Malnourished Gaza woman flown to Italy for treatment, dies

Rome: A young Palestinian woman with severe wasting who was flown from Gaza to Italy this week for treatment has died, the hospital said on Saturday.

The 20-year-old, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, arrived in Pisa on an Italian government humanitarian flight overnight Wednesday-Thursday.

She had a “very complex clinical picture” and was “in a profound state of organic wasting”, the University Hospital of Pisa said in a statement.

On Friday, after undergoing tests and starting treatment, she had a sudden respiratory crisis and cardiac arrest, and died.

The hospital did not elaborate on her condition, but Italian news agencies reported that she was suffering from severe malnutrition.

Humanitarian groups, UN agencies and Palestinian militant group Hamas have warned of the risk of widespread famine in war-battered Gaza.

The young woman had come to Italy with her mother on one of three Italian air force flights that arrived this week with a total of 31 patients and their companions.

They all suffered from serious congenital diseases, wounds or amputations, the Italian foreign ministry said at the time.

So far more than 180 children and young people from Gaza have been brought to Italy since the war began between Israel and Hamas.

The head of the Tuscany region, Eugenio Giani, offered his condolences to the young woman’s family.