A Palestinian child with cancer waits to leave for treatment abroad at the Nasser Medical Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on June 27, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Health conditions in the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza Strip keep worsening as residents desperately need health care, a UN refugee agency said on Thursday.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on social media platform X that only a small number of UNRWA health centers remain operational in Gaza.

It said that its teams in Nuseirat in central Gaza continue to serve local families, but a severe shortage of medicine and fuel is hampering lifesaving operations.

In a separate X post, the UNRWA said piles of waste and sewage surround the Palestinians in Gaza. "Health conditions keep worsening due to crowded shelters, lack of food, water and fuel, minimal access to medical supplies, and summer heat," it said.

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

The way in which the patients exited is "difficult and complicated," which "has not been and will not be" an alternative to the Rafah land crossing, Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, said during a press conference.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 others were taken hostage. The Palestinian death toll from the conflict climbed to 37,718, the Gaza-based health authorities said on Wednesday.

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