A 20-year-old Palestinian woman in “a state of significant deterioration in health” has died after being transferred to Italy for medical treatment, doctors in Pisa said.
The patient was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late Wednesday and died on Friday.
According to the hospital, she was taken from Gaza as part of a humanitarian mission and arrived with a “very complex, compromised clinical situation.”
The statement said she died after a respiratory crisis and subsequent cardiac arrest.
The statement also noted that medical staff conducted examinations and began supportive therapy before her death.
The woman, identified by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, arrived in Italy with her mother.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said nearly 120 Palestinians – 31 patients and their families – had been transported to Rome, Milan and Pisa on three flights.
In a post on Platform X, Mr. Tajani noted that this is the 14th medical evacuation of Palestinians that Italy has carried out since January 2024, and is the largest.
The hospital did not specify whether the woman was suffering from malnutrition, but said she was admitted in a “state of significant deterioration in health.”
Eugenio Giani, head of the Tuscany region, expressed his condolences over the woman's death on Saturday.
This week, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said hunger and malnutrition levels in the Gaza Strip had reached their highest levels since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began.
The UN said nearly 12,000 children under five were suffering from acute malnutrition in July, including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, which poses a serious threat to health. The World Health Organization says these figures are likely underestimates.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that no one in Gaza was suffering from hunger.
“There is no policy of hunger in Gaza and there is no hunger in Gaza,” he said.
US President Donald Trump responded to Mr Netanyahu's statement by pointing to emerging photographs of emaciated people.
“I don’t know,” Mr. Trump said when asked whether he agreed with the Israeli leader’s comments. “I mean, judging from the television, I would say not particularly, because those kids look very hungry.”
The US State Department said on Saturday
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
