WHO Evacuates 41 Critically Ill Patients from Gaza in First Operation Since Ceasefire

The World Health Organization (WHO) has successfully evacuated 41 critically ill patients and 145 accompanying persons from the Gaza Strip, marking the first such operation since the ceasefire was established, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced.

“WHO led today’s medical evacuation of 41 critical patients and 145 companions out of Gaza — the first since the ceasefire,” Tedros said in a post on X on Wednesday.

He added that around 15,000 patients remain in urgent need of medical evacuation and are awaiting clearance to receive treatment outside Gaza. Tedros renewed his appeal to nations to demonstrate solidarity and open all possible routes to expedite the process.

The ceasefire agreement was signed on October 13 by US President Donald Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Hamas and Israel reached a phased peace deal that ended Israel’s months-long military offensive in Gaza in exchange for the release of remaining hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. The first phase of the ceasefire deal is currently in progress—all living hostages have been released, and the bodies of the deceased are still being returned to Israel.

As part of the accord, Hamas released the remaining 20 surviving hostages who had been held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attacks. In return, Israel freed 1,718 Palestinian detainees from Gaza and 250 prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Currently, Hamas is in the process of returning the bodies of hostages who died in captivity. Under the terms of the agreement, all 28 remaining bodies are to be handed over to Israel.

The US State Department on Saturday said it had received “credible reports” that Hamas is preparing to launch an imminent attack against civilians in Gaza, an act the United States warned would constitute a “grave violation” of the recently brokered ceasefire agreement.

“This planned assault on Palestinian civilians would directly breach the ceasefire agreement and jeopardise the progress made through intensive mediation efforts,” the State Department said in a statement.

The State Department did not provide further details on the attack, and it is unclear what reports it was citing.

The statement added that "measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire," though it did not specify what those measures would entail.

President Donald Trump this week issued a sharp warning to the militant group. “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, without clarifying who he meant by “we.”

Washington said it had notified all guarantors of the peace accord, including Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, about Hamas’s “imminent ceasefire violation.”