US lawmakers press Israel to let cancer patients out of Gaza for treatment

More than 60 members of the U.S. Congress, including 51 House representatives and 11 senators, have signed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on the Trump administration to facilitate medical evacuations from Gaza. The letter specifically urges the evacuation of child cancer patients and their caretakers and seeks Israeli guarantees that they will be allowed to return to Gaza.

The United Nations estimates that about 11,000 cancer patients currently live in Gaza, where Israel's systematic destruction of the healthcare system has left them without adequate treatment. According to the World Health Organization, 94 percent of Gaza's hospitals were destroyed or damaged during Israel's genocidal war on the territory, which began in October 2023. Israeli forces destroyed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only specialized cancer facility in the strip, in March 2025.

The letter states that cancer diagnoses become death sentences in Gaza, with doctors estimating that cancer deaths have tripled since October 2023. At least 1,200 people have died in Gaza while waiting for evacuation approvals, including a six-year-old boy named Ghazal with leukemia who spent his last two months hoping for permission to leave.

The WHO suspended medical evacuations from Gaza to Egypt in April after Israeli forces shot and killed a medical contractor. Despite a ceasefire that took effect in October 2025, Israeli forces have continued strikes and restricted humanitarian aid.

The letter proposes establishing a medical corridor connecting Gaza to other parts of the Palestinian territory. Medical facilities in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are ready to receive patients, with Augusta Victoria Hospital and the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem offering to cover all expenses. The letter also calls for assurances that Gaza's medical facilities can be rebuilt without further destruction but emphasizes the immediate need to evacuate cancer patients for life-saving treatment.