(Adnkronos) – The fragile ceasefire deal between Israel and Islamist Palestinian group Hamas must hold in order to alleviate the suffering of the Gaza Strip’s population, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.
‘We must work to build peace in the war-wracked Middle East, we must ensure that the ceasefire in Gaza can continue,” Tajani said in an address to the 19th Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly’s plenary meeting taking place at the Parliament in Rome.
“There have been too many innocent victims and there are still hostages to be freed,” Tajani said. So far Hamas has returned 19 out of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners during the first phase of the ceasefire accord, which entered in force last month.
“We Italians have always helped suffering populations. We want to continue to do so,” Tajani said.
Almost 20 Palestinian children who are seriously ill with cancer have been flown to Italy for treatment in the country’s top paediatric hospitals, Tajani noted.
A total 89 patients from Gaza have now been transferred to Italy, underlining the government’s commitment to humanitarian aid and support for peace in the Middle East region, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the ‘Food for Gaza’ scheme launched last year by the government, two Rome-based UN agencies and the Red Cross and Red Crescent continues to get crucial humanitarian supplies to civilians in Gaza, with Israel and the Palestinian National Authority’s support, Tajani recalled.
“This is our way of looking towards the Mediterranean. We are friends of Israel but also of the Palestinian people but not of Hamas. We want to bring peace,” Tajani underlined.
