As the war rages in the Gaza Strip, several countries are organizing evacuations from Rafah, the crossing point between the Palestinian enclave and Egypt. RFI was notably able to follow an evacuation flight organized by the United Arab Emirates. The objective of the Gulf petromonarchy is to welcome 2,000 Gazans injured or with serious illnesses.
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With our special envoy to el-Arich, Sophie Guignon
At the gates of Gaza, at the al-Arish military airport, in Egypt, 25 seriously injured or ill children wait to board a plane to Abu Dhabi. Among them is Youssef Abu Chaar, 12 years old. Lying on a stretcher, he suffered deep wounds on his legs. He is accompanied by one of his sisters on the road to Abu Dhabi.
They are almost the only survivors of their family decimated by Israeli strikes. “ I was carted from one hospital to another. They operated on me without anesthesia, without anything. There are no medications. We were bombed. We had to flee the North to go to the South of Gaza. My mother was killed, my sister too, my three cousins, my cousin, my grandmother and my grandfather,” he testifies.
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“It’s the worst thing I’ve seen »
To board the plane, the stretchers are lifted by a platform. Little Youssef is experiencing his first moments of respite. On board, doctor Yaacoub el-Hamadi, emergency doctor, takes care of the children. “ It’s not just losing a limb, many patients have lost two legs for example. The prevalence of cancer is very high. I’ve seen a lot of things in my career, and this is the worst I’ve seen “, he admits.
These evacuations represent a drop in an ocean of needs. Children are the first victims of this bloody conflict which opposes Israel in Hamas has already killed more than 34,500 people, including more than 13,000 children, according to the United Nations. In Gaza, a child is injured or killed every 10 minutes, according to Unicef.
Read alsoGaza: in Rafah, “Israeli bombs cause deaths and injuries every day”