Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy

12/6/2025 6:13

A group of 17 Palestinian

children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in

an Israel strike in Gaza last month, arrived in Italy on

Wednesday for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50

family members.



Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his

mother at Milan's Linate airport where he was welcomed by

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to the

city's Niguarda Hospital.



The plane that landed at Linate carried five other injured

Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other

Italian airports.



The May 23 attack left Adam in a serious condition at Nasser

Hospital, one of the few operational medical facilities in

southern Gaza.



Adam "is stable, has a head wound that is healing but his

left arm is bad, the bones are fractured and the nerves

damaged," his 36-year-old mother, Alaa al-Najjar, a

paediatrician, told Italian newspaper la Repubblica.



Adam's father, Hamdi al-Najjar, who was also a doctor, died

a week after the attack.



"The damage is in my left hand, there is a problem with the

nerves, I can't feel my fingers. There's still a lot of pain,"

Adam told Turkish news agency Anadolu.



A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on

three military aircraft that set off from Israel's Eilat

airport, the Italian foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday.



The patients will be treated at hospitals in numerous

cities including Milan, Rome, Florence and Bologna.



According to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef)

website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed

and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza.



Including the latest operation, Prime Minister Giorgia

Meloni's government has so far brought 150 injured Palestinians

from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the foreign ministry said.



The Italian government has been a staunch supporter of

Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants that

killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza,

according to Israeli figures.



In recent months, Rome has criticised the extent of the

Israeli response, and expressed concern as the death toll in

Gaza has mounted, while declining to apply sanctions.



Italy was not among numerous European Union countries

that called last month for a review of EU-Israeli economic and

trade relations.