Source: Save the Children
Children in Gaza in need of life-saving medical treatment are becoming increasingly trapped inside the Strip with the number of child medical evacuations falling by 75% since the first year of the war despite tens of thousands awaiting urgent care, Save the Children said. [1]
Since the start of the war in October 2023 and decimation of health systems across Gaza, nearly 14,000 Palestinians have been evacuated for medical treatment, nearly two-thirds of them (8,940) to Egypt, along with companions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This includes those evacuated by the Ministry of Health in Gaza and others before the WHO became the principal co-ordinator of evacuations.
But data provided by the WHO to Save the Children shows that the number of child medical evacuations is falling, with 1,010 children medically evacuated between 7 October 2025 and 6 October 2026, compared to 1,241 the previous year and 4,163 during the first year of the war. [2] The Ministry of Health in Gaza has said 21,000 people – a quarter of them children – are still awaiting medical evacuation from Gaza. (ref. https://www.newarab.com/news/over-2000-gazans-died-awaiting-medical-evacuation-amid-siege )
Meanwhile, support for those who leave Gaza is at risk due to funding cuts, the child rights organisation said.
For those who reach Egypt, the severe consequences of three years of war are evident. Palestinian children arrive experiencing deep psychological distress, including anxiety around food, speech disorders, aggression and trauma-related autoimmune conditions, according to Save the Children staff.
Save the Children runs a child-friendly space in Cairo – nicknamed “Little Gaza” – where about 750 children and their families are starting to find some glimmers of hope and healing but staff said the support is just a “drop in the ocean” next to the soaring scale of need, with a waiting list now at nearly at 5,000. These services will need to close next year without urgent and sustained funding, staff said.
Save the Children staff spoke of one boy arriving in Cairo having developed a stammer following years of distress inside Gaza. With psychological support, and finding community with other Palestinian children, he began to overcome his stammer, even narrating a play the children put on in the community. Staff said there are several stories like this.
But despite this community it is lonely for many Palestinians from Gaza. Some of those evacuated are unable to take their loved ones with them.
Reem-, 38, left Gaza earlier this year for breast cancer treatment in Egypt. She took her daughter Layan-, 9, whose experience of war has been so distressing that she suffered from the autoimmune condition vitiligo.
They were unable to take Reem’s 10-year old Mohamed-, who remains in Gaza and spend his time between his paternal and maternal aunts as his father has died.
At the child-friendly space, Save the Children supports Layan with education through the Palestinian curriculum after war prevented her from going to school for two years.
Both are desperate to reunite with Mohamed-.
“All I want is to reunite with my son and to live in a safe place,” said Reem.
“I just want to be with my brother,” said Layan.
Since the onset of the war, Save the Children has supported18,000 Palestinians from Gaza in Egypt with health, mental health and psychosocial support, education, child protection and cash assistance. Most of these cases are triaged through a support hotline that has found 93% of callers cannot meet basic needs such as food, rent and healthcare; 75% of families have no income; and 90% have no savings.
The most common wish children have is for there to be enough food for everyone, staff said, and cited the case of a mother who cannot bear to answer her husband back in Gaza when he asks her what she has eaten that day.
Doa Attia, Senior Operations Officer at Save the Children’s Gaza Response, described the fear of children and families on their arrival in Cairo, and how Save the Children’s support has helped them progress.
“At first it was hard, seeing all these needs in the children, like a child on his first day who kept grabbing onto his mother’s leg because he didn’t want to go in, he didn’t feel safe. But after that I saw the same child just playing about with the other children. That’s a big success. Another mother said her son used to be shy, even a little bit violent, but now he’s very respectful, he knows what to say and what not to say, he’s helping other children too. This is another success story.”
Children in Gaza are entitled to get medical treatment within the Strip [3], but three years of Israeli bombardment and restrictions on entry of aid and goods have left tens of thousands of children severely ill and injured. Amid decimated Gaza’s healthcare system, only half of hospitals even partially functional and all of them damaged, according to the UN.
One year after its signing, the so-called ‘ceasefire’ agreement exists in name only (https://apc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.savethechildren.net%2Fnews%2Fgaza-ceasefire-exists-name-only-say-more-100-organizations&data=05%7C02%7Camie.richardson%40scnz.org.nz%7Cb81808c2bb4745c873a108df35a3f9ee%7Ccc586fccf9b04ce4b1e1e928aa024244%7C0%7C0%7C639288650635463492%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=YjaFnyWz7Qvhb%2BZOO0vwHFecsiBUdiW48Ic8a3jkTec%3D&reserved=0), Save the Children and more than 100 other organisations said earlier this month. Ongoing Israeli restrictions on humanitarian and commercial access into the Strip are preventing recovery efforts, and Israeli military activity continues (https://apc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ochaopt.org%2Fcontent%2Fhumanitarian-situation-report-26-june-2026&data=05%7C02%7Camie.richardson%40scnz.org.nz%7Cb81808c2bb4745c873a108df35a3f9ee%7Ccc586fccf9b04ce4b1e1e928aa024244%7C0%7C0%7C639288650635473412%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FqFEJdbBvkrg96iy1yQfXPwA5ZSi66o6l3rILYeXLRg%3D&reserved=0) on a near daily basis, including airstrikes, artillery, and naval fire across Gaza.
Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, said:
“Three years after the war began, children in Gaza have been denied a childhood. What should have been years spent learning, playing and imagining their futures have instead been marked by violence, loss, famine, and displacement. Our programmes in Egypt offer a lifeline and temporary reprieve, but this is under threat if funding comes to an end.
“The international community must step up to ensure Palestinian children and families affected by the Gaza war can access the care, protection and support they need. In Egypt, this means sustained donor funding for these child-friendly-spaces to maintain safe learning and critical mental health support.”
“As well as sustained humanitarian access and essential services, we need the international community to secure access to specialised medical treatment, first by reopening the medical corridor to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and, where treatment is unavailable in the occupied Palestinian territory, through referrals to other countries, while safeguarding patients’ right to return, particularly given the Government of Israel’s history of denying Palestinians that right.
“Inside Gaza we need to ensure Palestinian-led, child-centred reconstruction, with Palestinian civil society, communities and children shaping their own recovery and rebuilding.”
“Until then, children and families trapped outside Gaza are caught between two impossible realities: struggling to cope with a life away from home, while unable to return to a place that has been devastated – and where the decimated health system means staying alive is a daily challenge.”
Save the Children has been providing essential services and support to Palestinian children impacted by the ongoing conflict since 1953 and has had a permanent presence in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1973. We are present in the West Bank and Gaza.
In Egypt, since the onset of the current war in Gaza, Save the Children has supported 18,000 Palestinians from Gaza with health, mental health and psychosocial support, education, child protection and cash assistance.
[1] Data submitted to Save the Children by the World Health Organisation on request
[2] This is due to a complex combination of reasons, including the closure of the Rafah border crossing, a lack of supply of ambulances, and other medical equipment; the halting of patient referrals to health facilities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and more restrictions and bureaucracy, as well as escalations in hostilities, despite the so-called ‘ceasefire’ agreement. Before October 2023 between 50-100 patients were exiting Gaza daily for medical treatment and continued up until the closure of the Rafah crossing, according to the WHO.
[3] the Convention on the Rights of the Child (https://apc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohchr.org%2Fen%2Fprofessionalinterest%2Fpages%2Fcrc.aspx&data=05%7C02%7Camie.richardson%40scnz.org.nz%7Cb81808c2bb4745c873a108df35a3f9ee%7Ccc586fccf9b04ce4b1e1e928aa024244%7C0%7C0%7C639288650635483225%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=i64BTu%2B7cmmB44t6WxGzajZY8v%2BCuW9NqP1ItXwp00Y%3D&reserved=0) states that children have the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health and access to healthcare services
Captions: CH295175_Layan (9) and her mother Reem (38) at a child-friendly-space in Egypt.jpg – Layan*, 9, and her mother Reem*, 38, were medically evacuated from Gaza to Egypt. They are supported by Save the Children in Cairo, where they attend a child-friendly-space, accessing mental health and psychosocial support, education in the Palestinian curriculum and protection support