Cancer patients from Gaza, including children, are living in a state of limbo in a hospital in East Jerusalem after Israeli authorities threatened to send them back.

The Guardian was given access to the Augusta Victoria hospital, where at least 22 patients from Gaza in urgent need of advanced cancer treatment are living in fear of deportation. As with numerous others, they received authorisation prior to Hamas’s 7 October attack to receive medical care outside the strip, due to the inadequate facilities in Gaza.

Following the outbreak of war, however, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for overseeing civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, Cogat, has urged hospital officials to provide a list of patients deemed fit for discharge to be returned to Gaza.

Last week, just hours before Cogat was preparing to send about 10 patients back to Gaza, the Israeli supreme court halted the order issued by authorities, in response to a plea by the non-profit organisation Physicians for Human Rights. A decision from the court is imminent, although the exact timeframe remains uncertain. The government has until 21 April to present its case.

Some patients have asked to join their families in schools designated as shelters to die among them because they know hospitals in Gaza won’t be able to treat them, Subhi Sukeyk, the director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital, told Al Jazeera. The only cancer treatment hospital in the strip went out of service on 1 November after it ran out of fuel, health officials said.