and complex journey of procedures begins, searching for host countries that usually have specific criteria such as accepting specific categories like children or women, or certain diseases like cancer,” he says.
While acknowledging that visiting medical delegations improve healthcare and diagnosis and perform some surgeries that do not require unavailable equipment, Zaher confirms they cannot handle cases requiring evacuation because these require devices, equipment, and supplies that are completely unavailable in Gaza.
“For example, laboratory materials for required tests are not available. We cannot perform the simplest haematology, chemistry, cultures and blood component separation tests in Gaza. Diagnostic devices like CT scanners — we have lost most of them — and MRI machines are completely unavailable, meaning we cannot perform surgical interventions locally,” he says.
Families torn apart
In Khan Younis’ displacement camps in the southern Gaza Strip, Fatima Ahmed chases five-year-old Mohammed, who runs between tents playing with peers, while watching rice and frozen chicken cooking on a wood fire — a rare meal for the family.
The 56-year-old grandmother plays with first grandson, who has been deprived of seeing his grandfather, Mohammed (58) since the latter left Gaza for treatment abroad two months after Israel’s war on the enclave began. He has been unable to return since Israeli forces occupied the crossing and the entire city in May 2024.
Fatima, whose family was displaced to al-Mawasi in early December 2023, hides tears as she holds her grandson and points to a second grandson, born two months ago, to her eldest son, in addition to seven grandchildren from her four daughters.
She speaks of the strong emotional bond between the grandfather and his grandchildren, telling The New Arab that he never spent a day without bringing them gifts and favourite foods.
Her grief extends beyond forced separation from her husband. Her youngest daughter, Khadija (14) was particularly attached to her father, who was her constant companion during treatment for multiple physical problems that developed over the years.
“My husband means life to the family, and his continued forced stay outside Gaza means a material and moral catastrophe,” Fatima says.
“It is extremely difficult for the family to live without the father, husband and grandfather. We experience this bitterness every moment, especially since we are not accustomed to this long separation.”
She adds that her husband reaches al-Arish in Sinai — the Egyptian city closest to the Rafah crossing — whenever officials announce that the crossing will open and permit returns to Gaza, then waits for days, sometimes weeks, without results.
“Now he is waiting in Al-Arish, hoping the crossing opens and he can return,” she says.
“The Rafah crossing represents a lifeline for everyone. It must not be a place for bargaining over Gazans’ suffering,” Fatima adds.
“Many families are waiting for their relatives to return to Gaza as soon as the crossing opens. This is also a message: we will not leave our country — we return to it despite the ongoing war.”
The border remains closed
For Khaled Omar (20) the loss takes a different form. Despite scoring 97.8% in the 2023 scientific secondary examination, months before Israel launched its horrific genocide in Gaza, the closure of the Rafah crossing has cost him multiple overseas scholarships, all of which require travel that is now impossible.
“Rafah crossing’s closure means losing my future and my dream of studying computer science at a specialised university,” says Omar, displaced with his family from Rafah since May 2024 to Khan Younis al-Mawasi.
“I received a scholarship from Necmettin Erbakan University in Konya, Turkey, and could not travel through the crossing. I remain deprived like thousands of others.”
He adds, “I tried to obtain other scholarships, but whenever they agreed, they informed me of the necessity of reaching the scholarship-providing country by a specific time. When I tell them the crossing is closed, and I am waiting for it to open, they cancel my scholarship.”
Khaled explains that his dreams are shattered at the closed Rafah crossing, and he cannot pursue online education at local universities, noting that he enrolled in one for a single semester before dropping out. He believes that the crossing controls the fate of thousands of dreams for secondary students or postgraduate students who received scholarships outside Gaza.
He demands that the crossing be opened and that priority be given to students, since their futures depend on travel. He adds that his sister, Raghad (18) was also denied the opportunity to study abroad after the crossing’s closure, despite scoring 91.7% in this year’s secondary examination. She dreamed of obtaining a scholarship, but all, as usual, require presence outside Gaza.
“Our lives are suspended on this crossing, and our future is destroyed for no reason,” Khaled continues.
“Gaza is crowded with distinguished and creative people waiting for an opportunity to develop themselves through universities and specialised centres outside Gaza, but the closure of the crossings prevents that.”
He continues: “My parents grieve watching their eldest son lose his future without being able to do anything. Every day we live on hope that the crossing will open. My family’s greatest wish is to see me complete my university education and achieve my dream of studying computer science.”
The Rafah crossing catastrophe extends beyond patients to most groups whose lives depend on its opening, Palestinians say, including those stranded outside Gaza who wait impatiently to return to the Strip — some left before the war, others at its beginning — as well as students waiting for opportunities to travel to join universities that granted them scholarships or complete postgraduate studies.
According to Zaher, the Health Ministry submits referrals to the WHO, which handles complex procedures, including obtaining Israeli security approval and searching for host countries. “Usually they have specific standards like accepting specific categories such as children or women, or certain diseases like cancer or others,” he explains.
The closure’s impact reaches students like Khaled and his sister, families like Fatima’s waiting for relatives’ return, and critically ill children like Dua’a, whose bodies continue deteriorating while awaiting a crossing opening that remains uncertain.
Mohamed Solaimane is a Gaza-based journalist
