By Abdel Raouf Arnaout and Betul Yilmaz
JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL (AA) - Five Israeli human rights organizations submitted a petition to the Supreme Court on Thursday for allowing the medical evacuation of Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip to West Bank hospitals.
The petition was filed by Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Gisha, Center for the Defence of the Individual (HaMoked), the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights (Adalah), and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
According to the groups, about 16,500 people in Gaza, including women, children, and elderly people, are facing real danger threatening their lives after urgent medical treatments have become unavailable amid a complete collapse of the health system in the enclave.
“Israel, as the authority controlling the crossings and the sole entity capable of allowing medical evacuation, bears direct responsibility for preventing patients from accessing life-saving treatment,” they said in a statement.
The petition stated that “two-thirds of the 647 health facilities that were operating in the Gaza Strip before October 2023 have gone out of service, and only three hospitals remain fully operational.”
The number of hospital beds has dropped from 3,500 to just 1,952 for a population of more than two million people. Essential services such as chemotherapy, advanced medical imaging, intensive care, oncological surgeries, and pediatric treatment have become nearly unavailable, they added.
The groups cited estimates indicating that more than 11,000 cancer patients in Gaza are without medication or vital equipment after 75% of chemotherapy drugs disappeared from the strip.
“The harsh living conditions faced by hundreds of thousands living in tents, alongside injuries, infectious diseases, and untreated chronic illnesses, make every day of delay in evacuating patients a direct threat to their lives,” they said.
The Israeli groups stressed that “the fastest and most effective solution to save patients’ lives is less than an hour away from Gaza—in Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.”
They highlighted that these hospitals served as the primary treatment centers for complex cases from Gaza prior to the war, “with about 57% of referred patients receiving care there between 2019 and 2021.”
They added that Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem has 170 beds and advanced oncology services, and used to receive around 40% of Gaza’s patients before the war.
East Jerusalem’s Makassed, the Red Crescent Hospital, and Princess Basma Center, as well as several hospitals in the West Bank, have expressed readiness to immediately receive patients and provide stable, long-term treatment without reliance on third countries, the statement said.
“Israel is obligated under Israeli and international law to ensure access to healthcare for populations under its effective control, in line with previous Supreme Court rulings,” the groups emphasized.
“Israel is violating its legal duty to protect civilian lives and prevent avoidable deaths, especially since it fully controls the movement of patients outside the Gaza Strip,” they added.
“This is not a political or security matter—it is a fundamental obligation to save lives. The suffering, severe harm, and deaths among patients in Gaza are not inevitable; they are the direct result of a policy that can be changed with a single decision.”
The groups noted that their medical supplies are “ready at the border,” reiterating their call for the “urgent and sustainable reopening of all crossings into Gaza.”
The Israeli Supreme Court has not yet set a date to hear the petition.
Throughout the two-year Israeli war, the army has deliberately targeted Gaza’s hospitals and its health infrastructure, rendering most of them out of service and placing the lives of patients and the wounded at risk, according to Palestinian and UN data.
Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, injured over 170,000, and reduced most of the enclave to rubble.