Arab Support
Egypt and Jordan move Gaza's patients as Rafah stays shut
Arab SupportGraphic: Times of Palestine
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Egypt and Jordan are the two working arteries left in the Arab medical-evacuation effort for Gaza's patients, and both are running far below what the caseload needs.
The World Health Organization counted roughly 10,600 patients evacuated abroad since the war began, most of them through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, Qatar and the UAE. That route has been effectively closed since Israel shut Rafah on 24 May 2025, and WHO says only a few hundred patients a month have since won Israeli military coordination (COGAT) approval to leave through other crossings to Egypt, Jordan or the UAE.
What is still moving#
Jordan's Humanitarian Medical Corridor has kept a steadier air bridge. Amman's health ministry reported its 27th batch of wounded and sick Gaza children landing in May 2026, 42 children in that group alone, for treatment in specialised Amman hospitals under a program that has run continuously since the corridor opened.
Egypt's route now moves far smaller numbers than at its 2024 peak. WHO recorded a March 2026 transfer of 17 patients through Rafah to Egyptian hospitals, each with a companion, described by the agency as care unavailable inside Gaza because of the health system's collapse.
The count that is missing#
No single Arab body publishes a running total of patients moved, funded and treated since COGAT tightened approvals. WHO's tally covers the whole war; Jordan's ministry counts by batch; Egypt's Health Ministry has not published a 2026 cumulative figure.
The gap matters because the Palestinian Ministry of Health's waiting list for external referral has run into the tens of thousands for specialities Gaza's hospitals no longer offer — cancer care, complex trauma reconstruction, paediatric cardiology.
"For care that is currently unavailable due to the widespread devastation of the health system."
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, describing the March 2026 Rafah transfer
Qatari and Emirati field hospitals inside Gaza treat patients who cannot travel at all, easing but not replacing the referral queue. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have funded treatment slots abroad without publishing patient counts tied to those funds.
The next practical stage#
Reopening Rafah for medical transit, rather than for goods alone, is the single change Jordanian and Egyptian officials have named as most likely to move the backlog. Until Israel agrees to it, Jordan's air bridge and Egypt's reduced Rafah flow remain the corridor's whole capacity, and the true waiting list stays a number no institution has published.
