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Published : 23 Jul 2026, 11:02 AM
Wounded and chronically ill Palestinian journalists have protested against Israel's travel restrictions on Gaza residents seeking medical treatment abroad.
The protest, shown in a video report by Al Jazeera, comes against the backdrop of a broader medical evacuation crisis that has persisted since a ceasefire took effect in October last year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wounded and chronically ill Palestinian journalists held a protest calling for urgent medical evacuation from Gaza, saying the collapsed healthcare system cannot provide the treatment they need. <a href="https://t.co/xQk8iIZmnI">pic.twitter.com/xQk8iIZmnI</a></p>— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) <a href="https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/2080043940321837567?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Aid agencies have said tens of thousands of patients in Gaza require treatment unavailable in the territory's decimated hospitals, with the World Health Organization citing figures of around 15,000 to 15,600 patients awaiting evacuation at various points since the truce began, including thousands of children.
The ceasefire had promised safe evacuation routes for the sick and wounded, but relief agencies say transfers have moved at a fraction of the pace needed, with only a handful of patients permitted to leave on many days.
Journalist Mohammed Al-Qahouji, critically injured in an Israeli strike that killed two Al Jazeera journalists, told Al Jazeera he had suffered a blast wound to the face and blood poisoning, calling it “a miracle he survived”.
He said he had lost parts of his right hand to amputation and suffered fractures, along with lasting hearing and mobility problems that left him at a major disadvantage in a profession that depends on both.
Al-Qahouji said he was still waiting for his turn, as a sick and injured citizen, to receive treatment abroad, adding that Gaza's health system, given the conditions residents were living through, simply lacked the capacity to treat him.
Gaza's health ministry has accused Israel of preventing more than 16,000 Palestinians from seeking medical treatment abroad.
Fellow journalist Moaz Al-Salhi disputed official figures on evacuation numbers, telling Al Jazeera that since the ceasefire, authorities had claimed 150 patients would be allowed to travel each day, but that in reality only around 30 to 37 were crossing daily.
He called the 150-patient figure a lie.
Protesters warned that delays in medical evacuations were putting the lives of many injured journalists at risk.
Ahed Farwada of the Palestine Journalists' Syndicate told the Qatari outlet that a group of journalists were so severely injured they could no longer move, with surgeries they needed unavailable inside Gaza.
He said several sick journalists had also suffered strokes and limb amputations, underlining the severity of their conditions and the urgent need for medical evacuation to save their lives.
