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

More than 60 members of the United States Congress have called on Israel to lift restrictions on Palestinian cancer patients in Gaza so that they may seek treatment in hospitals in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Fifty-one members of the House of Representatives and 11 members of the Senate signed Thursday’s letter, addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They include Senators Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen and Representatives Madeleine Dean and Greg Casar.

The letter calls on the administration of President Donald Trump to facilitate the medical evacuation of child cancer patients and their caretakers, as well as obtain Israeli guarantees that they will be allowed to return to Gaza.

“There is no conceivable reason that allowing kids with cancer to drive 40 minutes for lifesaving medical treatment should be controversial,” said Deyar Jamil, a fellow at the human rights group DAWN, which helped craft the letter.

“Such cruelty would not be possible without US political cover and we are grateful for the members of Congress who are demanding an end to it.”

The United Nations estimates that about 11,000 cancer patients are currently living in Gaza, where Israel’s systematic destruction of the healthcare system has left them unable to obtain adequate treatment .

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 94 percent of Gaza’s hospitals were destroyed or damaged during Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory, which began in October 2023.

Israeli forces, for instance, destroyed t he Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the sole specialised cancer facility in the strip, in March 2025.