More than 200 seriously injured and sick Palestinians and their carers have been evacuated from Gaza in one of the largest operations of its kind in months, Israel says.

The operation – overseen by Cogat, the Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian affairs in Gaza, and the World Health Organization – allowed 231 Gazans to pass through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.

These include people with autoimmune diseases, blood disorders, cancer, kidney disease and traumatic injuries.

The WHO said there are still up to 14,000 people awaiting evacuation for medical reasons.

Israel and Egypt closed their crossings with Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year.

Nearly 4,900 Palestinian patients needing treatment abroad were allowed to leave between November, when Egypt reopened the Rafah crossing for medical evacuations, and May, when Egypt closed the crossing after Israeli forces took control of the Gaza.

Before Wednesday’s evacuation, only 229 patients had left since May, according to the UN.

Also on Wednesday, WHO and Cogat announced the end of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 556,770 children under 10 – or 94 per cent – had received two doses of the vaccine since September.

The program came about in response to the discovery of a case of polio in August, the first recorded in Gaza in 25 years.

The virus can paralyze children or even kill them. It has been the subject of a global vaccination campaign for decades and has been largely eradicated.

On Saturday, the WHO and other UN agencies aimed to administer vaccines in Gaza City, after last month they were forced to delay the rollout in the north of the territory due to Israeli bombardment, mass displacement and lack of access.

The three-day operation was briefly interrupted by an attack on a hospital. The WHO did not say who was behind the attack, but local medical staff blamed an Israeli quadcopter. The Israeli military said it was investigating but did not believe it was responsible.

Dr Tedros said 105,500 children in northern Gaza had received a second dose, which was about 88% coverage. For herd immunity to work, at least 90% of all children in each community and neighborhood must receive at least two doses.

He warned that “7,000-10,000 children could not be reached for the second dose and are thus vulnerable to polio.”

Parts of northern Gaza were not included in the vaccinations due to continued heavy Israeli military operations in towns such as Jabalia and Beit Lahia.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Wednesday morning that troops had begun operating in Beit Lahia following what it said was intelligence “indicating the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”

The IDF asked all remaining civilians to leave the area via what it called “organized routes for their safety.”

Beit Lahia has been under heavy bombardment since the IDF launched a ground offensive in neighboring Jabalia a month ago, saying it was acting against the regrouping of Hamas fighters.

The IDF said its troops killed 50 “terrorists” in Jabalia in the last day.

The BBC and other international media cannot access the Gaza Strip and therefore cannot independently verify these claims.

People transported from Gaza as part of the medical evacuation operation will be taken to the United Arab Emirates or Romania for treatment.

One of those displaced was Khuloud Tabasi’s son, Mohammed.

Hugging her husband as he entered the ambulance in the southern city of Khan Younis, Khuloud said, after four operations, “her son’s condition went from bad to worse… Thank God (WHO) organized my son’s evacuation.”

Israel has come under increasing international pressure to do something to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Last weekend, 15 senior UN figures said conditions in the north were “apocalyptic”, with the entire population “at risk of death from starvation, disease and violence”.

Israel has also faced calls from its ally, the US, to take action. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned the Israeli government on October 13 that it had 30 days to “step up” humanitarian aid to Gaza or risk US military assistance being cut off.

The numbers still in need of medical assistance are huge, with 19 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals out of service and the remaining 17 only partially functional.

Dr. Marwan Abu Saada is the director general of the al-Shifa medical complex in Gaza City, which was left in ruins after it was attacked for a second time by Israeli forces in March.

The IDF said it was used by Hamas for military purposes, something the group has always denied.

Parts of al-Shifa have now been rebuilt and reopened, including the emergency department, and the hospital recently received patients evacuated from hospitals in Beit Lahia.

Dr. Abu Saada said there are children with leukemia, people with breast and other cancers, and people with disabilities from the fighting.

“They desperately need to travel abroad as soon as possible,” he said. “Because none of the treatment facilities are available in Gaza.”

While Wednesday’s evacuation was widely welcomed, the number taken to the United Arab Emirates and Romania represent a small fraction of the total needing medical help.

Moreover, as long as the fighting continues, the number of those in need of help will continue to grow.