According to a report by Al Jazeera on June 29, 2026, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who were expected to receive urgent medical treatment outside the territory remain unable to leave despite commitments made under the US-brokered ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025. The continued restrictions have left many critically ill patients without access to life-saving healthcare.
Figures released by Gaza’s Health Ministry show that nearly 21,000 people should have been permitted by Israel to leave Gaza for medical care under the terms of the agreement. Around one-third of those approved cases involve patients requiring urgent treatment, with each patient allowed to travel alongside two companions.
However, the ministry said the implementation has fallen far short of expectations. Fewer than 7,500 people have been allowed to leave Gaza since the agreement took effect, representing a compliance rate of only 36 percent. Health officials warn that the delay has placed thousands of vulnerable patients at greater risk as hospitals continue to struggle with limited resources.
“Tens of thousands of people who have been cleared for urgent evacuation are still trapped in Gaza. Many won’t survive,” Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum said.
Medical workers say the humanitarian situation inside Gaza has continued to deteriorate despite hopes that the ceasefire would improve access to essential healthcare and medical supplies.
Dr Ahmed al-Faraa, head of the paediatric department at Nasser Hospital, told Al Jazeera: “We expected with this ceasefire everything would change. But this period has been the worst period among these 1,000 days. We expected a lot of medical supplies to enter Gaza, but unfortunately that has not happened.
“We call it health genocide. They are attacking the health sector they are trying to turn hospitals into concrete shells – out of service, out of medical supplies, out of doctors.”
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