Fourteen Gaza youngsters flown to Italy for therapy

Medics and well being personnel welcome Palestinian youngsters from Gaza, after a navy airplane from Egypt landed on February 13, 2025, at Rome’s Ciampino airport.
| Photograph Credit score: AFP

“Fourteen Palestinian youngsters, many with most cancers, have been flown to Italy for medical therapy, the newest amongst dozens introduced from Gaza following the Hamas-Israel struggle,” the International Ministry mentioned on Friday (February 14, 2025.)

“The youngsters and their households, a complete of 45 individuals, had on Wednesday (February 12, 2025) crossed the Rafah border from Gaza into Egypt, the place they underwent medical checks on the Italian hospital in Cairo,” officers mentioned.

One yr into the Israel-Hamas struggle: A timeline of the main occasions since October 7

They have been flown to Italy on an Italian navy airplane and greeted at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Thursday night (February 13, 2025) by International Minister Antonio Tajani. “Treating the kids was a part of Italy’s efforts to advertise peace and dialogue within the area,” he mentioned, a “diplomacy product of solidarity, which restores hope to probably the most fragile and defenceless.”

“A number of the youngsters have been on account of be handled within the capital, the others heading north for therapy in hospitals together with in Turin and Milan,” a Ministry spokesman mentioned. Two of the kids disembarked in Rome have been headed for the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu hospital, which handled 9 different Palestinian youngsters final yr.

10 key moments within the Israel-Hamas struggle

“All these 9, starting from one to fifteen years outdated, have been discharged,” a hospital spokesperson instructed AFP. Italy is amongst a number of European nations to deal with youngsters injured or affected by illness in Gaza because the struggle started on October 7, 2023.

“Each little one we deliver to Italy is an indication of hope, a dedication to life and the long run,” Defence Secretary Guido Crosetto mentioned. The primary 11 Palestinian youngsters arrived in Italy in January 2024, adopted by dozens extra within the months that adopted, some flown in and a few transported on the Italian naval ship Vulcano.