Hundreds of Gazans to leave for UAE as exodus accelerates

More than 200 Gazans seeking medical treatment, along with their families, are slated to leave the Gaza Strip on Thursday via Israeli airport for the United Arab Emirates.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The wave of emigration out of the Gaza Strip is accelerating, with hundreds of Gazans slated to leave the coastal enclave on Thursday.

According to a report by the Hebrew daily Yedioth Aharanoth published on Wednesday, over 200 Gazans seeking medical treatment will depart from the Gaza Strip with their families on Thursday for the United Arab Emirates.

The migrants will undergo security checks by Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency at the Kerem Shalom crossing before being transported through Israeli territory to Ramon International Airport north of Eilat, their point of departure for the UAE.

According to the report, Thursday’s migration is merely the first of a number of group departures by sick Gazans to the United Arab Emirates, with hundreds of additional patients expected to leave Gaza in the coming weeks.

Israel’s Defense Ministry has been actively working with Gazan civilians in recent weeks to coordinate their emigration, including providing passage to the Ramon airport or the Allenby Crossing at the Israel-Jordan border.

While a report earlier this week claimed that roughly 1,000 Gazans had left the Strip in the first three weeks of March, with 600 more expected by the end of the month, Wednesday’s report stated that 2,000 have already left via the Kerem Shalom crossing over the past several weeks for the Allenby Crossing or Ramon Airport, with more migrants leaving Gaza via the Rafah Crossing.

At least 35,000 Gazans permanently settled abroad after October 7, 2023, the vast majority of them in the first month and a half of the war.

According to a report by the RAND Corporation, 115,000 Gazans left the Gaza Strip by June 2024, though it is unclear how many have permanently settled elsewhere.