Ten seriously ill children from Gaza are receiving medical care in hospitals across the Tuscan region. The children and their families, who were flown in on a military plane, arrived in Pisa on January 20. They were then taken to hospitals in Pisa, Florence, Siena and Massa Carrara, where they will be given treatment for their chronic illnesses.
Accompanied by four doctors and regional president Claudio Martini, the Palestinians traveled through Jerusalem and Tel Aviv by bus before reaching Pisa’s military airport. Despite having encountered heavy wind and rain during their flight and a hole in one of the plane’s tires on landing, they arrived safe and sound.
The children and their families come from Jabalya, a refugee camp located north of the Gaza strip that has been hard hit by Israel’s military operation, launched on December 27. The oldest child is 13 years old and the youngest is three months. The youngest underwent heart surgery in Massa Carrara just days after landing in Italy. Over a hundred volunteers, many of whom were from the Tuscan Red Cross, helped coordinate the mission.
The imam of Florence, Izzedin Elzir, was present in Pisa when the plane landed, providing immediate assistance as mediator and interpreter for the eight mothers and two grandmothers who accompanied the children. ‘The way in which these families were welcomed was so affectionate and full of humanity that the 22 days of armed conflict in Gaza was almost forgotten for a brief moment. At the end, they kept asking us to say thank you to everyone involved in the mission-the authorities, military, volunteers and doctors’, Elzir told reporters.
‘The only response to war is solidarity. Now is the time to open a channel of lasting dialogue and humanitarian aid dedicated to children’, said Martini, who went to Gaza to help coordinate the transfer of the 10 children to Tuscany.
The Palestinian children being treated in Tuscan hospitals are all chronically ill. They gave up their hospital beds in Gaza to leave space for the thousands left wounded from the armed conflict.
