Medics and health personnel welcome Palestinian children from Gaza, after a military plane from Egypt landed on February 13, 2025, at Rome’s Ciampino airport.
| Photo Credit: AFP
“Fourteen Palestinian children, many with cancer, have been flown to Italy for medical treatment, the latest among dozens brought from Gaza following the Hamas-Israel war,” the Foreign Ministry said on Friday (February 14, 2025.)
“The children and their families, a total of 45 people, had on Wednesday (February 12, 2025) crossed the Rafah border from Gaza into Egypt, where they underwent medical checks at the Italian hospital in Cairo,” officials said.
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They were flown to Italy on an Italian military plane and greeted at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Thursday evening (February 13, 2025) by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. “Treating the children was part of Italy’s efforts to promote peace and dialogue in the region,” he said, a “diplomacy made of solidarity, which restores hope to the most fragile and defenceless.”
“Some of the children were due to be treated in the capital, the others heading north for treatment in hospitals including in Turin and Milan,” a Ministry spokesman said. Two of the children disembarked in Rome were headed for the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu hospital, which treated nine other Palestinian children last year.
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“All those nine, ranging from one to 15 years old, have been discharged,” a hospital spokesperson told AFP. Italy is among several European countries to treat children injured or suffering from disease in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023.
“Every child we bring to Italy is a sign of hope, a commitment to life and the future,” Defence Secretary Guido Crosetto said. The first 11 Palestinian children arrived in Italy in January 2024, followed by dozens more in the months that followed, some flown in and some transported on the Italian naval ship Vulcano.
Published – February 14, 2025 03:37 pm IST
