The group of injured children after the result of the bombings in Gaza arrived in Rome to be treated in different pediatric hospitals in Italy, including the Bambino Gesú hospital, known as “the Pope’s hospital.”
Eleven children were injured in the war between the Hamas terrorists – who have controlled Gaza since 2007 – and Israel left from the border with Egypt to the Ciampino military airport (Rome) on 29 January.
Thanks to the initiative headed by the Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, it is expected that a total of one hundred children will be distributed among various centers such as the Roman hospital Bambino Gesú, the Gaslini in Genoa, the Rizzoli hospital in Bologna and the Meyer in Florence.
Specifically, four of the eleven children, who suffer from various orthopedic, hematological, and neurological pathologies, will remain at the Bambino Gesú Pediatric Hospital, located near the Vatican.
Speaking to the media in Rome on Monday, January 30, Priest Faltas assured that they have finally “seen a smile in their eyes” and that the little ones “are happy because they have come out of hell.”
Tiziano Onesti, president of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, and the ambassador of the State of Palestine to the Holy See, Issa J. Kassissieh, also participated in this press conference after visiting the newly arrived children.
In statements reported by Vatican News, Onesti highlighted that the children “suffered from previous pathologies” and explained that given the impossibility of treating them in Gaza, “where their hospital no longer exists, we decided to bring them here.”
“Unfortunately, at the moment there are few, there are many more. Of course for them now it is a hope, although unfortunately it is just a drop compared to the big problem that exists. We feel the need to take care of them, with a feeling of closeness regardless of religion or other factors, because this is life, and we are always for life,” he stated.
Thus, Italy has become the first European country to launch a rescue operation for the victims of the war that broke out on 7 October 2023, with the surprise attack by Hamas on Israeli territory.