NAZARETH, November 20, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli human rights organizations today filed a petition with the High Court of Justice demanding that the Israeli occupation authorities be compelled to immediately resume the medical evacuation of patients from the Gaza Strip to hospitals in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

The human rights organizations – Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel – stressed that 16,500 people in Gaza, including children, older persons and women, face a real threat to their lives after the urgent medical treatments they require have become unavailable in the Strip.

The organizations stressed that the health system in Gaza has completely collapsed since the outbreak of the war, and that Israel, as the party controlling the crossings and holding exclusive authority to permit medical evacuation, bears direct responsibility for preventing patients from reaching life-saving treatment.

The petition affirmed that Israel is obligated, under Israeli and international law, to ensure access to healthcare for populations under its effective control, in line with previous rulings of the High Court, and that Israel is violating its legal duty to protect civilian lives and prevent avoidable deaths, especially as it exercises full control over the movement of patients out of the Strip.

The petition stressed that this is not a political or security matter, but a fundamental obligation to save lives. The suffering, serious harm and deaths among patients in Gaza are not an inevitable fate, but a direct result of a policy that can be changed with a single decision, said the groups.

T.R.