Latest news with #Eilat
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment
Adam Al-Najjar was being treated at Nasser Hsopital in southern Gaza until his transfer to Italy. Photo: AFP / Eyad Baba A group of 17 Palestinian children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in an Israel strike in Gaza last month , arrived in Italy on Wednesday (local time) for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50 family members. Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his mother at Milan's Linate airport where he was welcomed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to the city's Niguarda Hospital. The plane that landed at Linate carried five other injured Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other Italian airports. The 23 May attack left Adam in a serious condition at Nasser Hospital, one of the few operational medical facilities in southern Gaza. Adam "is stable, has a head wound that is healing but his left arm is bad, the bones are fractured and the nerves damaged", his 36-year-old mother, Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica. Adam's father, Hamdi al-Najjar, who was also a doctor, died a week after the attack. "The damage is in my left hand, there is a problem with the nerves, I can't feel my fingers. There's still a lot of pain," Adam told Turkish news agency Anadolu. A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on three military aircraft that set off from Israel's Eilat airport, the Italian foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday. The patients will be treated at hospitals in numerous cities including Milan, Rome, Florence and Bologna. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and more than 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza. Including the latest operation, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has so far brought 150 injured Palestinians from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the foreign ministry said. The Italian government has been a staunch supporter of Israel since the 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants that killed some 1200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli figures. In recent months, Rome has criticised the extent of the Israeli response, and expressed concern as the death toll in Gaza has mounted, while declining to apply sanctions. Italy was not among numerous European Union countries that called last month for a review of EU-Israeli economic and trade relations. _Reuters
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Adam al-Najjar: Boy whose father and nine siblings were killed in Israeli strike on way to Italy
An 11-year-old Palestinian boy who survived an Israeli air strike in Gaza last month, which killed his father and nine siblings, is being evacuated to Italy for al-Najjar and his mother, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, were scheduled to fly to Milan in northern Italy on Wednesday evening, Italy's foreign ministry husband, Dr Hamdi al-Najjar, and nine of their children were killed after their home in the southern city of Khan Younis was struck on 23 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time the incident was being reviewed. The BBC has contacted the IDF for an updated comment. Footage posted online by Palestinian journalists Mohammad Salama and Hala Asfour on Wednesday showed the boy and his mother getting into a Red Crescent ambulance and waving goodbye as they made their way out of an interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica published ahead of their evacuation, Alaa said Adam's condition was stable but "his left arm is in bad shape, the bones are fractured and the nerves are damaged".The mother and son, along with 17 other injured Palestinians, plus their relatives, were set to cross the border to the Israeli city of Eilat on Wednesday, where they would then be flown to various cities in Italy on chartered flights by the Italian Air Force, the country's foreign ministry said in a flight carrying Adam was due to land at Milan's Linate airport, the statement said. Including Wednesday's mission, 150 Palestinian patients have been evacuated from Gaza to Italy for medical treatment, as well as more than 450 accompanying family members, the foreign ministry added. Alaa's husband, Hamdi, had just returned from dropping his wife at Nasser Hospital where they both worked when the deadly attack on their home took place in was taken to hospital with brain and internal injuries but died days was severely injured but survived the attack. A British surgeon who treated him said Adam's "left arm was just about hanging off, he was covered in fragment injuries and he had several substantial lacerations" when he arrived at the hospital. At the time, the IDF said in response to reports of the strike that "an aircraft struck several suspects identified by IDF forces as operating in a building near troops in the Khan Younis area, a dangerous combat zone that had been evacuated of civilians in advance for their protection. The claim of harm to uninvolved individuals is being reviewed."Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 54,981 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
