Thirteen sick children from Gaza arrive in Spain to receive life-saving medical care

Some 13 children with heart conditions arrived in Spain on Thursday evening on a Spanish air force plane after being evacuated from the epicentre of the war zone in Gaza. They will now receive medical treatment in Spanish hospitals in the Basque Country, Asturias, Navarre and Catalonia regions and these minors will join 31 others who have been arriving at public and private medical facilities in Spain since July of last year. Their 44 relatives will join the 58 from the three previous evacuation missions, as previously reported.

Coordinated by the Spanish health ministry, the minors left the area via Jordan on a mission organised by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Spanish authorities. They remained in Amman for 24 hours, cared for by Médecins Sans Frontières, while Spanish health workers "clinically evaluated and stabilised" them for the journey ahead.

"In the previous instances, the cases treated were mainly war trauma and paediatric oncology, but this time they are primarily patients with heart conditions," stated the ministry. Once on Spanish soil, at 6pm, the patients and their families were transferred to the health centres where they will receive treatment: Hospital Universitario de Cruces, Hospital de Donostia, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Hospital de Navarra, Vall d'Hebron Hospital, Sant Joan de Déu Hospital and Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital.

As Spanish aid workers told SUR, evacuation depends largely on navigating bureaucracy, requiring the involvement of several ministries: foreign affairs, defence and social inclusion. Spain's cooperation office in Amman, which depends on AECID (the Spanish agency for international development and cooperation), carried out "all the paperwork" and the Spanish embassy in Jordan handled the visas. Accommodation, food, psychological and legal support and translation services are being provided by central government and the NGO Accem.

"Children from Gaza, who are sick or injured, are coming in on a medically-equipped plane to receive specialised care and treatment," announced health minister, Mónica García. "This is a complex medical evacuation measure that Spain was proud to inaugurate a year ago. The healthcare system in the Gaza Strip is completely collapsed and destroyed. Hospitals, which are supposed to be safe havens, have been periodically attacked and most are nonfunctional. Patients in Gaza cannot access essential treatment and the humanitarian blockade has led to a situation of famine and depletion of medical services."