A Death Sentence for My Son”: Sick Gazans Face Forced Return to a War Zone

In a small hospital room in East Jerusalem, 16-year-old Yamen Al-Najjar lies in a bed he rarely leaves. His voice is weak, his pain constant. “Life is hard… I miss home,” he whispers. But returning home now could mean death.

Yamen was evacuated from Gaza just two days before October 7, 2023. He suffers from a rare bleeding disorder that doctors in Jerusalem have struggled to treat. His mother, Haifa, has spent two years pleading for a foreign hospital to accept him. Now, all that effort is about to collapse Israeli authorities have announced plans to send all Gazan patients back to Gaza, even those in critical condition.

For Yamen, Gaza is no longer a place with hospitals 94% of them have been damaged or destroyed. “If we go back, my son will die,” Haifa cries. “This is not a transfer, it’s a death sentence.”

Medical groups and human rights organizations are calling the decision “unacceptable, immoral, and illegal.” They warn that forcing patients like Yamen back to a war-torn land with no medical care is a violation of international law and of humanity itself.

“I will die there in two days,” said another patient, Nafez Al-Qahwaji, who suffers from kidney failure.

These are not numbers or statistics they are lives hanging by a thread, pleading for compassion in a world that seems to have turned away.