Israeli rights groups urge urgent medical evacuations for Gaza victims
Israeli human rights groups have petitioned the country’s Supreme Court to compel authorities to urgently resume medical evacuations for patients in Gaza to hospitals in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying thousands face life-threatening conditions.
In their filing, Gisha, HaMoked, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel warned that 16,500 people in Gaza – including children, women, and the elderly – are at immediate risk because the treatments they need are no longer available inside the bombarded enclave.
The petition argues Gaza’s health system has “completely collapsed” since the war began, and Israel, which controls all crossings and has exclusive authority over medical evacuations, bears direct responsibility for preventing patients from accessing life-saving care.
This is “not a political or security issue but a basic obligation to save lives”, the groups said.
Many wounded children need treatment for wounds outside of Gaza
Gaza students refuse to let Israel’s war ‘erase their future’
Tens of thousands of Palestinian students took their exams after working hard to complete their studies in tents and online during two years of Israel’s genocidal war. And many have received near-perfect scores.
Gaza has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, despite restrictions on education caused by 18 years of Israeli military blockade and decades of occupation.
“Even in a warzone with no classrooms, no books and barely any internet, Gaza’s students are showing up, logging in and sitting their final exam, refusing to let war erase their future,” says Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum.
Palestinian groups say 19,000 children killed since Israel’s war began
Palestinian civil society groups say Israel has killed more than 19,000 children and wounded 28,000 others since it began its assault more than two years ago, marking World Children’s Day with a call for urgent international action.
In a statement, the Palestinian NGO Network said hundreds of schools and childcare facilities, mostly in Gaza, have been destroyed, and more than 56,000 children orphaned, having lost one or both parents in Israeli attacks.
Palestinian children face “every form of abuse and violence” including policies amounting to genocide, as well as the mass detention of minors in Israeli prisons, it said.
The groups urged the UN and humanitarian agencies to protect Palestinian children, ensure access to food, medicine and medical evacuation, and hold Israel accountable for grave violations of international law.
