WHO rejects Israel's request for evacuation of Gaza Strip

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on October 14 that forcing thousands of hospital patients to evacuate to already overcrowded medical facilities in the southern Gaza Strip would have serious consequences.

In a statement, WHO protested Israel’s repeated demands to evacuate 22 hospitals treating 2,000 patients in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the organization, the forced evacuation of patients and medical staff will exacerbate the current humanitarian and public health crisis.

Medical staff in the northern Gaza Strip are facing a difficult choice between leaving critically ill patients behind, exposing them to greater risks in the conflict zone, or endangering them by trying to transport them to southern hospitals that are unable to admit them.

On the same day, Mexico, France and Ukraine urged Israel to open a humanitarian corridor into Gaza so that the three countries can evacuate their citizens.

Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena stressed that this was an urgent appeal to Israel because even war has certain principles. On October 12, the Mexican government said that hundreds of its citizens were waiting to be evacuated from Israel.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian parliament human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said the country's Foreign Ministry had sent a letter of protest to Israel, after Ukrainian citizens were not allowed to evacuate from the Gaza Strip on October 14.

In a separate announcement on social media, the Ukrainian Embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed that 207 Ukrainian citizens had beenevacuationfrom Tel Aviv to Romania on October 14 and another flight will take 155 people out of Israel on October 15.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel and Egypt to open a humanitarian corridor to evacuate their citizens from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing. The French President's office said Paris was in contact with all parties involved to find a way to help French citizens cross the southern Gaza Strip into Egypt, stressing that the crossing could also be used for humanitarian operations into Gaza.

President Macron discussed the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Egypt and Israel had previously agreed to allow US citizens to leave Gaza via the Rafah border crossing for five hours on October 14.