The World Health Organisation recently stated that more than 10,000 people in Gaza urgently require medical evacuation. However, Israel often blocks their safe passage abroad, while severely limiting critical supplies getting into hospitals and attacking medical facilities.

Hani Isleeem, a Project Coordinator with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Al Jazeera that before Donald Trump was re-elected as US president, many countries were open to accepting medical evacuees but that Israel prevented the vast majority of them from leaving the strip.

“Most of the time, they were denied — and even if the patient was allowed to leave, they were refusing their companion — and there were no clear reasons behind these refusals and no justification,” he said.

He said that after Trump was re-elected and he floated plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, many countries became reluctant to even accept medical evacuees in principle.

“That made a lot of countries who were willing to take people from Gaza hesitate and change their plan because of the political stance,” he said.

Isleeem said it is not only those wounded in attacks who require evacuation, but that many people with chronic conditions such as cancer, renal failure, and cardiovascular problems also need treatment abroad.

“The situation in Gaza is beyond catastrophic,” he said.