For thousands of seriously ill patients in Gaza, hope often arrives too late. Families wait for months as paperwork moves through multiple approvals, while diseases continue to spread and hospitals struggle without the medicines and equipment many patients desperately need.
Every day, Saber Abu al-Kas checked for the call that could change everything.
His mother, Amina, had finally been approved by Gaza’s medical board to receive treatment abroad after developing a severe infection that had spread to her skull.
Doctors told the family there was nothing more they could do inside Gaza.
Saber said the approval gave his mother something she had not felt in months: hope.
“It brought life back into her. She knew there was no treatment in Gaza, so she was happy and excited,” he said.
But before patients can leave Gaza, they must pass several stages, including Israeli security checks, acceptance by a country willing to provide treatment, and additional travel approvals.
The family waited.
Every day they hoped the phone would ring.
Instead, Amina’s condition worsened.
“My mother couldn’t sleep day or night; she stayed awake, crying out from the pain,” Saber recalled.
Painkillers eventually caused stomach ulcers, and doctors advised her to stop taking them.
The call finally came.
But it arrived two weeks after Amina had died.
“My mother died, and two weeks after her death, I got a call from the hospital informing me that her paperwork was ready,” Saber said.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, Amina is among 300 Palestinians who have died while waiting for medical evacuation since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began last October.
The figures are also cited by the World Health Organization (WHO), which helps coordinate medical evacuations.
More than 15,000 patients are still waiting for treatment outside Gaza, including people suffering from cancer, chronic illnesses and severe injuries sustained during the war.
The WHO says 1,977 patients have been evacuated since the ceasefire began more than eight months ago.
At the current pace, evacuating everyone who needs specialist treatment could take years.
“We are talking about something that feels like a miracle,” Saber said.
“If a patient’s name is selected and they are granted permission to travel for treatment abroad, it is almost a miracle.”
WHO representative Dr. Reinhilde Van de Weerdt said the process is complicated because patients must satisfy several governments before they can travel.
Some countries only accept children.
Others only take patients whose treatment can be completed within a short period.
Patients and accompanying relatives must also obtain visas and pass multiple security screenings.
Meanwhile, families continue waiting.
Outside Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, dozens of patients and relatives recently gathered to protest the delays.
Among them was Nidal al-Arir, pleading for his son, who urgently needs a corneal transplant.
Nearby, cancer patient Raeda Nuaizi described exhausting every treatment available inside Gaza.
“What is my treatment? Painkillers! But what can painkillers do for a cancer patient?” she asked.
Fourteen-year-old Muath al-Dini is also still waiting.
An Israeli air strike amputated one of his legs and killed another child in his family.
But long before the war, Muath had already been receiving treatment for spinal cancer.
“Here, there is no treatment for me,” he said.
His mother says loose screws from previous spinal surgery are now affecting his breathing.
Although the family received security clearance months ago, they are still waiting for permission to leave.
“My son’s childhood has been lost,” his mother said.
Aid organisations say Gaza’s hospitals remain overwhelmed by shortages of medicines, spare parts and medical equipment despite the ceasefire.
Doctors are reportedly rationing drugs, postponing chemotherapy and dialysis sessions, and sharing essential supplies between hospitals.
Pat Griffiths of the International Committee of the Red Cross said many deaths could be prevented if patients had access to proper medical care.
“There is no doubt in my mind that people in Gaza are dying because they can’t receive the care they need,” he said.
Israel’s military body responsible for civilian affairs in Gaza, Cogat, rejects claims that it is blocking medical supplies.
It says more than 17,000 tonnes of medicines and medical equipment have entered Gaza since the ceasefire and insists it has approved every request for medicines submitted by international aid organisations.
Humanitarian workers, however, argue that key shortages remain and say hospitals continue operating far below what patients require.
The WHO also warned desperate families not to pay unofficial middlemen claiming they can speed up medical evacuations after reports emerged of patients being asked for thousands of pounds.
For Saber, none of those debates will change what happened to his mother.
The call his family had prayed for eventually came.
It was simply too late.
“Most of those who came to offer condolences said, ‘At least she is at peace now,'” Saber said. “Because a patient in Gaza is different from any patient elsewhere in the world.”
