More than 60 members of the US Congress have sent a bipartisan letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging the Trump administration to press "Israel" to lift restrictions on Palestinian cancer patients in Gaza seeking treatment in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.
The letter, signed Thursday by 51 members of the House of Representatives and 11 senators, cites the near-total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system and preventable deaths among pediatric cancer patients. Prominent signatories include Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), as well as Representatives Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas).
The lawmakers call on the State Department to facilitate medical evacuations for child cancer patients and their caretakers and to obtain Israeli guarantees that evacuees will be permitted to return to Gaza after treatment.
“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 (Democracy for the Arab World Now), which helped draft the letter. “Such cruelty would not be possible without U.S. political cover, and we are grateful for the members of Congress who are demanding an end to it.”
11,000 cancer patients face preventable death in Gaza
The letter, addressed directly to Secretary Rubio, notes that more than 18,500 Palestinians in Gaza require urgent medical care currently unavailable in the Strip, including approximately 11,000 cancer patients. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. The territory’s only specialized cancer treatment facility, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, was destroyed by the Israeli military on March 21, 2025, the letter states.
Without access to chemotherapy, radiation, or diagnostic services, lawmakers warned that cancer diagnoses have effectively become death sentences in Gaza. Doctors estimate that cancer deaths have tripled since October 2023.
The letter highlights the case of Ghazal, a six-year-old boy diagnosed with leukemia who died after two months of waiting for an evacuation approval. More than 1,200 people have died while awaiting evacuation, according to the signatories. In November 2025, five Israeli organizations filed a High Court petition describing the situation as “preventable deaths, nothing less.”
While acknowledging so-called Israeli "security concerns", the letter asserts that "Israel" remains obligated under international law to ensure medical services and public health for the people of Gaza, given its control over the territory, and to refrain from collective punishment. The signatories note that "Israel" has largely refused to permit medical evacuations to the West Bank since 2023 under the guise of security risks.
Source:Websites
