Spain to evacuate 13 ill children from Gaza for treatment

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Spain to evacuate 13 ill children from Gaza for treatment

10:45 CAT | 31 Jul 2025

FILE - A Palestinian woman holds her child, who is infected with meningitis, according to medics, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 3, 2025. [File photo: Reuters/Hatem Khaled]

A Spanish military plane will fly 13 ailing children from war-torn Gaza and their families from Jordan to Spain for hospital treatment, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said Wednesday.

An A400 military transport aircraft is being fitted with medical equipment and is scheduled to depart later Wednesday for Amman to bring them to Spain “so they can be treated”, she said.

Spain has repeatedly taken in sick children since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.

The country’s leftist government has been among the most vocal critics in the European Union of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the densely populated, narrow coastal strip.

“The situation in Gaza is absolutely terrible. The level of cruelty shown by (Benjamin) Netanyahu is absolutely unacceptable, and I believe the international community must respond,” Robles said, referring to Israel’s prime minister.

Earlier this week, the Spanish government said it would airdrop 12 tonnes of food into Gaza as the threat of famine stalks the Palestinian territory after 21 months of war.

A similar airdrop of 26 tonnes took place in March 2024.

The war was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas into Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the death of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

In response, Israel launched an offensive that has killed more than 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Source: AFP