Laois Minister welcomes sick children from Gaza evacuated to Ireland

Laois Minister Sean Fleming has welcomed the first group of Gazan children to Ireland needing urgent hospital treatment.

Government approval was secured in September for Ireland to evacuate a number of paediatric patients from Gaza, following an appeal from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The eight children arrived in Dublin late on Thursday evening, December 19 accompanied by eight carers and 11 siblings.

It is estimated that 30 children in all will be brought to Ireland from Palestine, all of them paedriatic patients with serious conditions such as cancer. 

Sean Fleming TD is Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora in the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“I am pleased to welcome these Gazan children and their families to Ireland. They have come from unimaginably difficult circumstances, and the children all require urgent and serious medical treatment. I want to thank Egypt, Slovakia, Italy, the European Commission and the World Health Organisation for helping us to make this evacuation happen.

"I also want to thank our expert medical teams in Ireland, and the Irish Red Cross, who will help these children and their families on the road to recovery. Children continue to bear the brunt of the war in Gaza. The UN estimates that children account for almost half of all people killed.

"Children who have so far survived the bombardment face life-changing injury, illness and trauma. Over 4,000 children a month in Gaza are being treated for acute malnutrition,” Minister Fleming said.

Under this initiative the children and their families are housed in accommodation managed by the IRC. The care package being provided includes caseworker and translation services to ensure that the patients and their carers are well looked after and have assistance in accessing all services as needed. In addition, the HSE will provide appropriate psycho-social assessment for both patients and carers. All patients and carers received health screening prior to travel.

The group were welcomed to Ireland by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and International Development, Sean Fleming, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, Ambassador of the State of Palestine and Andrej Droba, Ambassador to the Slovak Republic.

The children are travelling to a hospital today for a full medical assessment and are being settled into their accommodation over the weekend.

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly confirmed the arrival in Ireland of the first group of Palestinian children to receive healthcare treatment in Ireland. 

“I’m pleased that the first medical evacuation of Palestinian children and their carers/guardians to Ireland has now happened, and that the Irish health service is now providing care to these children. I want to offer my sincere thanks to the doctors, nurses, HSE, Irish Red Cross, WHO, the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism, the officials across government departments, and all who have been involved in this successful operation.

“There is no justification for the deliberate attacks on civilians and healthcare services in Gaza and the loss of life has been devastating. Ireland has been clear that this conflict should stop. I’m pleased that Ireland is playing a part in treating children whose lives have been devastated by this needless war and I wish these children well in their time ahead here in Ireland.”

The World Health Organisation is present on the ground in Gaza and coordinated the evacuation of patients through Egypt. Egypt has accepted over 2,300 medevac patients since the start of the war, placing an enormous strain on their health system, and resulting in many of these patients being unable to access the required healthcare.

The patients travelling to Ireland are part of this group and were in Egypt. WHO was also responsible for clearing all details relevant to the evacuation, including verifying the relationship between the patient and accompanying carer with the relevant authorities. The Umerto Primo Hospital in Cairo was used by the Irish team to assess the patients, and the use of
this hospital was provided by Italian EU colleagues. The services of the EU’s Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) were used for the transfer of the patients from Egypt to Ireland.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs is Micheál Martin TD.

“The long-term impact of the physical and mental scars being inflicted on children in Gaza is unconscionable. Ireland has continued to work with our international partners, most notably UNRWA, to provide urgent assistance to people in Gaza. The medical evacuation of children to Ireland is part of our consistent support for the people of Palestine. I am conscious that
many other critically ill patients remain in Gaza, and their requests for medical evacuation are being delayed or denied by Israeli authorities. This denial of medical care is unacceptable and must stop.

"Since the beginning of this conflict, Ireland has consistentl called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a massive surge of humanitarian aid, including urgent medical care for critically ill children trapped in Gaza. This must happen. Children in Gaza cannot go into the New Year facing more serious injury and trauma,” the Tánaiste said.

It is estimated that Ireland will receive up to 30 paediatric patients in total from Gaza. The health needs are categorised under cancer, haemodialysis and patients with other severe medical conditions (except for orthopaedics to ensure there is no impact on HSE efforts to increase the number of procedures being carried out in this speciality). Ireland will continue to opt in on a case-by-case basis for each child who requires treatment, subject to the necessary capacity being available at that time.