In brief
Amina Abu al‑Kas, a woman battling a severe infection, died in May while Gaza’s medical board had approved her transfer abroad. Her son, Saber, describes the agonising wait and the chance that the evacuation had every chance to fail. The story illustrates wider issues: 300 deaths and 15,000 people awaiting treatment, limited crossings, security checks, and chronic shortages of essential medicines and power. WHO and local authorities argue that bureaucratic hurdles slow the process, while families insist that lack of timely care is deadly.
Amina Abu al‑Kas, a mother of Saber, fell far from relief after Gaza’s medical board approved her transfer abroad. She died on 29 May while parents held on to the hope that the board’s clearance would soon permit departure.
Saber, aged twenty, has lived under the shadow of a war‑torn health system. While he waited, he saw her suffer pain that no local medicine could quell, and felt the weight of the failure that could come at any moment.
Gaza’s hospital staff report that a growing list of patients—more than fifteen thousand—await evacuation. Each name is a reminder of clinics that lack drugs, equipment, and, increasingly, power.
Doctors say the main obstacles are security checks, limited crossing permissions, and a shortage of accepting host‑countries who are unclear about which patients they support.
The World Health Organization says almost two thousand people have already left Gaza for treatment, but unlimited times are still needed to move the entire list.
The Ministry of Health tells that fuel provision for hospitals has improved but new generators cannot yet be brought in, and that supply lines continue to be tightly controlled by the occupying power.
Families report that desperation drives some to pay “agents” large sums for relief, while the WHO warns that such scams can exploit their fear.
From Gaza’s war‑demolished streets to his child’s bedside in an overcrowded ward, Saber’s story underscores that a patient in Gaza experiences a world of urgency unseen elsewhere.
