This decision comes in response to a petition filed by the Israeli non-profit organisation Physicians for Human Rights Israel, spurred by a CNN report highlighting the plight of Palestinian hospital patients

"Returning residents to Gaza during a military conflict and a humanitarian crisis is against international law and poses a deliberate risk to innocent lives," the organisation's spokesperson Ran Yaron said Wednesday. "All the more so when it concerns patients who may face a death sentence due to insanitary conditions and hunger, along with the unlikely availability of medical care"

Following the organisation's appeal, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction to prevent the Israeli government from sending back approximately two dozen Palestinian patients and their accompanying individuals back to Gaza

The planned transportation of the Palestinians to Gaza, initially scheduled for early Thursday morning, has been postponed by the Israeli government until at least Monday, according to hospital officials who spoke to CNN, following the temporary court injunction

Fadi Atrash, CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital, where Gazan cancer patients are being treated, along with another hospital official, confirmed the delay to CNN

Among the patients affected are five newborn babies and their mothers who have been residing at Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, having been granted access by Israeli authorities before October 7

Additionally, the group comprised cancer patients who are currently in remission and were receiving treatment at Augusta Victoria Hospital, as stated by hospital officials and humanitarian sources

Several of the Palestinian patients whom the Israeli government intends to send back to Gaza are also undergoing treatment at Tel HaShomer Hospital in the Tel Aviv suburbs, according to the officials

An earlier CNN report shed light on the predicament of these patients, with mothers expressing conflicting emotions about returning to Gaza - torn between the desire to reunite with family and other children and the instinct to protect their newborns by remaining in Jerusalem