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<\/a><\/p>\nPublished On 11 Jun 202611 Jun 2026<\/p>\n
More than 60 members of the United States Congress have called on Israel to lift restrictions on Palestinian cancer patients in Gaza<\/a> so that they may seek treatment in hospitals in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Fifty-one members of the House of Representatives and 11 members of the Senate signed Thursday\u2019s letter, addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They include Senators Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen and Representatives Madeleine Dean and Greg Casar.<\/p>\n Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n The letter calls on the administration of President Donald Trump to facilitate the medical evacuation of child cancer patients and their caretakers, as well as obtain Israeli guarantees that they will be allowed to return<\/a> to Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no conceivable reason that allowing kids with cancer to drive 40 minutes for lifesaving medical treatment should be controversial,\u201d said Deyar Jamil, a fellow at the human rights group DAWN, which helped craft the letter.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch cruelty would not be possible without US political cover and we are grateful for the members of Congress who are demanding an end to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Decimated health system<\/p>\n The United Nations estimates that about 11,000 cancer patients are currently living in Gaza, where Israel\u2019s systematic destruction<\/a> of the healthcare system has left them unable to obtain adequate treatment<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 94 percent of Gaza\u2019s hospitals were destroyed or damaged during Israel\u2019s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory, which began in October 2023.<\/p>\n Israeli forces, for instance, destroyed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the sole specialised cancer facility<\/a> in the strip, in March 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cCancer diagnoses become death sentences in Gaza, where doctors estimate that cancer deaths have tripled since October 2023,\u201d Thursday\u2019s letter reads.<\/p>\n It argues that the limited medical evacuations permitted by Israeli authorities have fallen far short of patients\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n According to the United Nations, at least 1,200 people have died in Gaza while waiting for evacuation approvals, including a six-year-old boy with leukaemia named Ghazal, who spent the last two months of his life hoping for permission to leave.<\/p>\n The WHO suspended medical evacuations from Gaza to Egypt in April after Israeli forces shot and killed<\/a> a medical contractor.<\/p>\n