Rome, Italy – A young Palestinian woman who was flown from Gaza to an Italian hospital in a severely emaciated state for treatment has died, the hospital said Saturday.
On Friday, after undergoing tests and starting treatment, she died after a sudden respiratory crisis and cardiac arrest, the hospital said.
The woman was flown to Italy with her mother on one of three Italian air force flights that arrived this week in Rome, Milan and Pisa, carrying a total of 31 patients and their companions.
All the patients suffered from serious congenital diseases, wounds or amputations, the Italian foreign ministry said at the time.
So far more than 180 children and young people from Gaza have been brought to Italy since the war began between Israel and Hamas.
The head of the Tuscany region, Eugenio Giani, offered his condolences to the woman’s family.
The hospital did not elaborate on what caused her condition, but Italian news agencies reported that she was suffering from severe malnutrition.
Humanitarian groups, UN agencies and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have warned of the risk of widespread famine in war-battered Gaza.
