MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

On the war's third anniversary, 5,600 children are waiting to be evacuated from Gaza

Some 5,600 children are waiting to be evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment, according to the territory's Hamas-run Health Ministry, as three years pass since the group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, saw 251 taken hostage and triggered the war.

To leave the Strip, patients need a referral from the Health Ministry, acceptance by a host country and Israeli security clearance. Among those recently evacuated is Raseel, a six-year-old girl injured at the al-Mawasi displacement camp in July, who travelled to Egypt in late September with support from the World Health Organization. Witnesses attributed the strike to an Israeli helicopter; the Israeli military said it had no record of a strike at that time and place.

Doctors warn that antibiotic-resistant infections are complicating the recovery of the wounded. A study shared with the BBC World Service, based on almost 80,000 bacterial samples collected at 11 hospitals between 2015 and 2025, found widespread resistance to key antibiotics. It was carried out by Gaza-based researchers with support from Imperial College London and the American University of Beirut; it has not yet been peer-reviewed and its findings are preliminary. “We will see the number of amputations rise, even if the war stops,” said Awni al-Jaafarawi, a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor at Nasser hospital.

The researchers link the problem to the destruction of water and sanitation. According to the UN, almost 90% of that infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged, and more than 80% of families face water insecurity. Cogat, the Israeli body that manages access to Gaza, says the water supplied exceeds the UN humanitarian threshold and that medicines, including antibiotics, enter without restriction.

Gaza's Health Ministry puts the number of Palestinians killed since the war began at more than 74,000, and at 1,421 since the US-brokered ceasefire agreed in October 2025. Israel disputes the figures and says it acts to minimise harm to civilians.