The attacks on hospitals and blockade left only 13 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza, or 36%, partially functional.
Qatar and Italy welcomed wounded Palestinians from Gaza on Monday at the Italian Navy ship “Vulcano” at the La Spezia port, which has been receiving dozens of wounded civilians for treatment, the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement.
Qatar’s ambassador to Italy Khalid bin Youssef Al Sada and Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, welcomed the patients.
“Qatar and Italy are cooperating to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian situation resulting from the war in Gaza, especially in the health and relief fields,” the statement read.
The Qatari armed forces had boarded the ship on December 1 to provide urgent medical assistance for wounded Palestinians who had been evacuated from Gaza amid Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine.
Israel has killed at least 27,478 people and wounded 66,835 others since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023.
Medics inside the ship carried out the first surgery on a 38-year-old Palestinian woman, who was a victim of Israeli bombing, on December 15, according to the Italian defence ministry. Some doctors from Qatar are also aboard the ship.
The ship had sailed on January 30 from Egypt’s El Arish Port, carrying 60 Palestinians including 18 children and 42 members of their families to receive treatment at Italy’s hospitals.
The vessel also carried six members of the Qatari Armed Forces.
Italy’s ambassador to Qatar Paolo Toschi praised the two countries’ partnership in treating injured Palestinians in remarks to the Qatar News Agency (QNA) on Monday.
“His Excellency said that, as Italians, they feel proud to treat patients coming from Gaza in their hospitals and host their families. His Excellency added that they also feel proud that this is being done in cooperation with Qatar,” QNA reported, citing Toschi.
Qatar has been working on evacuating wounded Palestinians to provide them with urgent medical assistance.
On December 3, Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani launched an initiative to sponsor 3,000 orphans and treat 1,500 injured Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Under the initiative, the Gulf State is supervising the transfer of the wounded in coordination with Egypt, in preparation for treatment in Doha.
The Gulf state evacuated the thirteenth batch of wounded Palestinians from Gaza on Sunday, Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lolwah Al Khater announced on her X page.
“Such life-saving operations do not absolve the Israeli occupation forces and the international community, which failed to stop the aggression on Gaza as part of their legal and humanitarian responsibility to stop the aggression and stop targeting defenceless civilians, especially children, and from deliberately destroying the health infrastructure and capabilities in the Strip,” Al Khater said.
The batch of evacuees included 13-year-old Amina Ghanem, whose story was brought to the international community’s attention when she spoke about Israel’s attack on her family with eyes covered in blood.
Palestinian photojournalist Belal Khaled, who first shared the child’s story, announced her evacuation in an Instagram story, showing her being welcomed by Al Khater.
Israeli tanks had crushed Amina’s house while her family were asleep and ran over the house three to four times, killing her father and sister. Amina survived with her brother and sister.
Attacks on medics and hospitals ongoing
Gaza barely has any functioning hospitals following Israel’s targeting of the facilities and complete shortage of supplies under the air, land and sea blockade on the Strip.
The attacks on hospitals and blockade left only 13 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza, or 36%, partially functional.
Israel’s genocidal war has persisted for four months, targeting the entirety of Gaza with no safe zone for Palestinians to take shelter.
Israel has committed 13 massacres within the past 24 hours, killing 113 civilians while wounding 205 others, sources told Palestine’s news agency (Wafa).
The areas targeted included a residential square in the Jura area and a house near the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which has been under siege by occupation forces.
Al-Amal Hospital in the same area has also been under siege for more than 10 days, leaving medics, thousands of wounded and displaced stranded.
Israeli tanks also attacked the west of Gaza City as warplanes targeted the Qatari-funded residential city of Hamad to the northwest of Khan Younis, Wafa added.
On Monday, Israeli forces summoned a member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s executive office, the General Director of Al-Amal Hospital, Dr. Haider Al-Qudra, and the Hospital’s Administrative Director, Maher Atallah.
The PRCS said they were taken to an unknown destination. The fate of numerous Palestinians kidnapped by occupation forces in Gaza remains unknown, including Al-Shifa Hospital’s director Muhammad Abu Salmiya, who was taken on November 23.
