PALESTINE: Twenty-one critically ill children were set to leave Gaza today in the first medical evacuation since Israel shut down the territory’s only border crossing for travellers in May.

Israel’s nearly nine-month war on Gaza has devastated its health sector and forced most hospitals to shut down.

Family members bid a tearful goodbye to the children as they and their escorts left the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis bound for the Kerem Shalom freight crossing with Israel. It was not clear where they would receive treatment.