After many months and thanks to the current ceasefire, Italy welcomed 14 seriously ill children from Gaza and their companions on Thursday evening, February 13, 2025.

The Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, Father Ibrahim Faltas, welcomed the news, stressing that in "these difficult days, this new and concrete act of solidarity helps us to hope!"

Father Faltas was among those present at Rome's Ciampino Airport to welcome the children and their companions, who arrived on an aircraft operated by the Italian air force.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and the nation's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani; the Rector of the University of Rome's La Sapienza, Anna Maria Bernini; and the President of the High Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, Dr. Ramzi Khoury, were also in attendance.

"It is not easy to handle the transfer of patients in need of care," Fr. Faltas noted, "and it becomes truly complex to transfer children with oncological conditions." 

Offering life for these children

"Aid and care," Fr. Faltas reflected, "are life for these children, who also have the right to a life plan, thought out, and desired for their future."

He insisted, "We must return to the children what war has stolen from them: the right to life, health, education, and play."

The Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land expressed his profound gratitude to the Italian government and the Italian people for their commitment, recalling that the transfer of patients from Gaza had been blocked by months of war that had prevented any form of aid from entering and blocked those who needed help from leaving.

"Welcoming the children, their rights, and their needs," Fr. Faltas underscored, "is the highest sense of civilization that a people can express."