GENEVA

The UNICEF on Friday warned that medical evacuations are "lethally slow" for 2,500 Gazan children that need urgent referral as "fewer than one child" evacuated per day.

"If this lethally slow pace continues, it would take more than seven years to evacuate the 2,500 children needing urgent medical care," spokesperson James Elder told a UN briefing in Geneva.

"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," Elder said.

He said that from Jan. 1 to May 7, an average of 296 children were medically evacuated each month.

However, he added, since the Rafah crossing closed on May 7 due to the Israeli ground offensive, the number of children medically evacuated has collapsed to just 22 per month.

"That is, just 127 children – many suffering from head trauma, amputations, burns, cancer, and severe malnutrition – have been allowed to leave since Rafah closed," he said.

Regarding the details of medical evacuation rejections, he said it is not known how many child patients have been rejected for medevac.

"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," the spokesperson said. "When a patient is denied, there is nothing that can be done. Trapped in the grip of an indifferent bureaucracy, children’s pain is brutally compounded."

Elder said there are no logistical or capacity problems to conduct medical evacuations.

"This is not a logistical problem, 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," he said, adding: "It is simply a problem that is being completely disregarded."

Israel has killed nearly 43,000 people, most of them women and children, since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that claimed around 1,200 lives and 250 others were taken as hostages.

According to Oxfam, people who survive the violence are being deliberately deprived of everything they need to survive – food, water, medical help and shelter.