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Gaza’s healthcare system has been destroyed. According to the WHO, more than 18,500 people need medical treatment outside Gaza, including around 4,000 children. Many need specialised treatment that is available only abroad, in some cases in Europe.

According to the WHO, almost 1,000 people died between summer 2024 and summer 2025 while waiting for medical evacuation. More than 100 of them were children.

Around 12,000 people have so far been medically evacuated from Gaza. Most have been received by countries in the region, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan. Their capacity is limited, however, especially for highly specialised treatment. More countries therefore need to be willing to receive patients from Gaza.

A medical evacuation can only work when several conditions are in place: patients must be able to leave Gaza, a country must agree to receive them, a hospital must be ready to provide treatment, and visas must be issued for patients and their caregivers.

Safe return after treatment is just as important. Medical evacuation must not become a means of permanent displacement or ethnic cleansing.

The WHO helps coordinate medical evacuations and has called on more countries to receive patients. Its recommendations also include reopening a medical corridor to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, making greater use of evacuation routes through Egypt and Jordan, and removing the logistical and administrative barriers that currently make evacuations more difficult.

Germany already has specialised hospitals and established systems for receiving seriously ill and injured patients. Since 2022, more than 1,500 seriously injured and ill people from Ukraine have been brought to Germany for treatment through the Kleeblatt mechanism.

Germany is also part of the UCPM, the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, which can be used to coordinate medical evacuations. New structures do not need to be created first. What is needed above all is the political decision and the political will to use existing systems for medical evacuations from Gaza as well.

Several European countries, as well as countries including the United States, Mexico and Japan, have already received patients from Gaza. Germany admitted two children for treatment in early 2024. According to the initiative, there have been no further admissions since then.

There is already concrete willingness to receive patients in Germany. Several cities and municipalities have spoken out in favour of taking in injured and traumatised children. Around 40 hospitals and other medical institutions have said they are willing to treat children from Gaza, with some also offering to cover the cost of treatment. Bonn University Hospital, for example, offered to treat an eleven-year-old child with severe blast injuries.

Despite this willingness, these local initiatives have not yet been put into practice. Security and organisational concerns have been among the reasons given.

Medical evacuations cannot replace the rebuilding of Gaza’s healthcare system. In the long term, Gaza needs functioning hospitals, medical staff, and safe access to medicines and infrastructure. But as long as these conditions are not in place, evacuation can be lifesaving for people who are seriously ill or injured. In the short term, safe and reliable medical evacuations are needed. In the long term, Gaza’s healthcare system must be rebuilt. Both are essential.