The Ministry of Defense confirmed this Monday the arrival of 19 children Gazans seriously ill to the Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base. “Once again, the dedication and professionalism of the Aeroevacuation Medical Unit (UMAER) and the Air and Space Army allows a new medical aeroevacuation has completed successfullyand that the Gazan children and their families are already in Spain,” Defensa has published through its X account, where it confirms the arrival of the minors and their 73 companions.
Patients and their families, a total of 92 peoplehave been taken to the border between Israel and Jordan, where the Israeli authorities have handed them over to a team from the Ministry of Health that has included the participation of medical personnel mobilized for the occasion. The transfer to the Amman base and the medical supervision of the patients has been coordinated by Doctors Without Borders and this Monday morning they landed on Spanish soil.
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, traveled to Jordan to supervise the evacuation and medical care of patients in person. “The Ministry of Health and the Government of Spain are going to continue doing everything in our power to help the Palestinian population who have been victims of the brutal genocide perpetrated by Israel in the Gaza Strip,” said the minister, who ensures that Spain remains firmly committed “to the life and relief of the Palestinians“.
Castilla-La Mancha, Asturias, Castilla y León, Euskadi, Navarra, Murcia, Aragón and Catalonia are the autonomous communities that will welcome the children depending on the different pathologies they suffer from and for those that require treatment. The Ministry of Health details in a statement that the minors are trauma patients “produced by the effects of the Israeli attacks”; oncology and hematology; congenital heart diseases; neurology; nephrologies; ophthalmology and a gastrointestinal.
The relatives of a minor who was evacuated in the previous operation in August have also been transferred to Navarra so that it can be checked if they are compatible and perform a bone marrow transplant that you need. On the other hand, Health has reported that the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, together with the NGO Accem, will manage the accommodation, maintenance, psychological and legal care, in addition to translation and interpretation services, for the children and their companions.
This is the fifth humanitarian evacuation of this type organized by Spain in the last year and a half, within the Medical Evacuation procedure (MEDEVAC), activated by the Emergency Response Coordination Center of the European Commission and the WHO. As in the previous four evacuations of these characteristics, this is an operation coordinated by the Ministry of Health together with the World Health Organization and the Emergency Response Coordination Center of the European Commission (ERCC).
In this specific case, two Air Force planes have been mobilized in which more than a dozen soldiers from the Aeroevacuation Medical Unit of the Air and Space Army traveled, among whom are doctors and flight patients, intensivists or health technicians, who will ensure the safety and health of the passenger during the trip to Spain.
