A statement released on the official website of the Italian Foreign Ministry highlights that, “with this new mission, the total number of people evacuated from the Strip for medical reasons since the beginning of 2024 reaches 393, including 133 minors.”

The operation was carried out under the coordination of the Italian Civil Protection Department, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Crisis Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Italian officials in Israel and the Joint Operations Command of the Armed Forces of that European nation.

After arriving in Italy, the minors and their companions were transferred to public hospitals in various regions of the country, depending on their specific medical conditions.

Italy has received two more flights of this type: one on February 13 with 14 minors on board, and another one on March 19 with nine more Palestinian children, most of them cancer patients, all accompanied by family members.

On May 10, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani talked on the phone with his respective Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, Gideon Saar, and Mohammad Mustafa, with whom he discussed, among other issues related to the Middle East conflict, the critical humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Tajani expressed the Italian government’s concern about the extremely high human costs being borne by the Palestinian civilian population as a result of this conflict, during which more than 50,000 people have already died as a result of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

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