US lawmakers press Israel to let cancer patients out of Gaza for treatment

A bunch of lawmakers have known as on the Trump administration to facilitate medical evacuations out of Gaza amid a dearth of companies.

Greater than 60 members of america Congress have known as on Israel to elevate restrictions on Palestinian cancer patients in Gaza in order that they might search treatment in hospitals within the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem.

Fifty-one members of the Home of Representatives and 11 members of the Senate signed Thursday’s letter, addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They embody Senators Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen and Representatives Madeleine Dean and Greg Casar.

The letter calls on the administration of President Donald Trump to facilitate the medical evacuation of youngster cancer patients and their caretakers, in addition to get hold of Israeli ensures that they are going to be allowed to return to Gaza.

“There isn’t any conceivable purpose that permitting children with cancer to drive 40 minutes for lifesaving medical treatment ought to be controversial,” stated Deyar Jamil, a fellow on the human rights group DAWN, which helped craft the letter.

“Such cruelty wouldn’t be doable with out US political cowl and we’re grateful for the members of Congress who’re demanding an finish to it.”

Decimated well being system

The United Nations estimates that about 11,000 cancer patients are at present dwelling in Gaza, the place Israel’s systematic destruction of the healthcare system has left them unable to get hold of sufficient treatment.

In accordance to the World Well being Group (WHO), 94 p.c of Gaza’s hospitals have been destroyed or broken throughout Israel’s genocidal struggle on the Palestinian territory, which started in October 2023.

Israeli forces, for occasion, destroyed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only specialised cancer facility within the strip, in March 2025.

“Cancer diagnoses grow to be loss of life sentences in Gaza, the place medical doctors estimate that cancer deaths have tripled since October 2023,” Thursday’s letter reads.

It argues that the restricted medical evacuations permitted by Israeli authorities have fallen far quick of patients’ wants.

In accordance to the United Nations, at the very least 1,200 folks have died in Gaza whereas ready for evacuation approvals, together with a six-year-old boy with leukaemia named Ghazal, who spent the final two months of his life hoping for permission to go away.

The WHO suspended medical evacuations from Gaza to Egypt in April after Israeli forces shot and killed a medical contractor.

Regardless of a ceasefire settlement that took impact in October 2025, Israeli forces have continued to carry out strikes throughout Gaza and limit the circulation of humanitarian help.

All through the struggle, Israeli forces have confronted allegations of deliberately focusing on medical employees and systematically destroying medical amenities throughout Gaza.

Even earlier than the struggle, Israel maintained strict management over who was allowed to enter and exit Gaza. Since October 2023, the nation has largely rejected medical evacuation requests, citing “safety issues”.

Thursday’s letter proposes the institution of a medical hall to enable obligatory journey out of Gaza, connecting the strip to different components of the Palestinian territory.

It notes that medical amenities within the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem are ready to obtain patients from Gaza and provide companies corresponding to radiation treatment, with Augusta Victoria Hospital and Patriarchs and Heads of Church buildings in Jerusalem providing to cowl all related bills.

The letter additionally calls for assurances that Palestinians might be in a position to rebuild Gaza’s medical amenities with out additional destruction. But it surely emphasises the necessity to evacuate cancer patients instantly to guarantee they obtain life-saving treatment.

“The one impediment between these patients and the treatment they desperately want is the Israeli authorities’s approval of their evacuation requests,” the letter states.