Twenty-one Palestinian children with cancer left Gaza on Thursday through the Kerem Shalom crossing for treatment abroad for the first time since the Rafah border was closed in early May, the health authorities in Gaza said.

"The cases are mostly leukemia and are curable, but they are now at risk of death due to the lack of treatment and necessary health care, and that is why we need to approve their travel," Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, said during a press conference at the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis, where the children were discharged.

Children's relief associations in the United States, and the World Health Organization coordinated to help with children's travel, Zaqout said.

The way in which the patients exited is "difficult and complicated," which "has not and will not" be an alternative to the Rafah land crossing, he added, noting the children would receive treatment in Egypt.

According to Zaqout, the health authorities in Gaza have documented over 25,000 medical cases requiring treatment abroad, with 10,200 cases related to cancer. Among these, there are 980 pediatric cancer cases, with 250 necessitating urgent and immediate transfer due to the imminent threat of mortality.

Zaqout called on the international community to help Gaza patients to leave and to advocate for the reopening of the Rafah crossing.

On May 7, the Israeli army announced the imposition of "operational" control over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, which led to the cessation of aid delivery from Egypt into the Gaza Strip through the crossing.

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