Qatar has been evacuating wounded Palestinians and people with humanitarian cases under an initiative by the Amir, while sponsoring 3,000 orphans from Gaza.
Qatar evacuated residency holders from Gaza to Doha on Tuesday while sending an aircraft carrying 20 tonnes of aid.
Lolwah Al Khater, the Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, welcomed the evacuated residents in Egypt’s El Arish Airport and received the aid flight, which carried food supplies provided by Qatar Charity, the Qatari foreign ministry announced in a statement.
The total aid flights sent by Qatar to Gaza has now gone up to 87, the statement added.
“This aid comes within the framework of the State of Qatar’s support for the brotherly Palestinian people and its full support for them during the difficult humanitarian conditions they are currently exposed to,” the foreign ministry said.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari announced Al Khater’s visit during a weekly press briefing on Tuesday, where he said she will lead a Qatari delegation in Al-Arish.
He said al Khater will also visit the Qatari warehouses for reconstruction in Gaza.
The Gulf state has also been evacuating wounded Palestinians and people with humanitarian cases under an initiative by Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to sponsor 3,000 orphans and treat 1,500 injured Palestinians from the Strip.
As of last week, Qatar evacuated the 19th batch of wounded Palestinians, though it remains unclear how many have been evacuated.
The Qatari efforts come as the Israeli war in Gaza nears its sixth month without a ceasefire in sight, with more than 32,414 Palestinians killed. The figure is likely higher as more than 7,000 are reported missing or under the rubble, according to the United Nations.
Thousands in Gaza require medical evacuations due to the extreme shortage of medical supplies and services due to the Israeli war and the complete blockade on the Strip.
As of March 23, the World Health Organization evacuated 3,400 out of 9,200 in need of medical evacuation.
The war has left Gaza with 11 partially functioning hospitals out of an initial 36, with only 24 percent of the primary healthcare facilities still functioning with barely any resources.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent declared that the Al-Amal Hospital in southern Gaza is out of service after the occupation forces forced its crews and the wounded to evacuate it.
“The hospital was besieged for more than 40 days and shelled several times before the occupation forces resumed its siege again and forced everyone in it to leave, leaving the hospital destroyed,” PRCS said.
This came as Israeli forces continued their raid and embargo of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and its surroundings for 10 days.
On Monday, Israel bombed the upper floor of its main building while continuing to trap around 7,000 displaced people and patients, according to Palestine’s news agency (Wafa).
Israel has also killed at least 174 UN staff since the start of the war in addition to 348 health workers, 48 others from the civil defence, and 15 from the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Hunger has reached alarming rates in Gaza, with at least 1.1 million people suffering from catastrophic levels of food insecurity. As of Monday, 31 people in Gaza, including 27 children, died as a result of malnutrition and dehydration, according to the UN.
Truckloads of aid have been lining up in neighbouring Egypt awaiting Israel’s approval to enter Gaza through the Rafah Crossing.
Less than 200 trucks enter Gaza daily carrying insufficient amounts of aid to feed the starving population, according to the UN.
The amount is significantly less than the pre-war daily average of 500 truckloads of aid that included fuel, which Israel has prevented from entering Gaza.
