Israel blocks 900 wheelchairs for Gaza's child amputees

More than 900 wheelchairs donated by two Australian charities for wounded and amputee children in Gaza have been blocked by Israel from entering the enclave, with the shipments stuck in storage in Jordan since 2025.

Mohammad Helmy, a Melbourne-based pro-Palestine activist, told The New Arab that Israel's refusal to allow the wheelchairs into Gaza was intentional, accusing authorities of seeking to make life in the devastated enclave "impossible".

“Israel’s blockade of over 900 custom, all-terrain wheelchairs—hand-built by Australian volunteers to help amputee children navigate destroyed streets—exposes a calculated effort to destroy Palestinian life and render life in Gaza impossible,” Helmy said.

“By undertaking non-stop bombardment and then systematically denying the basic medical aid needed to survive it, Israel is actively executing an ongoing genocide. Trapping mobility gear in warehouses while children crawl through rubble is not a security measure—it is a deliberate policy of collective punishment and total destruction directed against the Palestinian people,” he continued.

The restrictions come as the UN has said Gaza has the largest group of child amputees in modern history as a result of Israel's attacks on the territory.

The charity Kids on Wheels Alliance sent two shipments that arrived in Jordan in February 2025, while another shipment from Wheelchairs for Kids arrived in October that year.

The wheelchairs remain at a storage facility managed by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO), which said COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, had blocked their delivery.

JHCO said it filed an application in late February 2025 for the Kids on Wheels Alliance shipments to enter Gaza as part of an aid convoy, but COGAT rejected the request. Israeli authorities said medical equipment and medicines had not been approved for inclusion in that convoy.

JHCO said its application has since remained "pending", with no further updates, leaving the organisation unable to submit a new application for the other shipments.

COGAT has not responded to media requests concerning the Australian donations. However, the Israeli agency has previously said that thousands of wheelchairs have been allowed into Gaza.

The wheelchairs donated by Wheelchairs for Kids are designed to withstand difficult terrain, including the rubble that now covers large parts of Gaza, and can be adjusted as children grow older and taller.

"The sooner they come out of there and get to the kids, the better, and the little kids can get a much better life," Brother Olly Pickett, co-founder of the charity, said in a statement.

"I think there's a lot of children waiting for them who have had amputations, and so they won't be able to walk around or get around. Once they get a wheelchair, they can get out and about, which would be wonderful,” he added.

Australian media reports, citing an informed source outside the region, said Israeli authorities had denied the wheelchairs entry because they considered them potentially "dual use", a classification applied to goods that authorities say could also have military applications.

Israeli rights group Gisha earlier this year published a report saying Israel had arbitrarily classified essential items, household goods and medical supplies as "dual use" since the start of the war on Gaza.

Items subjected to such restrictions have included flashlights, sleeping bags and portable toilets.

Rights groups have warned that restrictions on such goods have serious consequences for civilians, including tens of thousands of Palestinians attempting to recover from injuries and rebuild their lives amid the widespread destruction in Gaza.