More than 1,000 patients have died while waiting for urgent medical evacuation from war-ravaged Gaza in the last year and a half, the World Health Organization said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday on X that the UN agency and its partners had "evacuated over 10,600 patients from Gaza with severe health conditions, including over 5,600 children" since the start of the war more than two years ago.
But he warned that "many more patients remain in Gaza awaiting evacuation to receive appropriate healthcare".
Citing numbers from the health ministry in Gaza, Tedros said that 1,092 patients were known to have died while awaiting medical evacuation just between July 2024 and November 28, 2025.
"This figure is likely underreported," he warned, calling on "more countries to open doors to patients from Gaza, and for medical evacuation to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be restored".
"Lives depend on it."
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva on Friday that some 18,500 patients were still in need of treatment outside Gaza, including more than 4,000 children.
A Doctors Without Borders official told AFP earlier this month that the WHO figures refer only to registered patients, and that the actual number of people in need of urgent evacuation was several times higher.
"Many of these people don't have time to wait," Jasarevic stressed.
A US-sponsored ceasefire has halted fighting in Gaza, but the deal, in effect since October 10, remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of violations.
