Gaza City, Gaza Strip – On February 28, Lama Abu Reida was just hours away from what he hoped would change the fate of his sick little daughter, Alma.
The family was eventually informed that the girl, less than five months old and unable to breathe without an oxygen machine, was eligible for a medical evacuation.
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The small travel bag was packed, the medical documents in order and Abu Rheida ready to go. All that was left was to leave the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt and from there head to Jordan, where Alma could undergo surgery that was not available in the Gaza Strip.
But just one day before the planned March 1 trip, Israel closed the Gaza crossings “until further notice,” citing security reasons. The decision coincided with the launch of a joint military strike alongside the United States against Iran and dashed Abu Rheida’s hopes.
“They told me that the crossing had been closed without prior notice due to the war with Iran,” says the mother, her voice breaking.
Alma, who suffers from a lung cyst, has been admitted to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, for more than three months, with her mother by her side day and night.
“You can’t live without oxygen at all,” says Abu Rheida. “Without it, you get very exhausted.”
‘I don’t know what could happen’
The Rafah crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world, was closed for long periods during Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Strip that began in October 2023.
On February 1, Israel announced a limited reopening as part of a trial phase following a “ceasefire” with the Palestinian group Hamas. This allowed for some movement under the provisions of the agreement, particularly for medical cases.
But only a few patients were able to travel and thousands remained on waiting lists until the Feb. 28 lockdown, which halted the transfer of injured patients abroad as well as medical evacuations of patients like Alma.
Doctors had told her family that the only option for Alma, who had previously been admitted to intensive care three times in a month, was to undergo surgery abroad to remove the lung cyst. While not particularly risky, such an operation cannot be performed inside Gaza due to limited medical resources.
“My daughter’s life depends on just one surgery and then she will be able to live a completely normal life,” says Abu Rheida.
“If his trip is delayed further… I don’t know what could happen. His condition is not reassuring,” she adds desperately.
On Sunday, Israeli authorities said the Rafah crossing will open again on Wednesday for “limited movement of people” in both directions.
‘The lockdown killed my children’
What Abu Rheida fears is something Hadeel Zorob has already suffered.
Zorob’s six-year-old son, Sohaib, died on March 1, 2025, while his eight-year-old daughter, Lana, died on February 18 last month. The two children suffered from a rare genetic disease that causes a gradual deterioration of the body’s functions.
Both were waiting for medical referrals to travel abroad for treatment, but that never happened.
“I saw my children slowly die before my eyes, one after the other, without being able to do anything,” says Zorob, 32, bursting into tears.
Lana was just a few days away from traveling before passing away.
“My daughter’s trip was scheduled for the same time the crossing was closed, but she died before then,” Zorob says.
“When the news of the crossing closure came, my pain for my daughter returned again as I remembered the many children who will suffer the same fate.”
Zorob says his children were still able to move and play relatively normally in the early stages of their illness.
Before Israel’s war on Gaza, both children received specialized hospital treatment, which helped stabilize their condition to some extent. But as Israeli attacks intensified, their condition gradually worsened to a stage where their lives were in danger. The collapse of Gaza’s health system left the family struggling to access the medicines they depended on.
“We even tried to bring the medicines from the West Bank and I asked the Red Cross and the World Health Organization, but nothing worked,” Zorob says.
During the war, she and her family had to leave their home and move to a tent in the al-Mawasi area. The new displacement conditions made childcare much more difficult.
“They were both bedridden…in diapers, and their blood sugar needed regular monitoring. We had to give them fluids and monitor their nutrition…all this in a tent with no basic necessities.”
Zorob says she feels like “going crazy” when she thinks that her children could have survived and gotten better if they had been able to receive treatment abroad.
“Closing the crossings killed my children!” he adds, his voice full of anguish. “The world does not value our lives or the lives of our children… this has become normal.”
Zorob says she is trying to stay strong for her third child, four-year-old Layan, despite the persistent pain.
“The only thing I want is for what happened to my children to not happen to any other mother… for the crossing to be reopened and for children and patients to be allowed to travel.”
‘Is that too much to ask?’
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 20,000 patients and wounded are waiting to travel abroad for medical treatment.
These include some 4,000 cancer patients who need specialized care that is not available in Gaza, and approximately 4,500 children.
The lists also include around 440 “life-saving” cases in need of urgent intervention and nearly 6,000 injured people requiring ongoing hospital care outside Gaza.
The Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights has called the closure of the Rafah crossing a form of collective punishment for civilians in Gaza, warning that it “sentences more patients to death” and deepens Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.
For Amal al-Talouli, the closure of the Rafah crossing was another devastating blow in her battle with cancer.
The 43-year-old woman has been suffering from breast cancer for about five years. Although he received treatment before the war, the disease returned and spread to other parts of his body, including his spine.
“Praise God, we accept our fate,” says the mother of two. “Still, why should our suffering worsen because we are prevented from traveling and crossings are closed?”
Al-Talouli is currently living with relatives after losing his home in the Beit Lahiya project area of northern Gaza during the war.
The move was not an easy choice due to his health, he says. The situation is compounded by a severe shortage of medicines and specialized medical personnel, a reality also experienced by other cancer patients in Gaza.
“There is a shortage of everything,” says al-Talouli. “I developed osteoporosis and eye fluid due to chemotherapy. Chemotherapy requires good nutrition, but malnutrition and hunger made it much more difficult.”
Al-Talouli says the closure of the crossings made things worse.
“It affects us greatly. Essential medicines and treatments are not coming in,” says al-Talouli, whose name was on a waiting list to travel outside Gaza for treatment.
He stresses that cancer patients in Gaza need urgent support.
“Now I just want the crossing to reopen so I can have the opportunity to recover and continue my life with my children,” she says. “Is that too much to ask?”
