(Adnkronos) – Thirty Palestinian minors suffering from cancer will be brought to Italy for treatment as part of Italy’s ongoing efforts to protect Palestinian children, foreign minister Antonio Tajani told a summit taking place at the Vatican on Monday.
”Thirty Palestinian children with cancer reported by Cardinal Pizzaballa and the Pope John XXIII Centre will be brought to Italy,’ Tajani told the World Leaders Summit on Children’s Rights.
The summit is being chaired by Pope Francis at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
‘Italy “will continue to do its duty” to safeguard ”Israeli and Palestinian children” who ”are innocent victims of adults, of those who do not understand how much harm they do by targeting civil society,” he said.
Tajani will travel this week to Israel’s port city of Ashdod, where vital supplies for Palestinians are to be unloaded from Italian ships under the Food for Gaza project – unveiled by the government last year with two UN agencies in Rome and the Red Crescent – he said.
The minister lauded the assistance that Jordan has continued to give to Palestinians in the war-shattered, blocked coastal enclave.
“I want to thank Queen Rania for the support provided by Jordan in bringing aid to the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip,” Tajani said.
In his address, Tajani also remembered the Israeli children “who were attacked and killed” during the deadly cross-border attack on 7 October 2023 led by militants from Gaza-ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Two young Israeli brothers Ariel and Kfir Bibas, are ”still being held hostage” in the Gaza Stri, Tajani recalled. Like their parents, the boys, aged now aged two and five, were seized during the deadly 7 October 2023 attack.
The boys’ father, Yarden Bibas was freed at the weekend amid mounting concern over the fate of his wife Shiri Bibas and their sons.
