Israel exacerbates the suffering of Gaza patients and those returning to it
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Returning to the Gaza Strip reveals a new facet of the suffering endured by travelers, who are subjected to harassment, searches, interrogations, beatings, and confiscation of belongings by the occupying forces controlling the land crossings. Meanwhile, thousands of patients face obstacles in leaving Gaza for medical treatment.
In a report by Al Jazeera’s Rami Abu Ta’ima, one woman returning through the Rafah crossing confirmed that Israeli soldiers interrogated her grandfather for three hours. She said she was questioned about matters unrelated to her and was beaten with a rifle by an Israeli female soldier.
The woman stated that the soldiers accused her of espionage, confiscated her belongings, and smashed her phone—a scene, according to Abu Ta’ima, that reflects Israel’s targeting of returnees as part of the ongoing siege of Gaza.
Those returning to the Strip undergo multiple inspection stages, beginning on Egyptian soil, then by the European team, and finally by the Israeli army and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). This process can take many hours before they reach the Palestinian side. While travelers face difficulties in inspection and crossing, patients pay the heaviest price. Some have died before traveling, while others await a permit that could save their lives.
Munira Abu Arqub, ravaged by cancer, was unable to obtain a travel permit despite numerous appeals. She died without even receiving treatment to alleviate her pain.
The same fate awaits Dr. Khuloud Samhoud, who lives under the stairs of a displaced persons’ home in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. She is unable to travel or access treatment for the cancer that is ravaging her.
Samhoud does not want to leave the Gaza Strip, but she finds no way to help her fight the disease, which, as she describes it, is causing her to die a slow death.
More than 20,000 Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip are waiting for travel permits to receive treatment, while Israel imposes further restrictions on exit permits and numerous obstacles for those returning.
Two days ago, a number of amputees held a sit-in in front of Nasser Medical Complex, demanding that their travel be expedited so they could be fitted with prosthetic limbs to help them resume their lives.
Israel continues to place obstacles in the way of patients from the Gaza Strip. Last April, Raed al-Nims, spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, confirmed that they had been “officially informed, without explanation, of the cancellation of travel coordination for patients and the wounded through the crossing, despite medical teams having begun preparing a new batch of critical cases for departure.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres had previously called for facilitating the large-scale passage of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including through the Rafah crossing.
Israel was supposed to reopen the crossing in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on October 10, 2025, but it has reneged on this commitment.
